Employment | Social Business

Can you Afford the Best?

A lot of businesses think they can’t afford to hire the best possible employees out there. Unfortunately, far too often the very idea that they can’t afford something is what keeps them at a lower level than their business could be at. When a business maintains a mindset of scarcity, it keeps them from exploring their full potential.

Simply put, you can always afford the very best. The question to consider generally comes out best as how can you afford to hire the best. When you think about it, how can you not hire the best people possible when you have something that needs to be done? After all, the best workers in any discipline won’t end up costing you money but making it for you. While a lot of small business owners only see the costs involved in taking on additional employees, hiring great people means you hire those who will help your business to grow stronger.

Affording the best people means that in your mind you have already made an amount of money that will allow you to pay for the salaries and benefits of every new person you intend to hire on. When you focus on being wealthier instead of poorer, you not only can hire these people but must hire them. After all, hiring mediocre employees will only make your business turn into one more boring, okay company instead of the money making machine you’ve always dreamt of having. Now how can you afford the best?

Filed Under: Advertising, Finance Tagged With: Business, Employment, Small business

To Hire or Not To Hire In A Slow Economy

In uncertain economic times, business owners may put a freeze on hiring new employees in order to reduce expenses. In the worst-case scenario, they may feel pressure to downsize. While it may help balance the books, it may not always be the best thing for the health of the business.

Reducing the size of the workforce means that fewer employees are left to perform the work. As positions and responsibilities are consolidated, the remaining employees may become overburdened, stressed, and generally resentful of the added workload. This resentment is magnified if the extra work is not accompanied by additional pay.

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When employees are unhappy and feel that they are taken advantage of or exploited, they typically begin searching for new jobs. Replacing these employees can be costly, especially if they have many years of experience and long-term relationships with customers.

Hiring during a slow economy may actually be the optimal time. When unemployment is high, there are more people looking for work. They may also be willing to work for a lower wage than they normally would in order to avoid unemployment. This can result in the opportunity to add to the staff at a significant cost savings.

Remember that slow economic times never last. When the economy improves, employees will feel more confident and search for new jobs. Employees that are happy and feel appreciated will stick with an employer who treated them well during the difficult times. It is to an employer’s advantage to retain valuable employees, and to hire new ones in order to keep the workload balanced and to keep good employees from burning out.

Filed Under: Business, Employment Tagged With: Business, Employment, United States

Traits of an Effective Business Leader

This is a photo of Chris Crawford, Management ...

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You likely started a business to pursue a personal passion. That is the true beauty of entrepreneurship; you come up with your own ideas and bring them to life. However, all entrepreneurs are not natural-born leaders. Along with other necessary business traits, such as sound accounting skills, the life of your business depends on effective leadership skills. Every team needs a leader to help keep them driven and focused. If you cannot lead your workforce, then your employees will not be as effective. As a result, your sales will not be as profitable.

One of the most important things to relay to your team is enthusiasm. If you are not an enthusiastic leader, then how can you expect your team to exhibit enthusiasm? Your attitude will always affect the way your business turns out. Customers want to deal with businesses that are confident and warm, not ones that are unenthusiastic and unsure of why they are there. Keep the workplace fun but still professional. Everyone should understand their purpose in your business.

Communication is an essential trait of an effective leader. Constantly keep in touch with your employees. Talk to them on a daily basis, especially if you are there at the place of business. If you operate multiple businesses, then keep in touch on a weekly basis at the bare minimum.

Recognize success just as much as down-falls. As a leader keeping tabs on a business as well as the people who make it happen, it is easy to get caught up in the mistakes. If you are constantly pointing out others’ mistakes, you will come across as nagging and pessimistic. This decreases morale in your team. For these reasons, it is vital that you point out the great work that your employees do. Not only will this make them feel valued, but you are helping to set an example so that other employees can follow suit.

Filed Under: Business, Employment Tagged With: Business, Employment, Leadership

How Managers Directly Affect Employment Morale and Business Production

As a business owner, it takes a lot of trust to let someone else run your business. But this is inevitable, especially as your business continuously grows. Adding managers to your team also helps give you the personal time you need away from your business so that you can return refreshed each day you are at the office.

