Football season is wrapping up with bowl games and playoffs—both college and pro. The business year, on the other hand, is just beginning for most of you. A commonality in both ventures is that it’s critical to work hard for the full four quarters. As my home team, the Pittsburgh Steelers, used to say: be 60-minute men.
According to Gallup, only 33% of employees are engaged at work. Based on OC Tanner research, 79% of employees who quit their jobs claim that a lack of appreciation was a major reason for leaving.
In last month’s article, I wrote about taking a longer view with hiring given the current challenges to find people with the right skills and the desire to work in, or make a career of, the restoration industry. Let’s shift the focus back to the present and the challenges of finding good people to staff your growing business.
Many of the articles you read provide insight regarding immediate actions to take or strategies to implement that will impact your business in the short term. This article is also about acting now, but for an impact on your business, and the restoration industry, that will be seen in the future.
Too many business leaders have been misled by the “accounting mentality” and think paying their people too much (whatever that means) results in uncompetitively high costs. Seriously?
In previous articles, I have written about the need for increased focus in your business: focus on the few market segments that will generate the majority of your revenue growth; focus on the needs of your core customer groups, not just your internal processes and service offerings; and focus on establishing your brand, what your company stands for, and the image it creates in the minds of those customers who will be the foundation for your sustained growth.
At this time of year, along with developing your business plan for the coming year, you should be reviewing your company’s Mission (or Core Purpose) statement, Vision statement, and list of Core Values.
It’s not unusual for managers to get the order of things wrong when dealing with employee performance issues. In their haste to create a sense of urgency, many will go directly to a verbal or written warning when expectations are not being met.
One of the topics we present to entrepreneurs through Violand Management Associates highlights five steps of management that small businesses owners experience as they grow. Based on the work of business guru Ram Charan, the presentation explains how the role of a business owner changes significantly as their company grows.
When employees don’t perform as expected, it’s usually for one of two reasons: they don’t know how to do the task correctly or they aren’t motivated to do it.
