Mix in new people
Fifteen years ago, nobody knew what a Web programmer was.
Today, some companies have entire departments of them. The
point? As business evolves, new skill sets are regularly needed. In
a hyper-paced industry like Royo’s, he’s not afraid to bring in new
people.
“In some instances, we need what I call
new DNA,” he says. “You need people who
have a different set of skills and experience, so bring on board some of that new
DNA that is going to enable you to think
outside of the box from where the company and the business has been in the past.”
Of course, bringing in people to help you
adapt and change your business comes
with the very real threat of internal fallout.
The more new hires you bring in, the
more you can hear your veteran employees crying, ‘Who the heck are these people?’ The solution to that is making sure
those people understand the purpose of
any new employees.
“The first thing is education,” Royo says.
“Make sure people understand why you
brought some of that new DNA into the company so they’re not threatened and you don’t
introduce some sort of old versus new.”
At Ascent Media, for example, Royo
includes current department employees in
the interview process for new additions.
He also gets managers on board by having
them do an honest assessment of their
department so they can realize the skill
gaps that exist.
“There’s an ideation process, as we call it,
of asking, ‘What is it that we need to do this
new direction?’” Royo says. “And we ask,
‘Do we have the skills in-house to execute
that?’ Once you reach the decision on what
the plan is going forward vis-À-vis any new
opportunity, do you really have the skills?
You need to be intellectually honest to execute, and out of that, usually, you identify
some gaps. And by involving people
through that ideation process and then filling in those gaps, it feels as if this is an
organic sort of transformation or change
versus a radical turn off the switch and
then turn on a different switch.”
During that process, Royo says people
begin to understand what role the new
DNA will play in helping them evolve their
jobs, creating an atmosphere where people
are more willing to blend their departments with old and new ideas.
“It gives us this opportunity to create this
blended environment where people can
see some of these new skills and gives
them an opportunity to reskill themselves
and see a career path beyond where they
are today,” he says.
And after making that effort to help blend
the new and old, he says you have license
to be very direct with those people that still
don’t adjust. He recommends telling them
very clearly that after the adjustment period is over, there is no room for people
refusing to catch up.
“Then there are instances where some
people are resistant to change, and if you
attempt to address those issues through
training and additional education and
they’re still not responding, then you just
have to have blunt conversations about
what that means in terms of the creative
path of that individual,” he says.
