PEOPLE are our greatest asset. Have you heard that one before? Attracting and retaining talented people is always a challenge. In the next few weeks, this column will identify the factors you need to manage to demonstrate to your people that they are your greatest asset. Getting these right will also help you attract and retain the best people. Run your business or organisation through this checklist and answer these three questions: what needs to happen?; what could we do better?; and what do we need to lead and manage better? Policy issues • People-related polices, plans and strategies directly support the vision, values and mission of your business. • HR policies, plans and strategies directly support your key performance measures and indicators. • People representative of all levels are formally engaged in the process of improving these policies, plans and strategies. • You apply policies, strategies, action plans and key performance measures to promote a culture that is sustainable economically, socially and environmentally. • You apply a policy and a strategy to attract and retain the best talent available and in line with organisational needs and changing business circumstances. • Policies and practices (including effective training) are used to prevent sexual, emotional and physical harassment and discrimination, and to promote equal opportunity. • You reward people on the basis of their value to the organisation, their willingness to learn and develop, their ability to demonstrate flexibility and their positive outlook. • Your policies and strategies promote harmony, co-operation, collaboration, teamwork, learning and continuous improvement. Systems and processes • A clearly defined structure ensures that everyone understands the reporting lines and the levels of authority, and decision-making. • Processes ensure people understand their roles, responsibilities and accountabilities, and authority levels, and those of relevant others. • Processes ensure that all proposed/existing jobs are examined with respect to their relevance/contribution to core business activities. • You organise and manage work, jobs and skills to promote co-operation, initiative, empowerment, innovation and your cultural requirements (the way you do things). • You organise and manage work, jobs and skills to meet current and future business needs and to achieve your action plans/ program outcomes. • You use the diverse ideas and thinking of your employees and customers to solve problems and make improvements to the ways you do things. • You achieve effective communication and skill sharing across work units, jobs and locations. • You deploy communication policies, plans, strategies and effective channels and formats for communication. • Communication upwards, downwards and side-ways is timely, sufficient and accurate. • You encourage and stimulate creativity and innovation in making improvements to the ways you do things and the things you deliver and produce. • You have policies and strategies for remuneration, redeployment, redundancy and other terms of employment. If you would like information on a system and tools designed to achieve this and much more, see superthinker.com and click on 2. Benchmark Business Improver.