Employees

Columbus Woodruff, CEO of Hot Cards, spoke today at the West Shore Entrepreneurs Club luncheon. One of the key points he made was that employees are more important than customers and should be treated as such.

He suggested that if the richest person in town comes to your establishment to make a million dollar purchase but there are no employees in evidence, or that the employees are rude, no purchase will be made. Employees who are made to feel important, are well trained and compensated, will in turn attract customers and make them feel important. Sage advice.

Will Limkemann
www.siqualtd.com

Yesterday I had lunch and a chat with John Turner, a human resources and safety consulting expert. From our conversation I learned that many, if not most, small business make serious mistakes in handling human resources issues. Some common mistakes are:

1. Incorrectly classifying as exempt employees who should be paid overtime.

2. Incorrectly using “independent contractors” who are actually employees.

3. Being inconsistent with treatment of employees and application of company policies.

4. Not having an employee manual.

Will Limkemann

Be a coach

As a manager or owner, it’s important that you coach your team to success. Coaches may take different approaches to assembling, motivating, and running a team, but they also share certain habits. They have the ability to create a strategy and set short and long term goals and energize the team to strive to accomplish them. Coaches assess, communicate with, and recognize their employees. A successful coach can be the edge a winning team needs and the difference between winning and losing – whether in sports or in business. To infuse winning ways in your team, put on your coach’s hat, and fire up your team to help each person make the most of his or her skills.

A good coach has a solid game plan – one that has been well thought out and detailed, but not so rigid that it’s never altered to meet unexpected problems and changes inthe marketplace. The competition is always shifting, and – to a degree – your plan should track the shifts. As coach of your team, it’s vital that you share with your employees your vision for your business and your action plan. Be sure everyone understands the goal and help your team remain focused on it.

Assess the strengths of each of your employees, and give them roles they can accomplish and which also provide individual growth. Consider each employee’s demonstrated and transferable skills as well as skills requiring improvement. Don’t discount an employee’s enthusiasm and willingness to take on a new challenge. Also learn the individual goals of each employee. The more you know about your employees, the better you will be able to fit them into your game plan.

Providing employees with proper training to learn new skills and improve their abilities is important. For entry-level employees, that may mean showing them how you want them to perform critical tasks. For management, focus on expected results and negotiable and non-negotiable actions. Cross-training employees for various roles can be a win-win: a well-rounded employee becomes
more of an asset to your business, and new experiences allow an experienced employee to stretch her comfort level, cultivate new proficiencies, and feel better about her work.

Managers are often so focused on catching the negative that they forget to reinforce the positive. As coach of your team, it is important that you recognize achievements and efforts when an employee exhibits positive behaviors or performs a task well. This encourages those actions to continue in the future and provides a blueprint for further success.

Good coaches communicate well on a number of levels. Their expectations and directions are clear and tailored to each individual. They often alter their coaching style to get the best out of each employee. Their ability to individualize communications often fosters a greater rapport and understanding between coach and player. To begin to build that rapport, provide immediate feedback regarding problems or successes, pass along your knowledge where appropriate, and solicit ideas and opinions. Be sincere in your actions and encouraging in your words.

Habits for effective hiring

When hiring an employee you want to minimize costly mistakes. Here are 8 steps of effective hiring:

1. Have a strong mission statement and vision for your company that will excite a prospective employee.

2. Develop a detailed job requirements document for the position to be filled to help you weed through candidate qualifications.

3. Develop a thorough job description for the position so there is clear communication about the job between you and the candidate.

4. Subject the candidate to personality and skills assessments testing to assure the individual can do the job and fit into your culture.

5. Develop and practice effective interviewing techniques to maximize the value of the job interview for both you and the candidate.

6. When offering a job, make sure your wages and benefits are competitive.

7. Welcome new employees, introducing them around, and doing everything you can to make them feel a part of the team and productive from day one.

8. Oh, and if a mistake is made in hiring and the employee does not work out, terminate the relationship sooner rather than later. This will be best for you and the individual as well as sending a positive message to other employees.

