Author: Jörg Knoblauch
_Jörg Knoblauch_
Reading time: 25 minutes
Synopsis
Good employees are the only way for a company to succeed for a long time. These summaries of Jörg Knoblauch’s book Die Personalfalle (2010) show why it is so important for a company to hire only the best people. They explain how to find these employees and keep them with the company for many years. They also suggest being strict with staff who are not motivated.
What you will learn: How to challenge and support your employees well.
A company is only as good as its people. Leaders know this. But they often ignore employees who act in a harmful way. These employees might cheat at work, let others do their tasks, or speak badly about hardworking colleagues. Jörg Knoblauch writes in his book Die Personalfalle that allowing such behavior at work puts the company’s success at risk. It creates a bad atmosphere and costs companies real money.
So, what can you do as a leader? First, you should get to know your staff. Who are the people who work for you? These summaries will help you. They explain the different types of employees in every company. They also show how HR (Human Resources) can best deal with their specific traits. You will learn how to find and develop excellent employees. You will also learn how to motivate average employees to do better. And you will see that it’s wrong to be too patient with bad employees. You will need to let go of those who are truly hopeless.
In these summaries, you will find out:
- that being motivated from within leads to top performance,
- how to make your hiring process better, and
- how much bad employees cost your company.
Blink 1 – The Employee ABC: There are three types of people in a company.
Every company has many different kinds of employees. Often, you can see big differences in how much they want to perform, as well as their work style and how they fit in socially.
The worst nightmare for any leader is a real problem in most German companies. Some employees do not help the company succeed. They even harm it. These are C-employees. They are not only last in the “alphabet” after A- and B-employees. They are also lower in skills, motivation, and performance.
For example, A-employees are the main drivers in a project. They always bring good ideas and find ways to make them happen well. They also set a great example. B-employees usually build on what A-employees have started. They do their tasks carefully, but not better than average.
An A-employee fully understands their company’s culture. If the company makes paper cups, the employee will find many good reasons why the world needs more cups. They will also explain who can benefit. And they will say it with strong belief. For instance, in a meeting, they might show how donating cups can bring more public attention and profit to the company. At the same time, needy families also benefit. They might even present the market analysis, which was not due until next week, at the same meeting.
The B-employee is happy about this. The A-employee’s results bring benefits to their employer. And the B-employee gets interesting new tasks with clear instructions, which they just need to follow. B-employees do good, solid work. They finish all their customer requests as asked by the end of the week.
Often, top employees make up 20% of the staff. The average but productive group makes up another 60%. But what do the last 20% do?
Most likely, they sit in a corner during project meetings. They might make rude comments about the speaker’s hair or throw paper balls. They either disagree with their tasks or do them wrongly. One thing they never do is deliver good results. In the worst case, they even ruin the work of others. C-employees are like poison for any company.
Blink 2 – Top employees are mainly motivated from within.
What do C-employees lack? And what helps A-employees achieve their excellent results? There is one answer to these questions: their motivation.
Employees can be motivated by outer things or by inner things. But only inner motivation leads to wanting to perform well for a long time. Outside factors, like salary, are not as important.
Only employees who truly connect with the company will perform well over time. This is because they have inner motivation. Those who lack this motivation struggle to stay happy and engaged in their work for long. If only outside factors keep them at the company, their work quality will also become worse.
Truly good employees find their drive inside themselves. You cannot only excite A-employees with more money, longer holidays, or bigger benefits. They want to be part of company decisions. They want to take on responsibility and grow.
Only when these employees feel like a key part of a company can they truly connect with it and its goals. For this to happen, the company must let employees make their own choices. Their every step should not be controlled by strict rules. People who feel true motivation for their work enjoy their jobs. They also inspire their colleagues. Outside factors can ensure some happiness, but they do not create lasting motivation.
However, if outside motivators are missing, employees become unhappy. Bad teamwork with colleagues or problems with a boss often make employees feel uncomfortable. This can lead them to leave the company as a last step.
For C-employees, one outside factor helps with bad feelings: a fair salary. But a salary increase beyond the usual amount only boosts motivation for a short time. After a pay raise, an employee is more motivated for a short period. They perform better. But this better performance lasts only until the employee gets used to the new salary. This usually happens after two weeks.
So, real motivation does not come from outside factors. It comes from the employee themselves. A pay raise or other benefits will not turn an unmotivated C-employee into an A-employee.
Blink 3 – C-employees cost a company more money than they earn.
Inner motivation drives A-employees to perform at their best. The company greatly benefits from this. The opposite is true for C-employees. They are often not just unproductive. They can even harm the company’s efforts. In numbers, this means: A C-employee creates direct costs.
