When Professional Gets Personal
Owning a Business with Family, Friends and Spouses
There are a growing number of family-owned businesses in North America. Some of the world’s largest businesses, such as Wal-Mart and Ford Motor Co., are family-owned. Many other successful business ventures, such as Google and Apple, were started by friends. But anyone who has started a business with a friend, family member or a spouse can tell you it’s not always easy to draw the line between business and a personal relationship. So how can you make sure your business succeeds when the lines between business and personal blur? Here a few tips to consider.
Define roles. Experts agree, when starting a business with a friend, family member or spouse, one of the most important steps is to clearly define each person’s role and responsibilities in the business. Especially if you have other people working for you, you must make sure that the lines of responsibility are drawn and that your employees know who to go to for leadership in certain areas.
Create vision and goals together. With all the stress and obligations involved in running a business, even with friends or family, it can be easy to forget goal-setting, a critical part of any company. Take time to sit down with your business partner and clearly create goals. Determine your business’s overall vision and your strategy for achieving it. Working together on this process ensures all members of your team are invested in the success of your enterprise.
Share the dirty work. Make sure all owners have an equal say in the role-defining process to ensure equal buy-in, and share the least-favored tasks equally. If one person has all the mindless, boring tasks while others get the fun, glorious jobs, you can bet that jealousy, even anger, will arise. To keep your business and personal relationships strong, share both the exciting and the unpleasant tasks.
Keep personality and skills in mind. One difficult aspect of working with a friend or a family member is that you know them well. You know their weaknesses and hot buttons. But, you also know their skills and aptitudes better than probably anyone. Make sure that you use this knowledge professionally, keeping your ultimate business goals in mind. Create tasks and define roles that suit their skills and personality. Also, don’t let things get personal by using someone’s weaknesses against them. This might help you win an argument, but it will hurt your business and your relationship in the end.
Require personal responsibility. Each member of the ownership team should agree to being personally responsible for making sure their job gets done. Without personal responsibility, when things slip through the cracks, the blame game begins, and it can get very heated. When one partner lacks personal responsibility, it’s difficult and draining for the others to pick up the slack. As simple as it sounds, this essentially boils down to the golden rule we were taught growing up. Each partner should agree to treat others the way they want to be treated. This ensures that everyone on the team, and ultimately, your business, wins.
Ensure accountability. Defined roles and clear goals don’t mean much if people aren’t held accountable for following them. Choose an objective adviser or board of advisers who can help you answer difficult questions, hold you accountable, act as a mediator and keep you looking toward achieving your goals. It’s usually best not to choose other family members to serve in this capacity, even if they will do it for free. It only complicates the existing relationships to have family members trying to serve the objective mediator role. Find someone everyone on your team trusts equally, even if you have to pay them. Consider using an organization that specializes in small business coaching to keep things neutral and make sure you are en route to achieving your goals.
Each business will have its unique challenges and obstacles when those working together are family or friends. But by using these tips, you can reap all of the benefits of working with people you have relationships with and at the same time, help your business boom.
Beyond Nine to Five - Help Your Whole Workforce Thrive
Tips for Managing Shift Work
In our global economy, now more than ever, we’re aware that it’s always the middle of a workday somewhere. Many industries have people working around the clock, from call centers to manufacturers to law enforcement to hospitality to healthcare to emergency services and more.
Scheduling shift work offers a number of benefits, such as round-the-clock customer service and increased production. It also produces some unique complications. Shift workers are more prone to having sleep deprivation, work/life balance issues, lack of access to company training, and other things that make work frustrating. So how can you better manage your night and shift workers? Here are a few tips to create a safer and more engaged workforce – beyond nine-to-five.
Listen to your employees. First and foremost, you need to take into account the needs of your shift workers to ensure they are all safe, productive and engaged members of your workforce. Create a system for encouraging regular feedback to make sure shift workers can voice their ideas and concerns.
Offer options. There are many scheduling options for you can select from. You can vary shift length and offer short shifts each day or long shifts over fewer days. Many employers opt for an on/off work pattern to give employees long stretches away from work. Using fixed or rotating schedule formats is another option. Carefully consider the needs of your company as well as your workers when creating shift policies. Remember, if what you are currently doing isn’t working, consider changing to a new shift pattern. But don’t change too often – consistency and work/life balance are already difficult issues shift workers face. Make sure your efforts help employees lead balanced lives, not more hectic ones.
Make it safe coming and going. Provide on-site security for all shift changes, and train employees on how to properly enter and exit the building at odd hours. Workers on night shifts are often concerned about off-hour and nighttime safety and security issues.
Don’t forget meals. According to the Society of Human Resource Management, shift workers have two to three times the digestive problems of workers on a regular schedule. But most eateries aren’t open during the middle of a night shift. Provide access to snacks and meals for night shift workers – whether through catering food, having snack trays available or having a refrigerator and microwave for employees to keep and heat their own meals on the job site.