New hire background checking

While we hear daily tales of gloom-and-doom layoffs, there are still strong well-managed businesses that cater to the real needs of both consumers and businesses. Looking at Monster.com or help wanted ads reveals many businesses needing to hire quality help. I’m sure every ad yields an overload of responses. It is definitely an employer’s labor market.

With so many people to choose from there is no reason not to pick the absolutely best person for the job. Most small employers rely on resume and application information combined with gut instinct after cursory interviews. Few small businesses exercise due diligence in background checking, other than sometimes making a call to a prior employer or reference.

Unfortunately, most prior employers will not reveal any information beyond dates of employment for fear of being sued for defamation. I understand that some states now have laws protecting employers from frivolous defamation lawsuits to encourage sharing of proven bad behaviour with potential employers.

When hiring someone with a prior history of sexual harrasment, abuse, or a criminal record, the new employer may well be at risk for not having learned of the bad behaviour.

Money is well spent on hiring professional firms to do background checks prior to hiring a new employee, especially if:

• Your business has proprietary information or deals with confidential information which, should it be misappropriated, could harm you or a client
• The person will be involved with financial data, accounting records, payroll, accounts receivable, accounts payable, or handling cash
• The person interfaces with the public – especially if they go on site to customer homes
• You are in the health-care industry
• The person will have any contact with children

There are established firms specializing in employee background checking which may include: drug testing, searching for criminal records, verifying education credentials, credit checks, prior employment verification, and more. The cost can range from around $50 to several hundred dollars, but is a small investment if it saves you from hiring the wrong person. The National Association of Professional Background Screeners, www.napbs.com, is a starting point in locating a firm to conduct your testing.

Right-Sizing

As 2008 winds down there are daily reports of layoffs from local, regional, and national companies. This is a tough economic climate for large and small businesses alike. If you have been following my blogs you know that I am and remain optimistic for owners of small businesses. Those who are adjusting their business model to efficiently provide services and goods that people need at reasonable prices will surely thrive. There are over 300 million people in the US who need every conceivable type of products and services.

But, back to layoffs. What are you doing to right-size your company? Are you staffed appropriately for present and projected sales and profit? Are the right people on your staff? With many talented people losing their jobs, now may be an excellent time to pick up the talent you need, and to fill the skills-gaps in your business.

This may be the perfect time to use zero-based budgeting principles in looking at your staff. Examine each person, his or her job description, and the work performed. Is it needed work? Can it be done more efficiently? Is the individual performing to your expectations? Is there work to be done for which you do not have the proper talent?

In order for your firm to survive and to keep paying a workforce, you may need to take the painful steps of letting go redundant or poor performing people, while hiring talented folks who will help you grow and prosper.

Passion

Well, I’ve just returned, exhausted, from the last day of the COSE (Council for Smaller Enterprizes) Small Business Conference. I was proud to be the honorary chairman of this, the third annual, successful conference which brought together over 1200 small business owners.

The outstanding keynote speakers were Michael Symon (The Iron Chef), John Moore the marketing mastermind behind Starbucks and Whole Foods, and Debbie Fields of Mrs. Fields Cookies.

Aside from the common theme of food, the permeating message in all three addresses was passion. Passion is the entrepreneur’s capital. Passion for the business/product/service/customers/employees is the entrepreneur’s driving force. Passion makes anything possible. All three speakers said, in their own way, that a business started with the primary goal of making money is set up for failure. A business founded on passion and determination is set up for success.

How passionate are you?

Will Limkemann
Limkemann Business Advisors
440-871-0976
www.neobizadvisor.com

Employees

I have just come back from the first day of the COSE (Council for Smaller Enterprises) third annual small business conference, which I had the privilege of chairing this year. Over 1200 people have registered. the second and final day is Thursday.

This was a great day with keynote addresses by Michael Symon (the Iron Chef), and John Moore, the marketing guru behind Starbucks and the Whole Foods Market.

