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March 24, 2010 By Susan Barr 3 Comments

12 Ideas to Motivate Employees

Motivated Employees
There is no doubt that employees are feeling the stress of the economic downturn. They may be experiencing their own financial issues or are living in fear of losing their jobs. Consider how you can keep them motivated now so you can retain them – their expertise is an asset upon which you can grow your business out of the recession. Here are a few ideas to consider for improving morale, loyalty, and productivity so you will be ready for the economic rebound.

1. Acknowledge your employees personal life events: birthdays, anniversaries, births, deaths, graduations, etc. Let them know their life and personal well-being is important to you.

2. Have a staff field trip. Go bowling. Have a picnic in the park. Rent a skating rink.

3. Create a “volunteer day.” Provide time off for your employee to volunteer at the charity of their choice or sponsor a team event such through organizations such as Habitat for Humanity or Relay for Life. Your employees will be refreshed and energized by the ability to contribute to a worthy cause.

4. Create a training and development plan for your employees. Low-cost training is available via the web with webinars and web-based conferences which are often recorded and archived. Give each employee a training allowance of time and/or money to spend on virtual or live events.

5. Don’t’ stop there! Where possible, allow your employees to apply new skills on the job. Can they complete a new project using skills or technology they learned? Empower them beyond the limits of their job description and prepare them for the next level of promotion.

6. Do you need a retention package for key employees? Consider retention bonuses if employees are at risk of resigning especially if you want to secure their employment until after your business undergoes transition.

7. Reevaluate compensation packages if economically feasible. Consider whether your compensation package is reflective of the market wages and compensation practices. If not, develop a plan to transition to a more competitive package.

8. Create a formal incentives program that rewards performance based upon achieving a desired outcome. Sales professionals are generally compensated based upon a combination of salary and bonuses. Don’t stop at your sales staff! If you have key business priorities that lead to bottom line results, let your staff share in the profits.

9. What are their life & career goals? Sit down 1 on 1 with your staff and ask them. Turn off the blackberry/IPhone and just listen. Develop a plan to further their goals through additional responsibility, mentoring, projects and training.

10. Involve your staff in creating a new vision for the business. What are their thoughts on how you can improve processes and grow markets? Whether you ask in a 1 on 1 session or via a formal planning process with the team, employees become more invested in business strategy which they help formulate.

11. Consider flexible work schedules and tele-commuting options. Does your business structure allow employees to work from home? Investigate cloud computing options to enable a virtual office. Begin with document sharing and collaboration, web scheduling, and web conferencing applications and investigate whether your mission critical applications provide a cloud-based solution.

12. Say thank you! It is such a simple and easy thing to do but it means so much to employees when their work has been appreciated.

Be careful with incentive programs that involve goods and services with the company name imprinted on it – unless it is a cash debit card with the company logo, your well-meaning attempt at a reward may end up in a garage sale. Some of the best incentives I ever received were: time off, trips, cash bonuses and tickets to local events. I am also a big fan of “development opportunities” such as training and special projects but every employee is different.

The savvy business owner who inspires loyalty recognizes that each employee has a “currency” – a motivating inducement with value to him/her for its appropriateness and personal meaning. What is your employees’ currency? Is it time off? More money? Is it more responsibility or authority?

Let’s face it. These ideas reflect good leadership practices whether we are in an economic downturn or not but we often need to be reminded of the obvious when business is slow. Making an extra effort to improve employee incentives will pay dividends as your staff is motivated and inspired to assist your business attain new heights when business is booming.

Filed Under: Achieve!, Lead with Vitality! Tagged With: employee compensation, small business, staff motivation, teams

March 6, 2010 By Susan Barr Leave a Comment

USE 4 D’S TO DEAL WITH UNFINISHED PROJECTS

unfinishedprojectsThis is the third post in a monthly series dedicated to preparing your business for the upcoming economic recovery.

We all have them. Many times, they sit in stacks of papers in our office, the “someday I will get to that pile.” Not addressing this pile of projects before business growth is like trying to run a marathon with an extra 40 pounds on your hips, knees and ankles – it can be done but it takes longer and it hurts a lot more. Everyone has their own system but for me, I like to follow the 4D’s approach:

Do It! These are the projects that support strategic objectives, have high payback and cannot be delayed. They were a great idea before the recession and they are an even better idea now.

