Every week as SmallBizLady, I conduct interviews with experts on my Twitter talk show #SmallBizChat. The show takes place every Wednesday on Twitter from 8-9 pm ET. This is excerpted from my interview with @bigbookofhr. Cornelia Gamlem SPHR is an author, consultant and speaker. She is President of the GEMS Group ltd., a management-consulting firm that offers Human Resources and business solutions. Prior to founding the firm, she served in a senior HR leadership role with a Fortune 500 IT services company with a global presence. Along with her co-author, Barbara Mitchell, she’s written The Big Book of HR. Their second book, The Essential Workplace Conflict Handbook, will be published this fall and they are working on a third book about tales from the dark side of work. She is also co-author of two books on affirmative action. For more info, visit gemsgroup-hr.com
SmallBizLady: A small business may not realize that it has a culture. What are the elements that define an organization’s culture?
Cornelia Gamlem: Some of the elements that define your culture are leadership style, how mistakes are handled, and communication. Culture sets the tone for everything you do and everything you stand for. Leaders matter in any organization, especially small size organizations because you are so visible. You need to know your culture, hire for your culture and manage for your culture.
SmallBizLady: What does a small business owner need to know about finding and hiring the right people?
Cornelia Gamlem: A key success factor for any organization is having the right people in the right jobs. You need to know your culture, have clearly written job descriptions, and train your managers to interview so they can find people who will be successful. It’s also important to have and follow best practices, such as checking references to be sure that you bring in the right people
SmallBizLady: What should happen after a job offer has been made to someone who’s a good fit for the organization?
Cornelia Gamlem: There is a wonderful time between when you hire the person and when they start, a golden opportunity to reinforce how glad you are that they accepted your offer. Make sure you are ready for your new hires. Carefully plan out their first week. Meet with them, take them to lunch, introduce them to co-workers, and have all of their resources (phone, computer, e-mail address) ready for them.
SmallBizLady: What can a small business do to assure that its good employees want to stay?
Cornelia Gamlem: Engagement and retention are inextricably linked. Focus groups and stay-interviews help you to find out what it is about your company that makes people want to come to work every day, and you can build on those reasons to encourage excitement about your organization. Make sure that you’re active in your community because employees today want to be proud of where they work. Don’t forget rewards and recognitions programs. The most incredibly affective recognition strategy is saying thank you – letting employees know you appreciate them. It costs nothing and can have a huge payoff.
SmallBizLady: Is rewarding employees only about pay?
Cornelia Gamlem: Total rewards go beyond just the wages and includes indirect compensation such as benefits, rewards and recognition, and flexibility. Your total rewards strategy needs to link to your strategy for recruiting and engaging talent. This will help you to attract and retain the best talent to meet your mission and to get the work done. Your pay practices and indirect compensation programs must also link to the organization’s goals and objectives and be compatible with your culture, appropriate for the workforce and industry, and fair and equitable internally. Equally important is to make sure that your compensation strategy is externally competitive.
SmallBizLady: How can a business know if their pay and benefit practices are equitable and competitive?
Cornelia Gamlem: One way to find out is to participate in local salary surveys to determine if your pay practices are competitive and right for your industry, size and community. Evaluate your benefits programs to make sure they meet the employees’ needs and the company’s objectives. Most importantly, communicate with your employees about your total rewards. Make sure that they understand that their benefits and other indirect programs that you offer are part of their overall compensation package. Take the time to educate your employees about their benefits. They will be very grateful.
SmallBizLady: Why is employee development important and what can a small business do when opportunities are limited?
Cornelia Gamlem: Employee development is linked closely to employee retention and motivation and it helps you prepare for future needs as the company changes and grows. Development helps employees to be effective in their current jobs and prepare for new opportunities within, so they can help you walk the company into the future. Beyond training, coaching and mentoring, as well as stretch assignments are also ways to develop employees. Development opportunities and employees goals must align with the company’s mission, goals and objectives. Using measurements, benchmarks and metrics will help to assure that this alignment is in place. Giving employees the opportunity to grow and succeed is a good value proposition and will help you to grow a successful company.
SmallBizLady: How important are performance reviews?
Cornelia Gamlem: Performance reviews are just a part of performance management – an ongoing process of planning, continual monitoring and frequent feedback. Managing performance is crucial to employee motivation because it lets the employee know they are making a contribution and doing things right. Make sure expectations are clear and don’t assume your employee’s know them. Focus on outcomes and results. Also keep in mind that discussions about money should not be at the center of the performance review meeting. If the only time you talk to an employee about how he or she is doing is when you are talking about money, chances are they are not going to hear anything you have to say about their success.
SmallBizLady: Since feedback is such an important component, what should the business owner or manager keep in mind?
Cornelia Gamlem: Feedback should be continual, and delivered in a timely manner, when something good or not so good occurs. Don’t take good performance for granted – offer praise frequently. When corrective action is necessary, address it right away, explaining the behavior, its effect on others, and the changes that need to take place. Describe the consequences if change does not occur. Listen to the employee and provide an opportunity to explain or respond. Emphasize problem solving, not assigning blame.
SmallBizLady: It sounds like communication is critical. Can you give us some tips to follow to have a positive conversation?
Cornelia Gamlem: Critical conversations occur constantly in the workplace and business owners should become comfortable having conversations for both positive and negative issues. It’s easy to deliver praise, but when the theme of the conversation is change, that’s when a manager can get become uncomfortable and wish the situation would go away. Be intentional, use words and phrases effectively, be compassionate, and pay attention to non-verbal signals. Listen carefully and clarify understanding. Listen for what’s not said and listen for what you want and don’t want to hear. A good conversation gives you the opportunity to get good information and that’s key to addressing your people issues and come to a resolution together.
SmallBizLady: How can a small company create positive employee relations?
Cornelia Gamlem: In addition to employee development and growth, total rewards, feedback and problem solving, having policies and practices that reflect the organization’s values are characteristics of a positive culture for an organization. Policies communicate expectations and create the framework for fair and respectful treatment. They assure consistency in making decisions while recognizing that each situation is unique and requires flexibility. It’s important to talk to other companies in your community who are in the same industry and are the same size as you in order to gain benchmarks before setting policies, but your policies have to meet the unique needs of your organization and your employees. Communicating with employees is critical to positive employee relations. Communication methods changing rapidly with technology and social media, so it’s important that you deliver messages in a method in which your employees like to receive information.
SmallBizLady: What advice can you give about employee terminations?
Cornelia Gamlem: Even in a culture with positive employee relations, with frequent and open communication, employment relationships end, whether the employee ends it or the company ends it. When the company is initiating the termination, it’s important to be fair and consistent. Consider how similar situations were handled in the past. Consider the individual’s tenure and history. Review your policies, but don’t forget to use judgment. Keep other employees in mind. Good performers want to work with other good performers. After a layoff, the employees who are still employed are also impacted, often being asked to take on more work and responsibility. Regardless of the reason for the termination, even voluntary terminations, treat the employee with dignity and respect. Former employees may turn into future employees or they may recommend others with great skills to meet your future talent needs.
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