2009

Three Critical Reasons Why Your Small Business Needs Workplace Policies

If you are like many small business owners and supervisors, you likely have not developed any written policies or standards that highlight your expectations for employee behavior or performance in the workplace. You also may subscribe to the school of thought that you don’t need any “official” standards or policies because you have a small business or because you are managing a small group of employees who are professional, productive, and problem-free. You may even feel that to have policies and procedures in place will negatively affect the sense of community that you have developed in the workplace.

Every business should have specific policies in place that clearly outlines your expectations of your staff in terms of their overall work performance. This includes your position on arriving late for work, attendance, time off, inappropriate behavior, and other workplace standards. This is a best management practice no matter how small the business.

There are numerous problems that can occur when you do not set clearly written and communicated workplace standards for your employees. Many of these problems may be brewing under the surface and not readily apparent to you. Some common workplace issues:

Accusations of unfair or preferential treatment: It’s natural when supervising staff that you make decisions on a case by case basis depending on the circumstance. One very common workplace scenario that is likely to be perceived as unfair treatment is when you allow some employees to arrive to work later than your standard business hours, but require others to arrive on time. Although you may have given a specific employee permission to arrive late because the employee will be working later in the evening to complete a special project, your employees who arrive on time, aren’t aware that there is a specific reason that one employee has been allowed some scheduling flexibility. This can cause feelings of resentment and the perception of preferential treatment.

Taking this scenario one step further, what if you have an employee who is chronically late for work with no reasonable excuse as to why? It’s natural to reprimand the employee for being late for work under the circumstances and require that the employee arrive to work on time. When the reprimanded employee sees that there is someone else in the company who is consistently allowed to arrive to work late, you risk accusations of unfair treatment in the workplace since there are no standards in place that highlight that there may be specific exceptions to be made in terms of arriving late for work.

Poor Morale: If it appears that some of your workers are allowed to “get away” with anything in the workplace without any apparent consequences, your best workers may wonder why they should continue to work as hard. This often leads to reduced productivity and initiative. You risk losing your best employees who often become frustrated when steps aren’t taken to address poor performance or inappropriate behavior in the workplace.

Potential Loss of Revenue: It goes without saying that when you have employees who are not working up to their full potential, or who are not engaged in the work that they do, it affects the level of productivity and work quality, which in turn affects potential revenue. Dissatisfied employees are often “short” with customers, or don’t follow through on requests because they no longer feel connected to the company and its mission.

Workplace policies do not have to be long and complicated documents that no one can understand. Your standards can be easily summarized starting with the title and a brief paragraph which highlights your expectations. The policies or standards should then be communicated to your current employees and all newly hired staff via your website, email or in the form of a written document. Make sure that employees are reminded of these policies by distributing the policies once a year to staff.

Dianne Shaddock is the Founder of Easy Small Business HR, Employee Hiring and Managing Tips. Through the Employee Hiring and Managing Tips podcast, blog, and weekly ‘quick tips’ e-newsletters, Dianne offers expert advice on how to make better hiring decisions, manage difficult employees, develop employee policies, motivate staff, and so much more. No stuffy, corporate HR policy lingo; but straight forward, easy to understand and implement advice for businesses just like yours. Stay ahead of the curve and go to Easy Small Business HR for more tips on how to hire and manage your staff effectively.

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Want To Hire The Best? Pick Up The Phone!

Transcript of ESBHR Podcast #2: Want To Hire The Best? Pick Up The Phone!

Listen to the audio

Hiring the best employee starts with being proactive on the front end of the

pre-hire process. Consider screening candidates by phone first. Face to face

interviews should be reserved for only those candidates whose work experience

and skills compliment the job that you are trying to fill.

Ask questions that allow you to determine whether the candidate meets your

job criteria. Be sure to listen carefully to how the candidate answers your

questions and to their overall phone presentation.

Phone screens should last anywhere from 5 – 10 minutes. Weed out those
candidates that don’t meet your job criteria.

Dianne Shaddock is the President of Easy Small Business HR, Employee Hiring and Managing Tips and the author of the ebook “How To Supervise: What Your Boss Never Told You Before You Took the Job“, A Step-By-Step Guide For New and Seasoned Managers.

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Employee Management Checklist: The Top Five Best Management Practices

Whether you’re a business owner with employees, or a supervisor charged with managing staff, incorporating these top five employee best management practices into your daily interaction with employees will help make both your job and that of your staff a lot easier.

#1. Provide clearly written and communicated policies and procedures. Discuss your expectations with both your current employees and every new employee as part of their orientation to your company. Give all employees a copy of your policies.

#2. Meet with your employees regularly. Take the time to develop an understanding of the work that they are performing as well as the challenges and limitations of their jobs. Learn what it is about the work that keeps your employees engaged and challenged. Brainstorm with your staff individually or as a group as to discuss the best ways to meet current or future workplace challenges.

#3. Empower your employees when and where it is appropriate. Give your employees the latitude to make decisions that will save time, provide better customer service, and make performing their jobs easier.

#4. Provide ongoing feedback regularly. Let employees know when they are doing a good job and don’t be afraid to provide constructive criticism when warranted when there are performance issues, with the goal of helping to guide your employees towards better performance.

#5. Deal directly and swiftly with inappropriate workplace behavior. Make clear what is considered inappropriate behavior and why. Clearly define what is acceptable workplace behavior and be specific about the types of behaviors that will not be tolerated and what action will be taken if the behavior continues.

Let Your Voice Be Heard: Did you find this post helpful? Have a comment that you’d like to share? Take a moment to share your thoughts. All comments will be posted with the exception of posts containing inappropriate or inflammatory language and/or spam.

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3 Money Saving Strategies To Implement Now To Avoid Laying Off Employees

In this uncertain economy, many small businesses are forced to lay off workers in order to save money. Sometimes, laying off employees is the only alternative; especially for smaller businesses with slimmer profit margins.

Before taking such a critical step, carefully analyze whether there are other possible alternatives that will allow you to maintain jobs or at least minimize the number of employees to let go.

1. Trim Down or Curtail Unnecessary Expenses

Identify the expenses and company “perks” that you and your staff can reasonably do without that will not impact your business. Do you really need to buy a years’ supply of paper and pens when it may be more cost effective to monitor your inventory and replenish only what is needed?

Eliminate or curtail the amount of catered meetings. Instead of offering a full catered breakfast, provide just beverages. If your used to catered lunch meetings, switch to BBL, (Brown Bag Lunch) meetings instead. Employees are almost always willing to forgo these “amenities” if it will prevent layoffs.

2. Consider a Reduced or Flexible Schedule For Employees

Analyze whether it is feasible for your small business to reduce the hours of some or all of your workers. Consider the impact that the reduced hours could have on work productivity versus the potential cost savings as part of your analysis.

Other factors to consider when determining if a reduced or flexible schedule may be a consideration:

Can employees arrive later in the morning or leave earlier?

Are there times of the year that are less busy where it makes sense to close, or reduce hours of operation?

3. Telecommuting

Are there employees whose work can be performed at home? Potential savings include the cost of renting office space, as well as heating, air conditioning and electricity cost savings.

When considering telecommuting for employees, it’s important to set very clear expectations about the work to be performed while at home. Let staff know that your expectation is that they will be accessible by both phone and email during normal business hours in order to respond to work related questions or issues.

These strategies are a small sampling of some of the things that businesses can do to save money and jobs. Analyze what cost saving possibilities make the most sense for your business and your employees.