Delegate It! Do you have employees looking for more challenging assignments? During a recession when money is tight, performance development projects without restrictive schedules can be delegated to employees who are trying to develop new skills. In a tight market, if you cannot offer raises or other financial incentives, providing employees with enhanced duties and opportunities to develop new skills helps foster positive morale.

Consider smartsourcing the work to a freelancer. Besides the traditional online jobbers such as Monster.com or Hotjobs.com, check out Craigslist.com, elance.com, guru.com or odesk.com as terrific resources to locate highly credentialed professionals. Ask for referrals on your social networks such as LinkedIn. There are many unemployed or underemployed professionals on the market willing to freelance while between jobs. If the projects require administrative or computer skills, you can use web-based productivity tools such as Google Docs or Zoho for virtual collaboration.

Dump It! In my experience, at least 50% of the projects in the “someday” pile should simply be dumped. If you haven’t made it a priority by now, what has changed? Why wasn’t it critical enough to rise to the level of importance before? Was it lack of staff? If so, why didn’t you outsource the work while the business was stronger and money available? Was it because no one can do it like you? I hope not – those kinds of projects will kill your business whether we are in a recession or on the upswing.

Delay It! These are great ideas that have positive impact on the business but are not as high a priority as “Do It Now” items. They are not essential enough to pay someone else to do (or they are difficult to delegate or outsource) but they are worth getting done. For example, you may have a list of blog changes you want to make but they don’t raise to the level of critical enough to hire a webmaster to complete. Avoid putting everything you cannot do immediately into the Delay It category – you will simply end up right where you started with a big pile of unfinished projects. If you designate a project for delay, be sure to put these projects on your plan and schedule time to accomplish them within a short period of time. Any project that continues to miss its planned start and finish over and over again must be questioned as a possible “Dump It” project.

Please schedule regular reviews on a monthly or quarterly basis – mark it on your calendar. Use the opportunity of a business downturn to establish the practices and disciplines that keep you organized and focused upon profitable activities and projects.

Filed Under: Achieve!, Forward Momentum, Lead with Vitality!, Prepare for the Upswing Tagged With: nurture soul of biz, recession, small business productivity

March 4, 2010 By Susan Barr Leave a Comment

MAKE ROOM FOR THE RECOVERY

filing boxes on dollyThis is the second post in a monthly series dedicated to preparing your business for the upcoming economic recovery. Yesterday, we discussed how you need to clear out your thinking and today we talk about how we must clean up and make room in our office space to prepare for growth.

* Are your files over stretched to the max?
* Are your computers running out of space?
* Is your facility/office running out of files space?
* Do you have stacks of unfinished projects?
* Lists of to-do’s are everywhere?
* Daily email traffic filled with subscriptions and newsletters you never read?
* Daily snail mail filled with postcards and sales letters, magazines you never read?
* Books on your shelf?
* Is your office furniture laid out in such a way as to be highly productive?
* Old supplies in your drawers?
* Are you so disorganized that you buy new supplies because you cannot find the old supplies?

Isn’t it time to clean out your workspace? The process of cleaning up serves several purposes:

* Cleaning up allows you to symbolically remove past mistakes.
* Cleaning up and making room allow you to acknowledge your past accomplishments. You will run across old to-do lists, goals, projects, customer letters and other items that remind what an excellent job you do at what you do! Cleaning up your office can be like looking through an old picture album.
* Cleaning up inspires your future. Old projects and customer files may spark an idea that has been latent for a long time. Start making a list of your inspired thoughts.
* Cleaning up creates space for new customers, new sales, new processes, and new product innovation ideas.
* No one can do their best thinking when surrounded by disorganization. Just think how pleasant it will be to work in an organized space.

For some great ideas on how to organize your filing systems, here are some books for further study:

Organizing from the Inside Out, second edition: The Foolproof System For Organizing Your Home, Your Office and Your Life by Julie Morgenstern

Getting Organized: Improving Focus, Organization and Productivity by Chris Crouch

You can also browse the web for “office organization” or “home office organization” and you will find many resources available from professional organizers.

As you go through the process, put aside all “unfinished projects” which we will review tomorrow. Are you ready to make room for the economic upswing?