Both Micael and John stressed the importance of employees to an organization. Michael said that “Employees are the best reflection of your business there is”. Train employees and treat them they way you would want to be treated. John Moore echoed this by saying “Make employees happy and you will make customers happy”.

Well, they said a lot more than that! But I found these tidbits about employees refreshing.

Thursday will be kicked off by a keynote talk by Debbie Fields (of Mrs. Fields Cookies).

Annual Performance Reviews

I have always dreaded the annual performance review – as a boss and an employee. As an employee I always wondered what shoe was going to drop that might preclude the raise that I was expecting. As a boss I always felt that that no matter how well an employee performed, the review needed to show areas where improvement was needed. Consequently, as do many small business people, annual reviews were not at all annual – often not happening at all.

I know I am not alone. Yet the corporate ritual persists!

So I was delighted to see the refreshing article in today’s Wall Street Journal by Samuel A. Culbert titled Get Rid of the Performance Review.

After discussing all of the reasons why the performance review does not work, Mr. Culbert suggests an alternative. His advice is to replace the boss-administered performance review with a collaborative performance preview. The preview would enable boss and employee to mutually discuss both their performances and negotiate ways for both to improve. For example, where an employee who might be deficient in some aspect of the job performance, the employee and boss would agree upon a plan where the boss would provide additional mentoring and support.

Mr. Culbert says, “Holding performance previews eliminates the need for the boss to spout self-serving interpretations about what already has taken place and can’t be fixed. Previews are problem-solving, not problem-creating, discussions about how we, as teammates, are going to work together even more effectively and efficiently than we’ve done in the past. They feature descriptive conversations about how each person is inclined to operate, using past events for illustrative purposes, and how we worked or did not work well inidvidually and together.” Rather than being annual, the performance preview would be held whenever the need might arise.

A preview would require a change in attitude by the boss. Rather than being one to mandate, the boss would need to learn to to inquire and to listen! It requires discussion about how boss and employee can work best together as a team. This does not remove authority; it removes intimidation. But the potential for improved productivity is immense.

Mr. Culbert concludes: “Keep in mind, of course, that improvement is each individual’s own responsibility. You can only make yourself better. The best you can do for others is to develop a trusting relationship where they can ask for feedback and help when they see the need and feel sufficiently valued to take it. Getting rid of the performance review is a necessary, and affirming, step in the direction”.

How innovative.

Will Limkemann
Limkemann Business Advisors
440-871-0976

People – a Company’s Greatest Asset

My friend Roxanne Kaufman included me on a recipient list for a wonderful article she authored on the high value of people to any organization. She has kindly allowed me to use the article in today’s post. Roxanne is, among other things, a success coach. Her company is Prolaureate. For more information see www.prolaureate.com. Thank you Roxanne.’

Henry Ford said “You can take my factories, burn my buildings, but give me my people and I will build the business right back again.”

Henry Ford’s belief in the vital importance of people in the orvall success or an organization is more significant today than ever before.

These are turbulent and challenging times – and a perfect opportunity to re-establish and re-define your corporation’s wealth base, not just in your financial and physical assets, but in your only source for long-term stability and competitiveness.. your people.

Successful leaders know…

People are a company’s greatest asset.

People create a company’s greatest competitive advantage.

People bring economic value to every company.

The knowledge, resourcefulness, and creativity of the people within an organization translate directly into earnings and profitability. The investment of a corporation needs to be as much in people as in its financial portfolio, bricks, and mortar.

Now is the time to step forward and focus on developing your most important asset and your greatest source of ROI; and sharpen your competitive edge.

Are you investing in, communicating with, developing, and growing your people and your leadership for sustainable success?

Are you building upon and strengthening the foundation and strategy of your business for ongoing competitiveness?

Are you aligning the strengths of your people to your vision, core values, and principles to create a solid, collaborative, and results-oriented culture?

Henry got it. So should you.

Will Limkemann
Limkemann Business Advisors
440-871-0976
www.neobizadvisor.com