„WegUndJetzt“: Barbara Joshua und Claudia Piribauer developed an innovative test to make the value of key employees measurable for companies.
Very slowly, we pull a wooden building block out of the tower. The structure wobbles, our hands tremble, then we hold the brick in our hands. The aim of the well-known game of skill Jenga is to remove one of the 60 cuboid bricks from the tower, place it on top and make the tower grow higher and higher, round after round. The problem is that as the game progresses, the tower becomes increasingly unstable due to the loss of substance at the base. At some point, it starts to sway and eventually collapses.
Production, quality and image losses are imminent
‘We want to help prevent this from happening,’ say Barbara Joshua and Claudia Piribauer. The two Viennese management consultants and strategy and organisational developers joined forces a year ago to make the ‘Jenga effect’ understandable and predictable for companies – and therefore give them the opportunity to take countermeasures / counteract at an early stage. ‘Many bosses and managers don’t realise how much their company loses stability – similar to the Jenga tower – when key employees leave the company and what risks are associated with this,’ says Claudia Piribauer. ‘They often don’t even know who their key employees are. In addition, the cost of recruiting staff, training a new employee or a position that may be vacant for months is dramatically underestimated. The costs can easily go up into the hundreds of thousands.’
Costs of hundreds of thousands of euros because key employees leave the company or cannot be replaced? ‘That’s a lot of money,’ says Barbara Joshua, ’but these are only the costs that we can clearly quantify. In addition, the departure of an important employee can also result in a loss of production, quality and image. Valuable knowledge and expertise are lost. In the worst-case scenario, there is even a risk of losing orders and customers, jeopardising business success.’
Staff Score Test as feedback
So far, so problematic. But how can the topic be made tangible for individual companies? ‘A good question, which of course we also asked ourselves at the beginning,’ says Barbara Joshua. Together with her partner, she then took a strategic approach to the problem. The two of them collated comparative figures and empirical values, combined them and added their own calculations. Building on this, they then created a compact and free Staff Score Test with 32 qualitative and quantitative questions under the ‘WegUndJetzt’ brand. After just a few minutes, this provides interested parties with initial feedback online (www.wegundjetzt.com) or as an app (Google Play Store and Apple Store) on their company’s level of maturity in dealing with staff and employees, as well as an estimate of the costs that can be associated with the departure of key employees.
Filling vacancies with future success
‘It only takes ten minutes to complete the test,’ says Claudia Piribauer. ‘But the result usually stays with you for a long time.’ Why? ‘Because it’s not often that the mirror is held up to you so bluntly. It takes courage to admit that not everything is going as well as you might have thought and to change something about it.’ Barbara Joshua and Claudia Piribauer support companies in this process, on request with a standardised consulting product in four workshops over a period of three months. A clearly defined action plan with a specific time frame is developed with the customer. ‘The aim is to prevent the potential departure of important employees in the medium to long term and to attract and retain key employees for the company.’ In addition to the present, the future is also of crucial importance, as the experts explain: ‘If possible, positions should be filled now with employees who have the necessary skills for the future success of the company.’ Despite the hectic pace of business, quality must always take precedence over speed. ‘A position that is filled quickly but poorly can often turn into a boomerang, causing high additional costs on the bottom line.’
Are they not turning the idea of Jenga on its head with their innovative concept? ‘Not entirely,’ say the two entrepreneurs with a smile. ‘It’s still about the tower growing. However, growth must not be at the expense of stability. You can only build and develop something successful in the long term on a solid foundation!’