What are we going to do with Ed?

Every business has one ‘problem’ or non-performing employee and if you don’t, I would suspect that you are probably not being completely honest with yourself. It is a competitive world and if you are going to succeed, you not only need to ‘win the war for talent’, you need to retain it. If an individual is consistently not performing you need to move them on - they are in the wrong place if they are in your business!

We are regularly called in to help with a managed termination when everyone has had enough and the relationship is damaged beyond repair, but it doesn’t have to be this way. I often find that when I ask how long Ed has been under-performing, I hear ‘oh, about ten years’. These individuals are not only damaging to productivity but there is a detrimental impact on other employees when they see that nothing is being done about it. If you address non-performance issues early on you are, in 60 - 70% of the time, able to improve the situation.

Here are five ways you can ensure that you keep the best people and move on the employees that are not working out:
 

1.     Have current job descriptions – this allows there to be a clear understanding of what is required of employees for them to be successful

 

2.     Measure performance – annually or every six months whichever works for your business

3.     Have a conversation, even the difficult ones – when performance has dropped, act quickly and speak to the employee, telling them what you are seeing and asking them 'is there a reason for this change in performance?'

4.     Document the issue – there can never be too much documentation when non-performance is the issue

5.     Act – don’t be afraid - most business owners feel that they cannot legally manage out individuals but you can, you just need to follow a process

Your business is too precious to have the wrong people working in it. To be honest, in big businesses poor performing individuals can hide to a certain extent, it is diluted but in a small business this impact can be disastrous.  Don’t let it happen to you.

Natasha Hawker owns Employee Matters Pty Ltd; an HR Consultancy that assists small to medium businesses with their HR functions to make them more efficient and profitable. Their offering includes HR Management, Recruitment, Training, Coaching, and Exit Management – find them at www.employeematters.com.au

My Driver

I wanted to write this morning about my driver; my bus driver to be precise, who does one of the most stressful and undervalued jobs in the world! This bus driver has compelled me to ring his employer on at least two occasions to comment on his excellent customer service - then he disappeared and I was shocked and saddened. He was back today! So what made him so special?

1.  Exceptional customer service: He personally welcomed every single passenger with a cheery "good morning sir, madam, miss or mate" and seemed to tailor the address to whether the man might prefer or warrant a "sir" or "mate". After a busy day what a refreshing entry onto the bus

2. Thanked you for your patronage: when you got off the bus you were bid farewell. Acknowledgement in this day and age - how quaint! With most drivers you would be lucky to receive a grunt

3. Skill - he drove carefully and smoothly and seemed to enjoy a job that would drive me nuts (no pun intended). I knew I would get home safe and that he took my safety seriously

4. Memorable: I shared this story with my husband this morning and he knew exactly who I meant even though he had not caught a bus for three years. He even asked me to mention to my bus driver that he too was pleased he was back

5. Goodwill: if he did make a mistake, he has a massive goodwill bank to draw on

So yesterday, when I got on the bus after his absence of six months or more, before I knew it I had blurted out - "welcome back - where have you been?" And on leaving - "it is so good to have you back" - he looked shocked. I hope he doesn't think I am stalking him!

Seriously, I have no alternative way to commute to the city, but it brightens my day and encourages me to talk favourably about my bus driver and his company. There is a saying 'look after your customer and your customer will look after you' - I am a great believer in this because it really matters. How well do you and your team look after your customers?

Natasha Hawker owns Employee Matters Pty Ltd; an HR Consultancy that assists small to medium businesses with their HR functions to make them more efficient and profitable. Their offering includes HR Management, Recruitment, Training, Coaching, and Exit Management – find them at www.employeematters.com.au

'Tis the season to be working?

Hang on I think I have that wrong - isn't it meant to be the season to be jolly or to rest? One of the challenges of working for yourself is that your boss can be a real *****!

So why do we do it to ourselves? One of the challenges is the level of uncertainty - where is the next dollar coming from?  No one knows the business as well or cares about it as you do. You can save money if you do it yourself.  But what are the risks with this approach? Well believe it or not we are not experts in everything and often take longer or have a more emotional view when making tough decisions.

It is critical that you work out your strengths and maximise your time in these areas of your business and seek assistance in all other areas. That does not mean that you ignore these areas; you should have oversight of them and still make critical decisions that impact your decision. That said, it is much quicker to brief, review and approve than to research, draft, learn, redraft, get pulled into something else for a couple of days,  implement and  measure and still not being quite sure whether you fully understand the nuances of the subject matter!

I challenge you to write down everything that you do at the moment over a week, yes everything and allocate a time to it. Once you have completed this, leave it be for a day or two and then come back to it; you will have discovered even more tasks that you had forgotten. How do you ever sleep, eat or play?! The next step is to group similar tasks into categories such as social media, finance, technology build or business development.

Now what can you outsource to free you up to focus on either your areas of strength or the critical areas of your business which you should not outsource? Please let me know you what you decide so that you can focus on what really matters - your business!

Natasha Hawker owns Employee Matters Pty Ltd; an HR Consultancy that assists small to medium businesses with their HR functions to make them more efficient and profitable. Their offering includes HR Management, Recruitment, Training, Coaching, and Exit Management – find them at www.employeematters.com.au

2013 bring it on!

So, as we have just recently said goodbye to 2012 and welcomed in 2013, I thought it was a good opportunity to reflect over the summer holiday on our first year and what we wanted from our second year of operation.

I suspect that many businesses do not take the time to reflect; they are so focused on the ‘doing’ that they miss the opportunity to change, redirect and enhance their businesses - thereby potentially missing opportunities to maximise productivity and profitability. Businesses are constantly evolving as a result of the economic environment, legal changes & the employee mix, to name just a few and I feel that those that lack the ability to evolve, to adapt and to change quickly, will struggle and many will fail. Some businesses may also develop a certain level of false comfort - think Kodak, Arthur Anderson and Goldman Sachs and this reticence can be lethal.

We started the New Year with a review of our business plan, originally finalised in Dec 2010. It was a fascinating and sometimes funny experience to review our original forecasts and assumptions. For example, we were 49% off our revenue forecast largely due to the delay in launching our website, although we have still been profitable just on a smaller scale. Let’s face it entrepreneurs are optimists by nature - otherwise we would never attempt a start up.

We reviewed and changed our Vision which was too long - so much so, that even I could not remember it. Imagine, if I can’t remember it, how can our team or our clients possibly do so? It was reaffirming to see that we had achieved a lot of our original goals but we needed to adjust our prices and focus on getting costs down.

We then set about developing our Business Plan for 2013; this was much easier with a year of experience under our belt. It was great for Mark and I to, in a sense, 'get on the same page’ - which assists with the day-to-day operations of the business when you are busy. So what are our three main goals in 2013?

1.       Systemisation

2.      Consolidation

3.      Growth

This will help us, in the flurry of activity, to stay focused on the bigger goals for Employee Matters this year. We wish you and your business every success in 2013! 
 

Natasha Hawker owns Employee Matters Pty Ltd; an HR Consultancy that assists small to medium businesses with their HR functions to make them more efficient and profitable. Their offering includes HR Management, Recruitment, Training, Coaching, and Exit Management – find them at www.employeematters.com.au