A simple example shows this: Imagine a B-employee gives 100% effort. They bring in exactly the same amount of money the company spends on them. A C-employee, however, gives only 30% effort. On average, each employee earns 50,000 Euros per year. This means the C-employee costs the company 35,000 Euros too much each year. This is because they only produce work worth 15,000 Euros.
Hiring a C-employee also creates many other costs. These include hiring fees, training, and severance pay. These costs are much higher than hiring an A- or B-employee.
A 2005 study by Kienbaum HR consultants shows this. Hiring the wrong employee can cost a company 1.5 to 3 times their yearly salary. This is true even if the company fires the employee after just two or three months.
C-employees also harm other people’s motivation with their bad attitude. If there are too many C-employees in a company, more motivated staff feel alone. C-employees notice that others work less because of their good performance. So, they exclude them socially and call them “over-achievers.” But these good employees actually ensure the company’s success. They also protect the jobs of the less skilled workers. These negative reactions often make A-employees feel unhappy at work. They might start performing worse or even leave the company.
Imagine an A-employee in the design team. For months, colleagues tease them for finishing tasks a week before the deadline. The company benefits from their hard work. Developers can deliver results faster, which means more time for product testing. However, because of this teasing, the A-employee might think about leaving their finished work on their desk for a few extra days before handing it in. They might even think about quitting their job.
So, C-employees cause indirect costs. These come from losing the good work of good employees. They also cause costs to hire new people for the empty positions.
On paper, it is worse than it looks at first glance in daily work. Bad employees cause big direct and indirect financial harm to a company. If you find such employees, you must let them go quickly. And you must not hire C-employees for jobs that become open again.
Blink 4 – What promising applicants can really do only shows during their trial period.
Of course, nobody wants to hire new C-employees. Especially not if they know the harm these employees can cause. But it is not always easy to spot such people during a job interview. Often, first impressions are wrong. It only becomes clear later if an employee truly performs well or just pretended to.
Many job seekers learn from coaches or books how to act in an interview. They impress with a firm handshake, a confident manner, and the right answers. HR staff can be fooled by this. After hiring, these employees might not perform as well as hoped. This is how C- or B-employees, pretending to be A-employees, get into the company. During the hiring process, every candidate naturally says they are an A-employee.
But the employee’s true potential only shows during the trial period. The best test method is to throw them into the deep end. If HR has decided to give Ms. Müller a chance, she gets her own project right away. This might include analyzing markets she knows nothing about. It might require her to use software she has never worked with. And it forces her to make plans with departments she knows nothing about yet. This is a huge amount of responsibility and a lot of work.
If Ms. Müller is an A-employee, she will tackle this challenge with energy. She will work alone and be eager to learn. She will ask for help when she needs it. But if she is a C-employee, this task will quickly show her true nature. Either she will realize herself that the company is not for her, or her performance will show that she has no real inner motivation.
During the trial period, clear goals must be set from the start. The new employee needs to reach these goals. This way, at the end of this time, HR can fairly judge if the employee met the needs or not. This gives HR a basis for deciding whether to keep the employee or let them go.
So, we see: With the right coaching, it is easy to make a good impression in a job interview. But to keep this good impression, new employees must also behave well during their trial period. This is not only about completing tasks. It is also about their attitude, which shows their motivation.
Blink 5 – You can avoid bad hires with a clear hiring process.
To lower the risk of hiring the wrong person, there are some steps to improve the hiring process. These steps help to filter out unsuitable candidates from the start. They include making a job profile, using a standard application form, and having a clear phone interview.
A job profile first sets out the goals for finding new employees. To find the right person for a job, HR must clearly say what skills that person needs. Too often, employees are hired based on how much people like them. But specific job skills should be the most important thing. A new employee who plays golf might fit into the company culture faster. This is because they can meet colleagues on the golf course at weekends. But for real company success, the applicant with good programming skills would have been more helpful. They would have learned the work processes much faster.
An employee questionnaire can help make a first selection. A standard form makes it easier to compare the skills of different applicants. This helps HR staff quickly find the best candidates from many people. It saves them time and the company money. They do not have to search every CV for project experience. Instead, a digital sorting tool can quickly show all matches.
A phone interview is the first personal contact. It gives an idea of the applicant’s real motivation. A clear guide helps the interviewer. It is important to ask the applicant about their career goals. Good potential employees know their goals and what drives them. B- or C-employees often only focus on salary or holidays.
If an applicant has done well in all earlier steps and in the interview, they are most likely an A-employee. These employees are very wanted in the job market. So, a company must offer them strong reasons to join. Otherwise, they will go to competitors. The key word here is “appreciation.” This can be shown by inviting them to dinner, giving them a company tour, or paying for their move to the new workplace.
