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Turning “Outsiders” Into Insiders

Written by: Andy Marken

Article Overview: Increasingly businesses function and grow best with a combination of inside and outside staff members. The author spells out how you can bring outsiders inside for increased loyalty and support.

Turning “Outsiders” Into Insiders

Turning “Outsiders” Into Insiders – Frank Sennett; Ragan’s Management Resources, 111 East Wacker Drive, Suite 500, Chicago, IL 60601, 800-878-5331; www.managementresources.com; 70 p


Reviewed by G.A. “Andy” Marken
President
Marken Communications Inc.
andy@markencom.com


Maybe you haven’t heard it in your company, your organization but it is tough finding the right talent, right people.

To meet today’s rapidly changing business environment firms stay purposely lean and agile so they can respond to dramatic, sometimes drastic, changes in the business climate.

Companies around the globe are eliminating excess baggage…abandoning bureaucratic practices…dramatically reducing the amount of time it takes to get things done. Organizations that don’t or won’t accelerate their change will disappear if they haven’t already.

Sennett’s Turning “Outsiders” Into Insiders was written as a clear, concise roadmap to help management and communications people not only find the right people – inside and outside the company – but also turn them into valuable corporate assets.

Since 2000, the temporary, self-employed, part-time and consultant segment of the U.S. workforce has grown more than 65 percent. By 2010, hiring industry experts estimate that less than 30 percent of the industrial world's workforce will be holding conventional full-time jobs.

Back in the ancient ‘60’s, half of the workers in the industrial world made something. By 2000, only about one-seventh of the workforce in developed countries were making and moving goods. Today more than 3/4th of the working population is in the service sector.

Knowledge today is our most important product.

Since business is in such a state of flux, firms have chosen not to be bogged down with chain-of-command decision-making. Instead they form project teams made up of suppliers, customers, contractors and at times competitors. There is a constant stream of new co-workers, new bosses, and new challenges.


This requires a new mode of operation and team member selection. You have to be able to choose people who are quick-change, out-of-the box artists. People who are comfortable with uncertainty. Individuals –regardless of their location that have the ability to carry out activities/efforts that will expand their reputation and career while still focusing on the company’s goals, direction and objectives.

Sennett explains how you can choose people who don’t simply stay busy but add real value. He discusses how management can select individuals who will ultimately do the best job of serving the company – and ultimately themselves – by focusing on projects and their outcome.

He cites industrial psychologist Bradford D. Smart’s traditional hiring method he dubbed the “mirror method” – putting a mirror under the person’s nose to see if it steams up. If so, the person was hired.

In his book, Sennett does an outstanding job of making a case for the nontraditional workforce. He discusses how organizations and departmental/internal managers can motivate and retain these people.

He discusses how the survival mode of operations has forced management to conserve their most precious resource: talented people.

By cutting back to a core group of highly talented and motivated people, management has found that they can not only run "leaner, meaner and better," but that they also have a better overall organization overall.

Sennett details how management can assess what they are doing internally versus what they should be doing internally. He then explains how they can hire and retain the right “outsiders” so that they become dedicated, focused insiders.

This approach permits management to adapt more rapidly to sudden industry/marketplace changes. Technology and manufacturing can be changed almost overnight.

More importantly, this approach helps them deal with the problem and expense of hiring, firing, training, retraining and retaining personnel.

Fixed assets not only lock companies into specific technology, they are quickly outdated.

Outsourcing with the right inside/outsiders permits maximum flexibility. It preserves capital and can often produce dramatic savings. In addition, it frees management to focus its energy on more pressing areas of concern ... like marketing and staying ahead of the competition to garner more customers.

Sennett does an excellent job of addressing tough – and often overlooked – issues and details like compensation package adjustments, performance evaluations and training/developing the nontraditional worker.

The ability to choose, communicate and motivate outsiders to make them feel, act like insiders may become a key talent for management success in the year’s ahead. Learning how to choose them, communicate with them and get to focus on the same objectives – your objectives – could be something you want to develop and refine.

If only for self preservation.

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