Educate on healthy sleep patterns. Shift workers often have odd schedules, so many don’t get the recommended hours of sleep per day. Educate your shift workers on the importance of getting enough rest. Also, be on the lookout for signs of sleep deprivation to ensure a safe workforce.
Let them have a life. Many shift workers have difficulties feeling like they have a social life because they have odd or inconsistent work schedules. Likewise, many experience frustrations if they don’t get weekends or holidays off. Create policies that level the playing field for holidays off to keep from favoring some workers over others. In order to have an engaged workforce, use a flexible approach with shift workers and accommodate their special needs for time off.
Keep them in the loop. One thing many employers don’t think about for workers with odd schedules is that they are often out of the loop on company policies, meetings and training opportunities. Establish regular communication with shift workers, such as a weekly newsletter. Make sure companywide meetings are accessible to all shift workers, even if you have to have the same meeting twice.
Give them an advocate. Shift supervisors are a vital key to properly managing shift workers, but they often get tied up in the daily issues of production, safety and spur-of-the-moment issues, and employees can’t go to them for all their workplace needs. Many shift workers experience frustrations when they can’t update paperwork or talk with HR or upper management when needed. That’s why it’s important to offer a manager or HR representative on-call at all times or available during set hours for all shifts
As workplaces continue to adopt around-the-clock work policies, it’s important to address the issues of managing shift workers. Using these tips can help you create an engaged and productive workforce around the clock.
Become Indispensable
Communicate with Employees to Equip them for Success
One of the primary skills for any worker is communication. Whether you are managing a team of accountants, working directly with customers or supervising in a factory, it’s essential from the top of the ladder to the bottom. However, many people today don’t communicate effectively on the job – including managers. Many employers assume that workers should come to them for direction or instructions rather than being proactive and approaching their employees. But, the truth is that employers and supervisors who take the extra effort to communicate with each of their employees will come out ahead. Here are five vital communication tips you can use in your workplace today.
- Offer clear guidance from the get-go. One of the most important communication tools between employers and employees is the job description. Make sure whenever you hire new employees that their job description is clear, accurate and goals-driven. Making sure your employees are equipped with proper directions in the form of a clear job description will ensure they get to the right destination of achieving their goals.
- Assume people won’t ask for help. As a manager, employer or supervisor, one of your key responsibilities is the success of those who report to you. But you can’t force people to come to you for help. You can only control your effort in communicating. If you see an employee struggling to figure something out, be proactive and offer help. As the manager, you will be held accountable for their performance – whether by your boss, your customers or your market share. Take the time to offer your assistance to employees, and you’ll see it’s worth the effort.
- Conduct regular performance reviews. Performance reviews are a vital communication tool for any employer. Though it’s a formal process, reviews are designed to equip you to address positive and negative aspects of an employee’s performance. It may be difficult to bring up areas where employees need improvement in the regular course of the workday, but a formal review is the perfect time to communicate any areas that need help. They’re also a great time to reward top employees for great performance.
- Check in regularly. Set a time for regular updates with each employee beyond the annual review. Experts recommend scheduling a regular meeting ranging from once a week to once a month, based on what each employee needs and feels comfortable with. This can be an informal 15 minute conversation in which the employee asks for feedback, advice or direction. Make sure that this time is all about your employee and not devoted to your own agenda. You can always call a staff meeting to talk about your ideas and projects. Employees need a time of their own to communicate with their bosses as a way to establish trust.
- Understand generational differences. You may manage people older than you or younger than you, but chances are, everyone in your workplace isn’t in the same generation. The four generations currently in the workforce include: Traditionalists, Baby Boomers, Generation Xers and Millennials. Members of each of these generations have different communications preferences, and you may need to tailor your efforts, timing and approach to suit the specific needs of each generation.
Focusing on communicating with each of your employees is a vital part of ensuring that you are an indispensable part of their success. People who know their boss cares about them because they communicate effectively and regularly will be more productive, loyal and engaged in their work.
To learn more on becoming indispensable, listen to our podcast, and check out next month’s e-Xchange article.
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Employment Situation Summary
United States
Non-farm employment rose by 132,000 jobs in June, and the unemployment rate was unchanged at 4.5%.
Major Industry Employment for June 2007
• Construction: + 12,000
• Manufacturing: - 18,000
• Retail Trade: - 24,000
• Professional & Business Services: + 9,000
• Educational & Health Services: + 59,000
• Leisure & Hospitality: + 39,000
• Government: + 40,000
Canada
Employment increased by 35,000 in June, and the unemployment rate remained at 6.1% for the fifth consecutive month.
Major Industry Employment for June 2007
• Construction: - 2,000
• Manufacturing: - 31,000
• Trade: + 31,000
• Transportation & Warehousing: - 7,000
• Finance, Insurance, Real Estate & Leasing: + 8,000
• Professional, Scientific & Technical Services: + 14,000
• Business, Building & Support Services: + 15,000
• Educational Services: + 14,000
• Information, Culture & Recreation: - 4,000
•
Accommodation
and Food Services: - 7,000
• Public Administration: + 10,000
e-Xchange is a publication of Express Services, Inc., Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Copyright 2007.