So, a good hiring process is very important for a company’s success. It stops expensive wrong hires from the start. That is why it is worth spending enough time and energy on checking new employees.
Blink 6 – Good employees need more attention than bad ones.
Finding excellent employees costs a lot of money and time. But once hired, they deliver above-average results. So, keeping employees is very important here.
Sadly, companies often give the most attention to employees who cause the most problems: the C-employees. This can make A-employees feel forgotten. Management is busy trying to fix problems. They forget to be happy that some staff are doing great work. But employees who meet or even go beyond their goals truly deserve special appreciation. Too little thanks for good work can make A-employees frustrated and unhappy. This can lead them to stop performing above average over time.
To prevent this, top-performing employees must be rewarded often and in the right way. This should not only be about money. Good employees need work that feels meaningful. This helps them find purpose in what they do.
Only employees who connect with their company and their job will be happy in their role for a long time. And this connection is only possible if the employee faces new challenges all the time. If managing a database, which was exciting at first, becomes just boring data entry, the employee will likely look for new opportunities. Whether these are in the same company or with a competitor depends on the management and how tasks are given out.
Therefore, A-employees must be given roles that match their skills and motivation. Being under-challenged for too long makes an employee lose their inner motivation. Instead, it helps to regularly talk about future goals and tasks. This way, employees feel less like “co-workers” and more like “co-owners.” This creates a good basis for them to connect with the company.
Any business owner can find themselves fixing problems caused by C- and B-employees. And in doing so, they might forget their truly good employees. But this should not become a regular thing. Instead, they must support their best workers. They also need to ask for more from employees who perform below average.
Blink 7 – The HR department also needs excellent employees.
Now, who is responsible for all these improvements? A business owner knows that their company benefits a lot from excellent employees. But they also have other tasks. Not everyone can spend time carefully planning their employees’ careers themselves. So, they hire an HR department to do this.
In most German companies, HR departments often do not have enough staff. This means there are not enough resources to find new employees or support existing ones. In many companies, the HR department only manages employee files. And because the department often has few employees, it is often too busy with just this task.
A good HR department, however, creates a positive company culture. It does more than just managing files. It also provides excellent employee management. This includes finding and hiring new skilled employees, ideally following the standards just mentioned. It also involves building a company culture that everyone can connect with. And finally, it includes supporting and training employees. That is why it is important to staff the HR department well itself. Only then can it ensure a good atmosphere in the company, which also stops valuable employees from leaving.
The HR department’s goals must match the company’s goals. It must also act with customers, employees, and other important groups in mind. For example, if a company makes diapers and sees itself as family-friendly, HR might think about offering flexible hours for parents or longer parental leave.
To start such changes, it is necessary to always know the company’s latest goals. For this, close contact between HR and company management is very important. In short: A business owner must keep their HR staff updated. And they must also let HR staff keep them updated.
Managing employees, like processing holiday requests and payroll, is only one part of the job. Basically, HR also manages employee quality. It makes sure everyone is ready for their tasks and motivated to do them. Other areas include finding suitable new employees and spotting problems. For example, employee training is needed when new software comes out. If the mood in the company is bad, a company outing might help improve employee spirits. It can also encourage them to get to know each other better.
Carrying out such important actions is only possible with constant thought and talks with company management. If a business owner sees the true worth of their staff, they must also see the true worth of their HR department. Giving this department enough freedom to act creates the perfect base for a company with many motivated and skilled employees.
Summary
The main message of these summaries is:
Employees in a company can be divided into A, B, and C employees. Companies benefit greatly from good employees, so they should motivate them. Bad employees, however, can cause a lot of harm, including financial problems. Companies should let them go. To avoid hiring C-employees, a company needs a great HR department and good hiring processes.
What you can do:
Let go of bad employees!
Employees who are not motivated or are overwhelmed cost your company a lot of money. You must let these employees go. Even short-term motivators like pay raises will not turn C-employees into A-employees.
Reward employees who do excellent work!
You must reward an employee who performs above average for their efforts. This could be a pay raise, a role with more leadership, or better working conditions! You must not lose excellent employees. They are key to the company’s success.
Support your HR department!
The HR department is responsible for finding new employees and keeping staff motivated. It plays a key role in your company’s success. Always make sure it has what it needs!
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For further reading: Refugees in the Company by Thomas Batsching & Tim Riedel
So, companies should avoid hiring C-employees. They gain a lot from dedicated, skilled, and loyal staff. Where can you find these people? We have an idea… Have you ever thought about hiring refugees? In the summaries of Refugees in the Company (2017), learn how hiring refugees can benefit both sides.
Source: https://www.blinkist.com/https://www.blinkist.com/de/books/die-personalfalle-de