Top Five Tips HR can learn from Olympics 2020

Let the games begin!

If you’re a sports enthusiast like me and are following the Olympics 2020, there is something powerful in watching a team of people work together for a common goal. Each member has their role to play, sometimes out in the spotlight and sometimes on the sidelines, but regardless of their position, they are pushing one another forward, towards their collective definition of success.

Here are five key areas that HR can focus on to help build an award-winning team:

1. Talent Acquisition

Employees, like athletes, join a company for many different reasons: like brand image, recognition, opportunities for career growth or freedom to create something new. For sourcing talent, the recruitment strategy and your employer brand image needs to stand out. Don’t be afraid to highlight what makes you the best choice for a highly sought-after candidate: sometimes it’s the strength of your brand, the way you work together as a team or it could be that you’re offering them a chance to build something and to be a part of a rising, winning team.

2. Performance Management

We all know the amount of attention that professional athletes put on performance. There are diagnostic tools, analyses, and sports analysts dissecting the player as well as the game down to the micro level. Your performance management system should be no different. Like professional athletes have an area of specialty, so do your employees have their own uniqueness. Maximize their strengths and work on the gaps as it relates to their role and the team’s overall success by coaching, mentoring and leading them. It can be hard to do given the already busy and hectic schedules, but a successful team cannot exist without a good leader at the center.

3. Balance

An important distinction between professional sports and the workforce is that professional athletes get downtime, known as “off-season”. Employees get holidays and paid vacation, but the business must keep going even when an employee is not working. This can make it harder for employees to strike the right balance to ensure they don’t get burned out. Recovering in professional sports is about physiotherapy, eating the right diet, and rest. In the working world, it’s about striking that balance between your day-to-day employee responsibilities and home. It’s important for managers (and employees) to notice and address when staff show signs that could lead to a burn out.
Things to look for:

-Lack of enthusiasm

-Frequent sick days

-Late starts and early finishes

-Decreased productivity

Remember to take time off. Raise your hand and ask for help. Talk with your manager (or an informal mentor) to find out what’s at the heart of the problem and get your head back into the game.

4. Technology

Physiotherapists use the latest machines and methodologies to aid in the speed of recovery. Post play analytics, on-field cameras, and instant replays to give athletes the opportunity to do their jobs better and makes the results of a match more accurate.
Using the latest technology around data and analytics marks every aspect of HR. It allows companies to identify where their top talent is coming from and how to reach them faster. People analytics is the solution.

5. Communication

Secrets and hidden agendas are the fastest way to sabotage a team’s success–whether it be a professional sports team or one in the office environment. The ability to create a workplace that values open, honest, and timely feedback is one of HR’s most strengths, and sometimes often overlooked. A coach would never wait until the end of the season to tell a player that he needed to work on his jump shot. Similarly, it would be counterproductive to wait until the annual performance review cycle to tell an employee that he needs to focus on his accuracy or meeting his deadlines.

Lead your team and the organization by encouraging more discussions with employees. Conduct post project analysis where the team gets to discuss what went right, wrong, and the different challenges they faced. Tell an employee when they make a mistake, but help them maintain their self-esteem. And feedback doesn’t always have to be about what they did wrong. Just like in a post-game interview, the interviewer will praise a player for game well-played, HR leaders should do the same. with their employees. A good job can go a long way.