Keeping That Seat Occupied

Many CEOs and business owners talk about their "3am moments".  You know the 3am moment - wakes you up in the dead of night and keeps you up for the next hour visualising every dire consequence. 

The four common ones that come up are:

1. The empty seat kills momentum - You know you could take on more business or expand locations, if only you had more qualified staff on board to deliver.
   
   
2. The empty seat erodes service - You have a sick feeling in the pit of your stomach that you aren't quite servicing your customers as you promised, and they can take their hard-won business elsewhere.
   
   
3. You, and often your other key staff, spend time, money and angst on staffing issues with no lasting impact on the staffing problem, except distracting you from what you are best at - running your business.
   
   
4. You and your key staff have to work harder and longer to pick up the slack of empty seats, burning them out and eroding morale.
   
   

When I speak about "empty seats", I mean both the unfilled chair as well as the chronic underperformer - the figurative empty seat.

In an ideal world, a business owner would be an expert in the art of recruitment and retention.  However, when you start a business, it's survival first.  You roll your sleeves up, try to attract customers, service the hell out of them, and gain a client base and some reliable revenue.  Once you achieve that, though, how do you grow beyond survival mode?  Obviously, capital is one aspect, but just as important is your ability to find and keep people with the skills and motivations to run your business.

In terms of actually hiring staff, there is no doubt large or medium sized firms have some advantages over small businesses if they can get their act together and do it right.  In practice, though, retaining your people when you only have one, four or ten staff is actually easier than for a large organisation for one big reason - staff want to be loved!

Time and time again we hear that money is not the major reason people stay with their employer.  Surveys talk about job titles, professional development, career advancement, recognition, and feedback from managers as the most important factors in determining why an employee leaves a company.

Sometimes your people will move on because they cannot continue working for significantly less money than they can get elsewhere, or they want to move on to a different challenge.  This is absolutely understandable and something that you may not be able to change.  However, if this is the ONLY reason staff leave your business, you will be well in front!

Rather than talk in HR-speak about the "employee life-cycle" I think there's more value for a small business in some concrete ideas that you can institute quickly and simply.  The fact is, these tips represent real-life application of HR theory anyway.  So here goes:

• Day off on the birthday - such a small thing, but never fails to delight!  The odd thing about this one is that most of the time they'll drop by work to catch up with everyone anyway.  That shows a great team culture.
  
  
• Christmas party - this is for many people the best day of the working year!  It could just be turning the phone off one afternoon in December, and getting in a few cases of beer and some prawns for everyone, or an extravaganza.  But keep it fun and relaxed and an escape from work.
  
  
• End of financial year awards dinner - this is a great time for a mid-year lift.  Can be a formal event with black tie at a swish restaurant, a themed party at the bosses place, or just going to the Pizza Hut after work one day with the gang. 
  
  Unlike the Christmas party, this is where you do make it work-focused.  So give out awards that recognise the efforts of as many people as possible, give them the "State of the Nation" update on how the business has gone this year, and a nice personal speech from the business owner showing your appreciation for your people is a must!
  
  
• Quarterly/regular staff events - this is just a get-together to keep the troops focused during the year.  Many work environments have weekly staff drinks, an office netball team, etc.  But some type of "coming together" activity that is regular and is AT LEAST quarterly, so it fills in the gap between Christmas and the End of Financial Year Bash in June/July is what I'm driving at.
  
  
• Recognition of commencement anniversary - this is great for subtly reminding everyone that this must be a pretty good place to work.  Quite often it reminds the person themselves of how long they've been with you. 
  
  It's cheap and practical and good fun.  And it's good business.
  
  
• Make it competitive - every business has key tasks or processes that determine how well you service your customers or make your product.  The best businesses find a simple way to measure how well those tasks are done, and then set up individual or team-based "league-ladders", pitting the employees against one another in some light-hearted internal competition. 
  
  By making the league ladder simple to understand, prominent and visible, they create enormous energy and buzz in the culture. They engage their people in what are often the most mundane or rudimentary of tasks.  So mount a white board in the middle of your most prominent wall, draw up the league ladder, update it regularly - and watch them fly.
  
  
• Simple, non-monetary rewards - to recognise top performers, you don't have to spend a lot of money.  For example:
  
  
  • Allow the top place-getter on the leaderboard each month to wear the "yellow jersey" that month, similar to how the Tour de France cycling race recognises its leader.
    
    
  • Get a victory flag to plant above the "pod" of desks for the winning team in your awards each month.
    
    
  • Your own version of the Logies, complete with the statuettes, with names engraved for the winners.  The winners can display these on their desks, feel fantastic about themselves, and feel a sense of belonging to the company for the princely sum of $25 per statuette!
    
    
• Keep it fun - this is where you, as a business owner, can really make the biggest impact.  Come in with a smile on your face, and have a good word to say about someone or something everyday. Believe me - your staff will follow your lead and perpetuate that friendly culture for new people to come into. 
  
  When you can honestly say you come to work because you enjoy yourself, you give very little thought to the type of work you do or what you are paid.  Your staff are the same.
  
  
• Don't just be a boss - make the workplace like a family.  This is something that a bigger corporation just cannot do - but you can. Once you understand that your staff are free to leave at any time, then you can genuinely appreciate their efforts, and stick by them when they need you to cut them some slack.
  
  Nine times out of ten this type of humanity from employer to employee has an enormous multiplier effect back to the business in the form of fierce loyalty and high performance from staff. 
  
  At the same time, don't be a hostage to your staff. If they are a poor performer who resists remedial efforts, cut them out quickly or they'll be a cancer in your business.

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