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Tips for getting the most out of your staff

“A company’s most valuable resource is its people”.  Yes, it has become a bit of a cliché in the past decade but that doesn’t mean it’s not true for many businesses.  So at this time of year, when for most businesses their valuable resources walks out the door for their summer holidays, it’s a good time to be thinking about ways to get the most out of your workforce on its return.  

Incite's top 9 tips include:

1. Communicate Plans & Objectives.  SME owners and managers often carry their business plan around in their heads.  Make sure you communicate to staff what the goals and objectives of the business are, both short term and for the year ahead.  These objectives shouldn’t be purely financial and should be expressed in a way that your staff understand how their role contributes to the achievement of those goals.

2. Define Roles & Expectations.  The next step to communicating business objectives is to define individuals’ roles and expectations.  This helps staff to set priorities and allocate resources and allows them to measure their own performance.  As with all goal setting try using the SMART framework (goals should be Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Timely).

3. Be Consistent.  The business environment is a dynamic, ever changing place and businesses need to be responsive to customer demands.  Despite this, you need to send consistent messages to staff.  This will help them focus on their own responsibilities and build positive work habits.  As a leader, it is your role to establish and reinforce a positive corporate culture.

4. Face to Face Meetings.  Email, telephone calls, and text messaging all have their place in business communication but nothing beats communicating to your staff face to face - ideally on a one to one basis.  In addition to annual performance reviews, staff should have a face to face meeting with their manager on a regular basis (try monthly) to receive and provide feedback on work issues, staff performance, business goals and any relevant personal matters.

5. Career Management & Training.  Retaining talented staff is a major challenge for Australian businesses.  Aside from remuneration, career path and personal development opportunities are cited as the most common reasons businesses lose talented staff.  You need to actively manage valuable staff to ensure that they have an articulated development plan that provides new skills and challenges.

6. Knowledge Transfer.  No staff member lasts forever so you must be constantly aware of the need to train and mentor new staff members.  This can also reduce risks associated with being too reliant on key staff and having valuable knowledge or processes walking out the door each evening rather than being documented, developed and improved.

7. Physical Activity.  Research has shown that physical inactivity can impact on employee productivity, which imposes direct economic costs on employers (estimated at 1.8 working days per worker per year for an average Australian).  Work practices and management should encourage staff to take regular breaks throughout the day, not to work excessive hours and to take annual leave regularly throughout the year.

8. Work/Life Balance.  As an extension of the need for physical activity, staff productivity may also benefit from an employer making a positive effort to assist staff to achieve a balance between work and their personal lives.  Initiatives to consider include monitoring and discouraging excessive working hours, providing access to technology that allows staff to work from home, allowing flexibility around office hours and providing family-oriented performance rewards.  Initiatives such as these are valued by employees  and can improve staff morale and productivity.

9. Engagement. Your staff know that these are uncertain times and that as a business owner you may need to ‘tighten your belt’ including perhaps scaling down the Christmas party! Why not engage your staff in the process of reviewing your systems and processes for productivity savings. Why not ask for their ideas on how to add more value to your customer relationships? Your staff often have the clearest view of how well you are ‘servicing’ your customers and can often identify ‘no cost’ improvements. Offer incentives for their ideas –movie tickets or a weekend away and if their ideas save money offer them a percentage of the first year’s savings…        

In the challenging times ahead your customers and prospects will notice your business if you operate differently from your competition.  Following these 9 steps to motivate and keep staff morale as high as possible will go a long way to ensure your business stands out from the crowd!

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