It has been around for years in the professional services industry, how do I balance the combination of people, process, and tools to make my business thrive? The Triumvirate (people, process, and tools) is a key component of the Professional Services Ecosystem™ (PSE) and is critical for delivering services to your clients.
If you do not have the right people, you have too many people, or you don’t have enough people, you cannot effectively deliver the services your clients need nor profitably operate your business. If your people are strong but your processes are inefficient, nonexistent, or overengineered, you will impact the value your people can bring, and you will lose clients because it is so difficult to work with you. Finally, the tools and technologies you use should facilitate and optimize the productivity of your team and the efficiency of your processes, while providing operational data that supports solution delivery and efficiency. The wrong tools can drive major inefficiencies in your business.
These three components of The Triumvirate (people, process, tools) are inextricably linked and must be effectively managed to become a competitive advantage instead of a driver of business risk. The Triumvirate is constantly evolving and as such is also dependent upon continuous measurement and improvement to deliver sustained operational efficiency. In this first blog on The Triumvirate, let’s take a look at the first component, people, in more detail.
The Triumvirate - People
In most professional services organizations, it is the people that truly make the business. Most PS teams are made up of a mix of high performers, successful performers, and poor performers. We’ve all seen or dealt with a poor performer who reflects negatively on themselves and their firm through their actions. Poor performers can drive away business more quickly than great people can bring it in and frequently the downstream impacts of the wrong people are far-reaching and resemble the hidden portion of the iceberg.
Regarding The Triumvirate, I would say that people are the most important component. They are the base of The Triumvirate triangle. People are critical to the services organization and often must act as the glue where processes and tools fail or are lacking. Additionally, as we discussed in the previous blog on The Client, clients create relationships with your people, not your processes or tools. I’ve seen time and time again where clients accept multiple operating issues if they have established a strong professional and in turn a personal relationship with resources in your organization.
People are critical to the services organization and often must act as the glue where processes and tools fail or are lacking.
The types of services you offer or plan to offer will drive the talent your organization needs. You’ll need people to not only deliver your services (Onboarding, Service, CSM's, Engineers), but you’ll often need people to support those service delivery resources (Product Managers, Finance, Legal, Sales). Keep in mind that in startups, people wear many hats, and early on it is the hat they are least comfortable in that gets the least attention, creating operational gaps and challenges.
Additionally, where your business is in its evolution may drive the specific skillsets you need. For example, people who performed incredibly well as part of the startup are now struggling to help the business scale, or their primary skillset is no longer needed as better processes and tools are introduced. This is the natural evolution of a growing PS organization. How you continuously identify and adapt your staff to match the required skills is critical to the long-term success of the organization.
Key considerations for a robust people strategy
Resourcing plan – Define the skills needed to support your business 6 months, 1 year, 3 years, and 5 years down the road. The resourcing plan is a living document that constantly adjusts for where your business has gone and where it is going. It should consider things like ramp-up time, availability of skills, your training strategy, supply alternatives (offshore, contracting, college grads, etc.), as well as looking for key inflection points that may drive changes to the plan.
The resourcing plan is a living document that constantly adjusts for where your business has gone and where it is going.
Talent sourcing – It isn’t as easy as posting a job ad anymore. The sourcing channels are deep and varied. Your social presence on Twitter or Facebook is often a key avenue for finding future employees. There is also LinkedIn and Glassdoor that are the go-to channels for job seekers, leveraging their network and getting feedback on what others think of your business. Now everything you do is available in some form to your prospective employees. On an ongoing basis, every communication channel you use should be evaluated for its value in attracting top talent. Additionally, how do the various roles within your business prepare your team for advancement? Being prescriptive in the creation of a cross-functional career ladder is an often-overlooked talent source.
...every communication channel you use should be evaluated for its value in attracting top talent.
Hiring – You must have a strong and effective hiring process that provides the opportunity to hire the best candidate for the open role. This takes effort and planning. Trusting that you’ll make the right decision is frequently an expensive lesson, which impacts your clients and your team. You can’t undercut this area and expect to succeed. Invest the time with your recruiting partner and the interview team to ensure you have a well-crafted job description, updated skills list, and requirements for cultural fit. Make sure your interview team has an interview strategy to gather the required information and objectively rate candidates. Finally, make sure your hiring practices proactively address diversity, equity, and inclusion. This is no easy task but should be front-of-mind throughout the hiring process.