Finding appropriate managers can be a big task. This is especially the case if you are hiring from outside of the company. Every business owner looks for similar traits in their managers: passion, trustworthiness, a good work ethic, enthusiasm, leadership, and experience. Once you have found the perfect manager, you cannot just leave it at that and be on your way. No one is perfect, and even managers can sometimes fall off the bandwagon.

Every team needs a leader, and you cannot always be around. The leadership role is then the responsibility of your management team. A leader always sets the tone of the business. If a manager is having an “off” day, then your employees may also be down. Everyone has their bad days, and this type of scenario has a quick turn-around. However, the danger is that customers do not get into the buying spirit if they are in a depressing place of business.

In more serious situations, managers might become disgruntled. They often share their misery with other employees, causing backlash against the company. This is potentially dangerous, since again, their attitudes directly affect the customers.

Avoid negative impacts on your business by keeping in constant communication with your managers. Touch base one-on-one at least once a week. Also reward your managers for hard work and great accomplishments. This will keep up the morale and decrease the chances of discontent with the job. Finally, if another employee raises concerns about a particular manager, listen closely and do your own investigations. Talk to your manager and see what can be done to improve the situation. If your manager does not wish to improve, then it is time that you both parted ways professionally.

Filed Under: Business, Employment Tagged With: Business, Employment, Management

When Sharing Information with Your Employees Gets Too Personal

As a business owner and manager, it is important that you inject an atmosphere of friendliness and teamwork within your business. It is normal to chat with employees and to get to know one another. There is a long-held belief that personal matters should stay out of the workplace. This holds true for employer-employee relationships. There are reasons to justify this stance:

You might make your employees feel uncomfortable. A story to share with your closest friends may not sit well with an employee, particularly if you don’t know him on the same level as your friends.
Your employee might spread gossip. When talking about your personal life, it is easy to let things slip. Although a piece of information might seem harmless to you, it can turn into something big. For example, think of what could blow out of proportion if you tell an employee that you drank too much that weekend. Unfortunately, it is a part of human nature to talk and to share news about each other.
Your stories might be offensive. Your business is likely dynamic and diverse. You should keep your small talk G-rated in order to avoid any type of backlash.
A disgruntled employee might turn other employees against you.

So what can you do to maintain the friendliness in your place of business without crossing the line? First and foremost, your focus should be work. It is okay to get to know your employees and talk, but do not take it too far. At the same time, if you notice an employee being too gossipy, seek her out and talk to her about it. It is best to address any type of job dissatisfaction directly with the employee before it gets out of control and affects the atmosphere of the whole business.

Filed Under: Business, Employment Tagged With: Business, Employee Relations, Employment

Company Production: How to Determine When to Hire More Employees

As the economy is slowly on the rebound, you may have found that production has increased in your business, whether in the form of services or goods. You may have even found that your business is so busy that you do not have enough employees to accommodate customers. This can be anywhere from an increase in clients, patients, and retail shoppers. It may be time to hire more employees. At the same time, this will cost you more money. There are some things to consider before expanding your team:

Can the business really afford another team member? Although you may want more employees, it is time to be realistic. Is the increased amount of people at your place of business actually purchasing what you have to sell?
Consider the amount of people you want to hire and plug in the numbers. Calculate potential salaries, 401k sharing, paid time off, and benefits.
Is the influx in business seasonal? Does customer volume increase during the summer or winter? If this is the case, you might consider hiring seasonal or temporary employees to help cover the workload. Keep in mind that you should tell potential employees this before they are hired.

Finally, it is important to figure out what having more employees means in terms of your bottom line. Some business owners are concerned about quick profits to turn their business around. If this is the case, you might need to stick it out with the employees you do have until you make enough money to get out of the hole and have enough profits to expand your personnel.

If you do have the money and do not want to spend it on hiring other people, consider this: will not having enough employees impact customer satisfaction? If the answer is yes, then you will potentially lose customers for future business. The point of a business is to profit, but you cannot accomplish this without happy customers.

Filed Under: Business, Employment Tagged With: Business, Customer, Employment