Take Care of Employees, and They'll Take Care of You...

You wouldn't expect a vegetable garden to thrive without proper care, or your car to work reliably without oil and proper maintenance right? Or would you? I am one to challenge the latter when it comes to automobiles. I drove "Ol' Blue" (2003 Ford Focus) straight into an early retirement, but not before testing every boundary and limitation I could think of while on the road visiting with small businesses all over the country. I can share with you the good, the bad, and the ugly, with everything that happened to that car. I think there were stints where I drove the champion of small cars for 10-12,000 miles and never serviced it for an oil change. Sure she sounded like a broken lawnmower after 13 years, but she got me from Point A to Point B without any issues.

In saying all this, I think I would be still driving old faithful had I not deferred on ordinary maintenance and a few tire changes. Just like when owning a business, why should we assume that we will get the best out of our employees simply by providing a paycheck?

Employees are like any other investment you make in your small business. You break even when you pay a fair day's wage for a fair day's work. But when employees are encouraged and inspired to give more than 100 percent every day, you'll receive a far greater return on those wages. Best of all, many tactics for motivating employees are easy to implement.

I have to share some of these ideas because in the recent visits I have had with small businesses, big or small, I have witnessed a common theme among treatment of employees in a variety of different settings. The common theme: small businesses playing the "closed door" musical meeting game. Why are having closed door meetings with leadership such an issue? For employees of your company, it creates suspicion, fear, questions, gossip, and the biggest thing for you, the small business owner, loss of work while paying the wages.

What am I talking about? Let's review the ideas below and see if you can fuse some of these simple things in to the way you manage your employees and your business overall.

The first one to tackle is all about communication. Meet with your employees on a regular basis to review upcoming priorities, recent successes and issues, and other related topics. It doesn't matter the size of your business. If you have just one or two employees, treat them like you were a large corporation. Talk to them. Ask for their opinions and ideas, and encourage discussions that can be continued informally, via group emails, or at the next meeting. Make sure each opinion is valued, and seek to correct misinformation and false assumptions. Eliminate the chance for wasted effort to be expensive through gossip or water cooler discussion. Lay it all out there.

Taking it a step further with communication, evaluate how you could implement some of this with your CUSTOMER base as well. I'll provide you with a rather large example, but, even if it seems large on a scale, you could implement this with your small business in your small town. Try doing what Warren Buffett does with his shareholders annually and write a state of the union letter to let people know how the business is doing and write a forecast for the future. I did this with one of my early businesses and the reception was so well received that the next day I was interviewed by the local paper. Just a thought.....

The second thing to implement would be the simple token of notice. Get to know your employees. Complement formal meetings with informal chats about non-business issues. Don't pry, but strive to learn about their personal lives. Celebrating birthdays is a small business staple, but also look for other milestones to recognize such as a child's wedding, an employee graduation from college, anything that is worthy of accomplishment that brings unity among his/her peers. Also be ready to offer sympathy to employees facing difficulties such as family illness, or in some cases, death.

I can offer up an example on death. In one of my previous experiences as a small business owner, I had an employee who lost a child at birth. It was complete shock, and sadness experienced by all of us. We were a close knit group of 30. What we did as a group was all chip in some funds collectively to help my employee allow time for grieving and healing with her husband. She came back to work with open arms and such a sincere level of appreciation for what the simple gesture was as she coped with a loss, that she became one of the most loyal employees I ended up ever having. What can you do to bring in more loyalty from your team right now? What kinds of things are your employees experiencing right now that you can help with? The simple things matter, trust me.

Third thing is to "Empower Them." Look for smaller tasks and projects that can be delegated to one or more employees. This will help build their skills, and give you extra time to focus on your business's "big picture" issues. They may also find ways to do these kinds of tasks more efficiently, saving time and money in the process. This should be an obvious one, but it's not. Often times in small business, it is the owner that decides by default to take on every tasks imaginable, when in fact, they should delegate and see how those employees handle the work. Give them stuff to do.

A great example I can share with tremendous success was having one of my employees be in charge of "competition review." Every day, I would give them 30 minutes to study what our competition was doing, make notes, gather information and at the end of every month, would provide me a report. The employee loved it and I benefited from the information greatly.

Moving forward...

How about this next one, item number four, respect? Yes, actually respect your employees. Would you want to be criticized for a mistake in front of your co-workers? Nobody does. What's more, criticism may do nothing to solve the problem. Instead, take the employee aside and try to find out why the mistake occurred. It may be a misunderstanding in the process, or the employee was distracted by a personal issue. Work together to find a solution, and then monitor subsequent performance. If the mistakes keep occurring, more serious action may be needed.

Let me also expand on the whole "respect" component a bit further. I have worked with, or for, some of the most disrespectful small business owners on the planet. Often times if the employees are having a difficult time with a task, it is because the manager has not adequately trained, assisted, or taught them the right method of execution. There is a huge difference between these two statements that I so often have heard over the past year: "I want you to set up a protocol list for production of our products that will enhance our profitability during your down time in making our "widgets" VERSUS "Alison, I want you to set up a protocol list for production of our products that will enhance our profitability, and do this during your down time when making our "widgets," but before you start Alison, let me show you what I mean by example, and if you have any questions, ask me freely." Often times, it is the managers who are lacking the respect for their employees and that can be much more costly to a small business more than anything.

Then there is the last one which is often ignored by many, yet so very important. Challenge them. Get employees thinking or giving extra effort by offering appropriate rewards. It doesn't have to be cash; the lure of an extra day off is all many people need to achieve certain goals or "go above and beyond." Also celebrate company milestones with a party, company outing, or other event. These tiny victories lead to a win in a war for a small business, and you should celebrate them.

Now get back to work building your small business.

Get Focused. Get Busy. Sprout and Grow.

P. Simon Mahler, a recent recipient of the Nation Builder Award from SCORE for startups launched and jobs created, and nominated as both an 'Expert' and 'Leader' in North America for small business development, currently runs a virtual incubator committed to building stronger communities in rural America.

Simon, a frequent traveler to the next small town, is always available to take calls for action and is willing to work with any small business, or small town out there, across the globe. Follow him on the journey of his next endeavor, by starting a business of your own. His virtual incubator program has transformed ideas into sustainable small businesses and yours could be next. His daily blog of activities will be posted on LinkedIn for you to enjoy. Find him on social media and connect to get some great ideas to get your business growing!

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