You must have a strong and effective hiring process that provides the opportunity to hire the best candidate for the open role.
On-boarding – Giving thought to how you bring a person on board, their first few days, weeks, and months will help protect the investment you are making in that individual and helps ensure they quickly become productive, engaged, and valued part of the team. Too many people are thrown to the wolves on their first day. What should have been a great addition to the team, becomes a weight around the team’s neck as they try to do their job and cover for the new guy while he takes months to come up to speed. It's imperative to have your onboarding plan documented with respective owners for executing the phases of the plan and clear expectations of what successful progress looks like.
Giving thought to how you bring a person on board, their first few days, weeks, and months will help protect the investment you are making in that individual.
1 to 1’s – An employee should have a regular, I recommend weekly, but no less than biweekly, 1 to 1 meeting with their manager. These should be structured and include:
a discussion of current projects and status
any blockers to success and requests for assistance
a monthly review of current performance
a monthly discussion of career goals and actions that are taken toward those goals
at a minimum, a monthly discussion of the employee’s current engagement level.
The 1 to 1 is one of the most important meetings on your employees’ calendar and the employee should come ready to discuss all the above at the appropriate time. This eliminates performance surprises, resolves problems early, and builds a constructive and productive environment for employee discussions. I’ll share more thoughts and a template for these meetings in a future blog. My friend, Shane Anastasi, has valuable insights in this area as well, as part of his PS Principles program which I highly recommend.
The 1 to 1 is one of the most important meetings on your employees’ calendar and the employee should come ready to discuss all the above at the appropriate time.
Performance – Yes, there should be specific performance objectives that are related to the role and the current experience level of the individual. Through the 1 to 1 process, a person should know how they’re doing each week, not only at formal review times. Managers and employees must have real conversations about:
how the person is performing
where they need to put more effort
where they are meeting and exceeding objectives
and when they are ready for the next challenge.
This dialog is critical to maximizing the development of your most valuable resource. Additionally, it is important to set the person up for success by giving them access to the tools used to measure their success. They need to understand their performance metrics and be trained on the tools and their use. Finally, consider eliminating the annual or semi-annual review, not to be confused with promotion or compensation discussions. If you need to establish a formal date and time to tell someone how they are performing, it is you who probably needs to improve their performance.
Through the 1 to 1 process, a person should know how they’re doing each week, not only at formal review times.
Careers – As discussed in 1 to 1’s, have regular career discussions with your people. Each person should know what the next step in their career is and what they need to do to achieve it. I know I’ve been guilty of not doing this and it leads to employees burning out, not feeling valued, and general dissatisfaction. People need to know they have a future. Now it isn’t up to the manager to do the work for them. The person must decide what they want to do. Also, that decisioning may mean they leave your team or even the company. That is OK. It is better to plan for a valuable person’s transition versus the person walking in one day and resigning. You can actively plan for bringing on their replacement with minimal downtime if you are managing your people properly. Not to mention the positive impression you leave with that employee. Don't forget what I said about social media. Additionally, make sure there is no bias in your career ladders. Ensure that the career ladder, along with your hiring practices, is proactive in addressing issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion.
Each person should know what the next step in their career is and what they need to do to achieve it.
Training & Development – This should be a part of the career discussion, but training and development are often poorly handled in many organizations. The professional service industry is dependent upon the skill of the resources in it. Skill cannot only come from on-the-job training or trial by fire. Having training plans aligned with an effective and published career ladder will help your employees to self-manage many of their career objectives. Where career frustration is highest is when employees can’t figure out how to get to the next level, or even if they want to, and their manager or HR can’t give them meaningful direction. This is one of the differences between good and great PS organizations.
Having training plans aligned with an effective and published career ladder will help your employees to self-manage many of their career objectives.
