Nine Strategies of Highly Productive Workers

People with talent fail at an alarming rate within organizations. According to Robert Kelley and Janet Caplan, researchers who studied workers at Bell Labs, most talented hires wind up as average or below-average performers. Among the people at Bell Labs and those of competitors, Kelley and Caplan found that 85 to 90 percent of the extremely talented people hired never rose beyond average, when it came to productivity. They also found that the 10 to 15 percent of hires who rose to “star performance” status were eight times more productive than the average or mediocre performers.
Let’s say you’re responsible for the results of an organization employing 100 people. If your organization is average, seven of those people are star performers, eighty-three are average, and ten are slackers. Let’s say you encounter an economic climate that prohibits you from hiring and compels you to find a means of doing better with what you have. What would be your strategy?
According to our experience, there are, very likely, other star performers hibernating among your workforce. If you could convert just one mediocre performer into a star performer, the value of that conversion, according to the Bell Labs study, would be equivalent to adding seven average performers to your workforce at no additional cost to the organization.
Defining star performance
You can create star performers by taking two actions: 1.) Define star performance (to expect star performance you first need to define it) and 2.) Identify the work strategies consistent among star performers and absent among mediocre workers.
Organizations that have not defined superior performance, tend to experience lackluster growth. Companies that want to outpace the competition should commit to defining star performance, not just for one job but for all the key positions in your company.
Companies that have defined performance tend to use performance-based job descriptions that define not just the tasks essential to the job, but also the minimum expected and exceptional outcomes in the job. A star performer in a job would be a person who consistently achieves breakthrough outcomes.
The nine strategies of highly productive workers
The key to converting average or mediocre people to star status lies in determining and then coaching their competencies in nine areas. The Bell Labs study identified those nine areas as the strategies that workers use to get their work done. Here are the nine strategies of highly productive workers:
• Taking initiative – Star performers go beyond just informing someone of an error, they correct it. The mediocre don’t.
• Networking- Star performers establish their anticipated needs for outside input prior to beginning a project. The mediocre wait until there’s a need, and then they look for help.
• Self-management- Stars know that self-management goes beyond time management and includes management of effort and knowledge. The mediocre feel that time management is all that’s needed.
• Teamwork effectiveness- Star performers are comfortable with being either a follower or a leader. The mediocre tend to push too hard for leadership roles.
• Leadership – Star performers know that small leadership roles are as important as the bigger, more visible ones. The mediocre are often disappointed with smaller, less viable leadership assignments and, as a result, perform at a level expressing their displeasure.
• Followership – Star performers are aware of the value of following as well as leading and understand the need to contribute to the leader’s and the team’s performance. The mediocre are often difficult to work within a team setting and focus more on getting credit for themselves.
• Perspective – Superior performers are able to see how their immediate work factors into the “big picture.” The star performer is invested in taking on other view points, like those of the customer, manager or other team members. Mediocre workers often seem to have a world defined by the length of their reach. They tend to have difficulty in accepting thoughts and ideas from those other than themselves.
• Show-and-Tell – Star performers are master presenters. The mediocre are PowerPoint specialists.
• Organizational savvy – Star performers understand how they contribute to the overall performance of the organization and are capable of navigating through the competing interests of an organization. The mediocre are often perplexed with organization politics and hide behind the mantra of not being a “political person.”
Understanding theses strategies and then defining them for your workforce is a powerful tool among the steps necessary to convert mediocre workers to star performers.
In these difficult times, adding the equivalent of seven average performers to you workforce by converting just one to star status is a strategy that addresses the pressing need to do more with less.
Stephen Blakesley is Managing Partner of GMS Talent L P, and author of the book Strategic Hiring – Tomorrow’s Benefits Today..

Tighter U.S. Oversight Comes to H-1B Visa Program

As federal officers raid alleged abusers, tech employers worry they'll run short of skilled foreign workers, especially in stimulus sectors
By Moira Herbst

As the unemployment rate in the U.S. rises, the federal government is tightening its oversight of a controversial visa program that allows companies to bring in skilled workers from overseas. The crackdown is aimed at reducing alleged abuses of what are known as H-1B visas, but it may also make it more difficult for U.S. companies to hire talented workers from abroad. Tech giants such as Microsoft (MSFT), Oracle (ORCL), and IBM (IBM) have been active participants in the program and have lobbied for its expansion.
The H-1B visa program was originally designed to let American companies fill high-skill positions for which no local workers were available. But critics say the program has had such lax oversight that it has been open to abuse and fraud. In several cases, companies have been charged with underpaying workers they bring to the U.S. In addition, outsourcing firms have become some of the heaviest users of the program, raising concerns that visas are being used to train foreign workers who end up taking American jobs. Late last month the government disclosed that the top four recipients of the work visas in 2008 were all Indian outsourcers—Infosys Technologies (INFY), Wipro (WIT), Satyam (SAY), and Tata Consultancy (TCS.BO). The companies use the visas to bring employees from abroad to work in their U.S. operations, typically for two or three years.
Increased oversight of the program is likely to come on several fronts. The Labor Dept. is tightening its review of applications for the work visas, having staffers process requests manually for the first time. Meanwhile, U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Services (USCIS) is more actively investigating companies that receive the visas for potential misuse. Last month, USCIS and the U.S. Attorney's office in Iowa cooperated on a six-state raid of companies allegedly abusing the program. Matthew Whitaker, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Iowa, says the resulting 10-count indictment against a New Jersey-based company called Vision Systems Group is just "the tip of the iceberg." Vision Systems did not return calls seeking comment.
Congress Could Act
Senators Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) and Richard Durbin (D-Ill.), two of the program's vocal critics, are pressing for legislative reform as well. They plan to introduce legislation by early April that would require employers to pledge they had attempted to hire American workers before applying for H-1B visas—a step not required under current law. "I want to make sure that every employer searches to make sure there is no American available to do the job," says Grassley.
American tech companies are wary of any reforms. Microsoft, the top U.S. recipient of H-1Bs in 2008, says the Durbin-Grassley plan risks making it more difficult to recruit talented workers to the U.S. and more likely companies will hire abroad. The company says expansion of the program will bring in skilled immigrants who will help the U.S. economy recover. Still, Microsoft says it supports government efforts to crack down on companies misusing the existing program and has met with USCIS to help develop methods to detect fraud. "We are supportive of steps to reform the H-1B visa system to eliminate the potential for abuse," says Microsoft General Counsel Brad Smith.
The government will begin accepting applications for this year's H-1Bs on Apr. 1. In recent years, the 65,000 visas permitted annually have been scooped up in days. Robert Hoffman, spokesman for the tech lobbying group Compete America, says it's important the government not clamp down too much because skilled workers will be needed in green tech, health care, and other sectors that are targeted for expansion in the stimulus plan. "We're trying to create industries where none exist," he says. "That may create an added need for workers."
Herbst is a reporter for BusinessWeek in New York.