Great service to your clients begins with great systems. The middle and the ending is all about who will be running your systems. You have invested time, money and sweat in creating your systems. Making the mistakes of carelessly hiring staff or failing to motivate your staff can completely cancel the efforts of your business workflow investments.
These are five simple strategies that can help the staff in your firm become and remain superstars who want to grow along with you.
- Hire slow. Taking the lazy approach to hiring even the staff that does not have direct contact with clients can easily become the weak link. Naturally, even a layered process to hiring can produce the wrong hire. Take the time to learn from mistakes and be sure you have an established process that ensures you always get the right fit.
- Fire fast. The wrong employees have a way of spoiling a well running ship’s course quickly. The moment you know someone is a bad hire, do not delay to take action.
- Don’t be a control freak babysitter. Good people must receive the correct training and be allowed to perform. If you have a great staff, micromanaging them will quickly assure that they will soon become someone else’s great staff. Take the time to hear their ideas, provide feedback and allow them to try new things.
- Give your people what they need to work well. If your staff members are nimble and sharp, working with outdated materials and equipment will do nothing but frustrate them. Gain their feedback and put capital into whatever you can afford to assure they can get their work done efficiently.
- Show the love. Let your staff know you value them as workers and as human beings. The paycheck they get is the gasoline that makes them run but the extras are what makes them high performance vehicles. Celebrate the hitting of new goals. Compliment their extra effort. Reward a good year with a social celebration. A little goes a long way: catered lunches, 15-minunte massages at lunch time; a volunteer outing; breakfasts; and contests. You know your staff (or should), so figure out what will work with your particular group. People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.
Even start-up firms can find ways to invest in staff. These touches do not have to be costly, but they should be regular and thoughtful to be meaningful.