Termination – We as leaders sometimes have to fire people for cause or lay people off because of business downturns. This is part of the job. Terminating someone's employment professionally and respectfully is key to maintaining the respect of the impacted individual and those that remain. Managers must document performance challenges as they happen and can show a pattern of poor performance that has been given every opportunity to improve. You’re not doing the person any favors by not addressing their performance as it happens. These discussions are as important to their growth as it is to the health of the organization. Make sure all your managers follow this process. Keep in mind, the team, your clients, and other coworkers almost always notice poor performance. The longer you let it go, the more frustrated they will become, and you then put them at risk. From my perspective, not addressing poor performance is an act of poor performance on the manager’s part.
Terminating someone's employment professionally and respectfully is key to maintaining the respect of the impacted individual and those that remain.
Off-boarding – Have a solid process for off-boarding people and whenever possible make it a positive experience. When time permits, the manager and the departing employee should build and manage a close-out plan to ensure completion and/or smooth transition of tasks and responsibilities before the final day. Templates for these turnovers can be built out beforehand, we'll share some in a future blog. If a person is taking a job outside the company, make them feel good about their last days with you. Ask for their feedback and end on a positive note. I’ve seen a lot of boomerangs that realized the grass was not greener on the other side. If you’ve done your work effectively, throughout the lifecycle of the employee, the transition should be a positive, planned event. Or as close to that as possible.
Have a solid process for off-boarding people and whenever possible make it a positive experience.
Engagement – It’s important to actively monitor and discuss employee engagement. On a scale from 0-10, how likely are you to recommend us to a friend or colleague? The Net Promoter Score (NPS) question. The idea is that from cradle to grave the vast majority of your employees and even your partners will recommend your business as a great place to work. That doesn’t mean you have to give people whatever they want. You need to take the actions above, get to know and listen to your team, and involve them in their work, the business, and its success. Do these things, and achieving world-class engagement becomes simple.
The idea is that from cradle to grave the vast majority of your employees and even your contractors will recommend your business as a great place to work.
Over-communicate - It is critical to learn to over-communicate to your team. Having open, honest discussions and sharing information transparently is not just a core value, it is table-stakes in the current work environment. Have regular department all calls and team meetings. As the leader, be sure to have regular two-down meetings (meetings with the direct reports of your direct reports).
In larger organizations, meet 1 to 1, at least a couple of times a year with everyone in your department. This builds a foundation of trust and loyalty to you, to your department, and to the company. I suggest making these meetings meaningful by reviewing the person's performance and getting input from the manager prior to the meeting. This will ensure you set the right tone for the meeting and that you can reinforce messaging your manager is conveying. Come with items to break the ice but let the employee drive the conversation.
Having open, honest discussions and sharing information transparently is not just a core value, it is table-stakes in the current work environment.
Shared vision - As the leader, you often will set the vision and strategy for your department in alignment with overall corporate objectives. But as the phrase implies, a shared vision is one in which your team has bought into and actively works to achieve and improve. We'll dive deeper into this aspect of your people strategy, but some of the key considerations are to over-communicate, ensure the vision is clear and fully understood, make sure the team knows what is in it for them, and ensure your metrics and individual objectives align with the vision. There is nothing worse than stating a vision while everything your team is accountable to, works against that vision.
A shared vision is one in which your team has bought into and actively works to achieve and improve.
Contractors & Partners – You must have a strategy for using third-party resources if that is an avenue you intend to pursue. Your partner strategy should be detailed and include everything above as it relates to a person who is doing work for you but is not an employee. There is a lot to discuss with contractors, third parties, and partners. My approach to partners is to engage them as valued resources versus as outsiders. I'll speak a lot more about this in a future blog.
Your partner strategy should be detailed and include everything above as it relates to a person who is doing work for you but is not an employee.
If you take care of your people, they will take care of your clients, and the business will take care of itself. In over 30 years of business, I can say emphatically that this is true. Put the effort into hiring and retaining the right team and with planning and some real care and feeding on your part, you will have a world-class team of PS professionals. We’ll talk in detail about each of these strategies and share some great templates in future blogs.
For over 30 years I’ve worked with and in professional service organizations in the IT services and SaaS spaces. In that time, and with a lot of help from some tremendous people, we’ve developed a repeatable process whereby these organizations have enjoyed tremendous success delivering high-quality solutions to our clients. The Professional Services Ecosystem™ is a key construct of that success.
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