Filed Under: Achieve!, Forward Momentum, Lead with Vitality!, Prepare for the Upswing Tagged With: nurture soul of biz, office productivity, recession

September 8, 2009 By Susan Barr 1 Comment

Small Business Disaster Planning

Last weekend, a tornado touched down within a few miles of my home and home office. No damage to our home but others suffered wind damage, fallen trees, and electrical service interruption. In other news, our nation and world is bracing for an outbreak of H1N1 virus. Wildfires ravaged thousands of acres across the West Coast of the U.S. destroying homes and businesses, causing the evacuation of tens of thousands of people.

In my local metropolitan area, thousands of homes and businesses are bracing for the threat of floods throughout the Green River Valley this winter as the Army Corps of Engineers is predicting rivers overflowing from damage to the Howard Hanson Dam. Local counties and cities, as well as most large businesses, are preparing for a disaster.

Whereas I don’t get caught up in the fear of these kinds of events, I do think it is prudent to have a business continuity plan in place in the event of an unforeseen emergency. Yes, even for the small office/home office.

A business continuity plan, also called a disaster recovery plan, is defined by www.businessdictionary.com as a “set of documents, instructions, and procedures which enable a business to respond to accidents, disasters, emergencies, and/or threats without any stoppage or hindrance in its key operations.”

In its simplest format, a business continuity plan should include the following information which ought to be communicated to and in the constant possession of all key employees.

• Communication Plan
• Relocation Plan
• Evacuation Plans
• Emergency Supplies
• Vital Records
• Emergency Staffing Plan

Start by developing a Communication Plan. It takes very little time to make preparations that include a list of critical phone numbers of staff, suppliers, customers, local and national disaster assistance centers.

Backing up vital records off-site requires a minor monthly investment and is a must for any business. Web-based backups such as Mozy or Carbonite are my favorite choice for consistent and dependable backup security as there is no hassle required with manual backups, transporting the hard-drives to a safe deposit box offsite, etc. Businesses with more than 5 networked PC’s could consider contracts with Managed Services providers such as CMIT Solutions.

For more thoughts on how to develop a Business Continuity Plan, check the following resources:

http://www.sba.gov/services/disasterassistance/index.html
http://www.ready.gov/business/index.html
http://www.score.org/disaster_preparedness.html

If you are a home based business, make sure your business assets are covered in the event of a disaster. Most homeowner’s policies do not cover home-based business losses. For more information about types of home-based business insurance:

http://businessinsure.about.com/od/insuringyourbusiness/a/homebusins.htm

Hope for the Best, Plan for the Worst!

Filed Under: Achieve!, Forward Momentum, Prepare for the Upswing Tagged With: business continuity, business insurance, online backup, small business, small business technology

September 4, 2009 By Susan Barr Leave a Comment

20 Questions to Improve Team Performance

Is your team struggling or are they performing at peak levels? Are they mired in conflict and gossip? Are they competing or are they collaborating?

Henry Ford said “Coming together is a beginning; keeping together is progress; working together is success.”

Whether your team works remotely from virtual offices or together in the same office, the group will function better when you take steps together to answer the following:

1. Why does this organization exist?
2. Who do we serve?
3. What are our shared objectives?
4. What do we believe in?
5. What is our team contribution to our organization, community, customers, owners, employees?
6. What is our individual contribution to the team, community, customers, owners, employees?
7. What values direct our decisions and inform our business practices?
8. What principles guide our interactions with customers, suppliers, employees, shareholders?
9. What do we expect of one another?
10. How will we communicate with one another?
11. What methods will we use to communicate?
12. How often will formal communication take place?
13. How will we handle conflict?
14. How will we utilize the chain of command?
15. How will we resolve differences?
16. How will we challenge one another?
17. What does each individual contribute to the objectives?
18. Who needs to be involved in decisions?
19. Who makes final decisions?
20. How will we hold each other accountable?

Shared commitment to common purpose, core values, communication norms, defined roles and responsibilities, and a culture of mutual respect, accountability and responsibility can turn a dysfunctional team into a high performance team. Achieving buy-in to the above questions accelerates the progression of a team from the formative stages with a strong foundation upon which team synergy and peak performance can be built.

Filed Under: Achieve!, Forward Momentum, Get Profits, Strategic Thinking Tagged With: leadership, synergy, team norms, teamwork, vision

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