TRACKING YOUR ASSETS was the article title that caught my eye. The sub-heading read "Asset management is more than just basic PC inventory. You have to know how to deal with financial as well as technology issues". It was the third in a series of events that made it memorable (it usually takes three events to get my attention). Before I fill you in on the others, let me ask a loaded question. What would you say are your companies most important assets? Please answer before proceeding.

Information, patents, trade secrets, process know how, products families and service networks are all standard and expected answers, but in my humble opinion they miss the boat entirely. These may be short term competitive advantages, but they are not ASSETS. The only two answers that stand the test of time are customers and employees. The customer satisfaction focus that was all the rage a few years ago seems to be fading (especially if you look at the industry leaders), but the fact remains that without customers we go out of business. And with out satisfied motivated employees, its flat out impossible to maintain the competitive products and services that customers demand and expect.

How did I get from Tracking Assets to Employees? Well, let me go back to first two links I mentioned. The first happened a few weeks ago when I had a discussion with a colleague regarding a position he was trying to fill. He mentioned that it was now common practice in some parts of the technology sector to have to pay a rather stiff hiring bonus on the East coast and labor market in the West was tight enough the practice was spreading out here as well. Hum – that's funny – if its so expensive just to hire a new employee, let a lone train them and nurture them until they are productive, why aren't companies paying more attention to the ones they already have?
The second shoe was a PC Week article by a columnist who had just been let go in a layoff. That's certainly not notable in itself, but the point of the story was how poorly the company planned and executed the situation. The most memorable paragraph contained the following "Looking back, (the company) wasn't the right place for me. Its management doesn't get behind its people. … In the end its the company's loss – when it does get more work, (it) will have to hire people back at much higher salaries". This presumably both because the salaries are escalating and the company will now have a reputation for abusing its employees.

Perhaps you can now see the not so weird connection I made when I saw the Asset article. I began to wonder how many companies pay more attention to counting and caring for $2000 PCs than they pay to employees that cost 30 to 40 times that per year? For years I've heard complaints from Pick programmers that they make less than, say Oracle programmers, even though they get applications up and running 10 times faster. Or that they were really concerned that they didn't understand the new (fill in the blank) technology and their company didn't seem to believe it was important for them to get regular skills update training.

This kind of myopic view of the world is the most culpable case of penny wise and pound foolish I can imagine. Today a PC (or most any hardware) is cost effective immediately – it doesn't have a learning curve and we are usually able to buy power in just the increments needed. People on the other hand usually need 3 to 6 months to understand your company and be come productive. It often takes years for them to become experts that really understand your customers needs and respond correctly to them. Lets say the typical learning curve is ½ to 2 times their annual salary. When an employee leaves, whether through a layoff or simply a better offer, we lose that investment totally. How many PC’s do we have to micro manage to recover that investment?

But the losses don't stop there. The people we lose usually have a high level of product understanding, and knowledge of customer needs and personalities. Their lose carries all that knowledge away as well. This creates a real sense of lose and an uncertainty for our customers. "He/She was my contact and understood my problems – who will champion my special needs now?" and "What's wrong with you that your company that it can't (manage your business/keep employees)?" are not the kinds of questions we want to hear our customers asking. Also, the departing employees don't just evaporate – in a double whammy, they typically take our expensive training and go bestow it on our competitors.

Anyone left out there worrying about PC’s? I thought not!

What can you do to retain employees? There are tons of good books on this subject. I'm not an employee relations expert, but I feel the simplest things always work best. The studies have always said money isn't everything. Yes, you need to pay a competitive wage, but more importantly you need to "get behind your people". That means lots of different things, but I think that mostly it means trusting them and treating them like the important assets they are. If there are problems the company needs to deal with be as direct and honest as you can. Ask for their input when things are going well and when they're not. Give credit where it's due. Delegate responsibility and reward results. Promote a sense of customer service and it will become the corporate theme. Set reasonable schedules and the employees will naturally work harder to achieve them.

In the technology sector its also vitally important to invest in your people – not just the hardware, but tools and skills development. When you need to decide if a new technology makes sense for you, would you rather rely on a consultant who knows a little about your industry or an employee who knows your companies capabilities and your customers needs inside out? When you do use consultants, be sure your people work side-by-side with them and that they buy into the results. Its your people who will have to maintain and enhance the product themselves.

Treat you people right and they'll stand by you and take care of your customers. Take care of your customers and you'll blow the competition away.