Images_Digital_Edition_August_2019

www.images-magazine.com AUGUST 2019 images 69 KB BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT world – the one about how difficult it is to hire the right people. I had such a conversation over dinner at a trade show with the owner of an engineering firm who enjoyed a fiercely loyal and long-serving group of employees. He explained that his secret was a consultant with many years of experience using sophisticated employee-assessment tools to help companies acquire and deploy talent. Let’s call him Dr Gordon. He said that for a number of years Dr Gordon had been assisting with his business’s hiring process and that the result was a spectacular drop in employee turnover. We arranged a telephone introduction and from that moment, our hiring results improved dramatically. In addition to matching the character traits of prospective hires to the job description, Dr Gordon helped me select employees best suited to the personalities of the principals and other employees – an important consideration in a small business. I’ve often wondered how many bad and costly hiring decisions are made daily in the small business community – decisions that a consulting fee of a few hundred pounds could remedy. Employees do the strangest things For the most part, I believe that small business employees take their jobs seriously. Most mean well. However, they are human. And regardless of how well you hire, create as close to an ideal work environment as possible and manage your employees according to the best advice available, things will go off the rails from time to time. There can be any number of reasons for out-of-character behaviour, but lapses in judgement seem to have been at the root of most of the strange things a few of my employees did and said. When you experience moments like these with your employees (notice when, not if), you’ll find yourself wondering if this is normal. Don’t sweat it – it’s normal and all part and parcel of being a small-business owner. These things are bound to happen – what matters is how they’re handled. I can only suggest patience, tact and good judgement. Familiarity breeds contempt The relaxed atmosphere characteristic of most small businesses should not be construed as an invitation to anything other than a cordial but professional employer-employee relationship based on mutual respect. It’s a business relationship that amounts to nothing more than money changing hands for time and expertise rendered – to view it any other way is to court trouble. If that sounds a bit cold, consider for a moment how awkward routine employee-management activities such as performance reviews, salary negotiations, promotions, demotions and terminations might be if the employer has a personal relationship with the employee. The employees’ private lives are none of the employer’s business. Conversations not related to work should be polite, brief and superficial. Intimate topics such as relationships, finances and relatives have no place in the employer-employee relationship. Sentiment should not enter into the equation. And I shouldn’t need to mention this: sleeping with employees is bad business practice. It’s a sure way to discover the wisdom in the old adage about familiarity breeding contempt – a slow-acting but deadly poison in a business relationship. It’s just business In the small business community we are sometimes inclined to think of our friendly employer-employee relationships as sustainable, but don’t be disappointed if you never again hear from a former employee. It might happen occasionally, but it’s not common. A departing employee’s “I’ll stay in touch” means about as much as a shop assistant’s mechanical “Have a nice day”. A small business employer– employee relationship might be intellectually stimulating, intriguing, pleasant, personable and productive – but, in the end, it’s still just a business arrangement.. of bed and go to work for fear of verbal abuse, embarrassment in the presence of colleagues, sexual harassment, shoddy or dirty surroundings, or any number of other bad situations found in some workplaces. Alarmingly, it seems to escape some small business owners’ understanding that it’s not just about basic human decency – an abused, unhappy workforce is also unproductive. The budget is not an excuse Small businesses are quite often constrained in what they can do for their employees, particularly in the early days when budgets tend to be tight. However, the budget is no excuse for below-par working conditions. Tidiness and cleanliness, primarily, require commitment and effort, not a big budget. Create a happy environment for employees – it’s not only the decent thing to do, but it also contributes to higher productivity. Small business owners should also be mindful of the fact that if employees are expected to do a good job, they must be given the tools with which to do it. This might sound obvious, but I’ve heard many small business employees complain about old computers, outdated software and broken or poorly maintained equipment. What their bosses might not realise is that what they think they’re saving by being thrifty, they might be more than losing in poor productivity. Non-monetary and low-cost benefits Certain non-monetary and low- cost benefits can mean a lot to a small business employee and make the difference between just another place to work and a great place to work. We used a number of them. For instance, birthdays were a paid day-off in my business, and not only did the employees appreciate it, but they also told me how impressed their friends were, which of course made them feel good about where they worked. These gestures garner so much goodwill for such a low cost that I can’t understand why more small businesses don’t offer them. I accommodated preferred vacation dates even though most of them were in the summer months during our busiest season. Upsetting an employee’s entire family by messing with their vacation plans will do nothing for morale in the long term. Expert hiring assistance It’s a conversation conducted between small business owners probably thousands of times daily all over the Characters Who Can Make Or Break Your Small Business is a new book from accountant and print industry veteran Michael Best that identifies the issues faced by small business owners and offers advice backed up by real life examples. It is available from www.smallbusinesscharacters.com an d Amazon .