Despite the progress South Africa is making in the fight against COVID-19 and the relief offered to businesses through the lifting of certain trade restrictions under level one, a large number of companies are still battling with regaining their lost market share from the past five months. Arnoux Maré, Managing Director of Innovative Staffing Solutions, says however, that business leaders can still turnaround their businesses.
“The year is nearly over and unfortunately businesses had to invest more time and effort to react to the pandemic, resuting in loss of growth and productivity. However, the rest of the year can still be saved if business leaders are willing to actively propel their organisations and challenge the way they have been conducting business,” says Maré.
He says most entrepreneurs have been stretched thin by the pandemic, with leaders often resorting to handling multiple roles that often do not lead to business growth or client retention.
“Start by defining and redefining your role as a leader. What contributions do you make towards the business? Move away from generic descriptors such as ‘managing the business’ and start to define your role at a more granular level. It is here where you will discover what responsibilities fall in your ambit and which ones have been taking up your time.
“Time is the one commodity no amount of money can buy, yet so many business leaders flounder it away doing tasks that have nothing to do with their roles. Outsourcing allows employers to plan and execute better marketing strategies; focus on enhancing the company’s financials and bring in more business for the organisation,” explains Maré.
He says having the right employees to take care of tasks you cannot do, will have a huge impact on your bottomline.
For Maré, the right hire does not always mean finding the right candidate off the bat. The right hire is sometimes an employee whose talents are wasted on the wrong role. Managers, rather than trying to fit a candidate into a specific role, should appraise that candidate’s strengths and capitalise on that.
According to the Harvard Business Review, identifying and capitalising on each person’s uniqueness saves time. It makes each person more accountable, builds a stronger sense of team because it creates interdependency. It helps people appreciate one another’s particular skills and learn that their co-workers can fill in where they are lacking.
It also introduces a healthy degree of disruption by shuffling existing hierarchies and pushing each employee to be better at what they do. Therefore, capitalising on each employees’ strengths makes good business sense.
“But no employee, however talented, is perfectly well-rounded. The role of the business leader is to identify these strengths and equip employees with the necessary tools to thrive. Employers must further structure the workplace to be more conducive and allow employees to be the best at what they do, increasing job satisfaction and productivity,” concludes Maré.
Issued by PR Worx (www.prworx.co.za)
