Business Performance Coaching

As one of the biggest expenses a small business will regularly incur will be the cost of it’s employees, namely in wages but also in ACC payments and down time for staff sick days; these costs can get as high as 40% of all the business expenses yet too many businesses invest little or no time in the training and development of this valuable and very expensive resource, why?

The unfortunate answer is that too many business owners look on staff as a necessary evil, a drain on their business that they must have and often categorise staff in the same group as taxes, accountants and lawyers.

This does not need to be the case, when ever I am working with a business one of the first things I inquire about is the staffing structure and who does what.  The reason I do this is to establish how robust the company is if any member of the team is not there for any length of time, does the team have sufficient depths of knowledge and skill to ensure the work is completed?

There are four basic areas that I asked business owners to look at when thinking about employing staff.

What does the Business Require?

Before any staff are employed it is important first for the business owner to sit down and go through exactly what is it that business needs to grow, how will employing another member of staff help the business owner?  After all if having staff does not make the business owner’s life easier then why employ them?  Once the reasons have been identified then a job specification should be created.

Job Specifications

Job Specifications are developed to accurately identify where the employee will be working, what the employee will be doing and when they will be doing it but more importantly it will help the business owner to identify the skills and experience they will require from the successful candidate and conduct some research into what they will be expected to pay someone with that skills and experience.  With this information you will be able to develop an accurate Job Description

Job Description

The job description is exactly what it says, this document describes in detail the role the employee will fulfill whilst employed in your business, the document will also help you advertise the position by clearly identifying the key tasks and responsibilities of the position.

Choosing the Candidate

When recruiting your new member of the team several things need to be considered to ensure the candidate can fulfill the position.

1. Does the candidate have the relevant skills?
2. Does the employee have skills that can be transfered from a different industry to your industry?
3. Is the candidate sufficiently quallified?
4. Will the candidate fit into the existing team?
5. Does the candidate have other experience or skill which will benefit the company?
6. Most importantly; Does the candidate have the potential to take on greater responsibility in the future?

Developing them into the Future

Once the candidate has been employed it is essential that you also factor in the cost of training them to do their job both immediately and into the future, well motivated and trained staff will be much more loyal than those that are not, which over time will also reduce the cost to the business that is directly related to staff turnover.

To summarise, it is far more cost effective to spend the time planning your staffing structure and when the day comes that you employ a staff member that performs well and works well in the team and does not cringe at the thought of some added responsibility you make plans for them to get more involved in the business maybe even look after the business when you are not there, this is what future proofing your company is all about and will give you the business owner time to have that holiday or time to develop the business in other areas.

For More advice on anything in this article please contact me.