As a business owner, you go above and beyond to keep customers happy. But your employees might not feel the same.
I recently visited a local small business (a pet food store) because I
wanted to get my doggie, Dwight, some kibble. It wasn't a highly
trafficked joint and in a remote area, and I only wanted a small bag of
food. So I got out of the car and went up to the door only to find they
had just closed.
Turns out I had arrived three minutes after closing time and the
person who was manning the store was still behind the register with a
customer. I waved to see if he would open the place up just to get one
more sale, but this employee gave me the cut-across-the-throat gesture
and waved me off.
What did that tell me? That he clearly wasn't the business owner.
All of you business owners are out there clutching your proverbial
pearls, right? If you were there, you would have opened the doors to get
one more sale for the day. But in this case, it was an employee who
wanted out after eight hours of looking at the clock and not giving a
damn about poor Dwight and his lack of delicious dry food.
How do you make sure your employees aren't waving off customers and potential sales? Here are four ideas:
1. Go above and beyond.
Your employees want to feel part of a family, so make it so!
Hang out with them, get to know them, do fun things like happy hours and
picnics with them. Everyone wants to love where they work and who they
work for, so give it to them!
2. Make them feel invested in the company.
Why not try giving them a part of your company so they feel invested? At my company, VerticalResponse, we give all of our employees stock options
to let them know that if the company is successful, they will be, too.
You might also try giving them a piece of the profits at the end of the
year so they know that the more the cash registers ring, the more
they'll get.
3. Be transparent.
Let them know what your growth is and what it needs to be. Even if it
takes the old thermometer sketch to illustrate where you are in the
month, it's worth it. I give my entire company a monthly update on where
we are, where we need to be and what we need to do to get there.
4. Give them incentives.
Tracking their daily sales could get them more of a bonus at the end
of the month. Ever have someone ask you at the register, "Who helped you
with that?" They're tracking the effectiveness of their employees who
make an impression.
Here's a story I love to share. Since VerticalResponse is an online company, there's not really a reason for customers to physically visit us. At
the very beginning of our existence, a woman came to our offices and sat
on our couch for 20 minutes (we didn't have a receptionist at the
time) until an employee (there were four of us total) came out into the
open area on his way to the restroom and saw her. She was there to give
us $20 in cash so she could send an e-mail campaign to her list.
Instead of pushing her out the door and directing her to our website,
the employee took the cash, printed out an invoice for the amount she
gave us, and even gave her extra e-mail credits. She took the time to
come to us, so we felt we needed to return the favor.
The bottom line is that you need to have your employees be as
passionate as possible about your business. Including them on various
parts of your business, even the down and dirty, and incentivizing them
to do what you as the business owner would do, might work wonders. Have
you tried?
Showing posts with label Incentive. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Incentive. Show all posts
2/2/12
The 8 Things Your Employees Need Most
Forget about raises and better benefits. Those are important -- but this is what your staff really wants.
Pay is important. But pay only goes so far.
Getting a raise is like buying a bigger house; soon, more becomes the new normal.
Higher wages won’t cause employees to automatically perform at a higher level. Commitment, work ethic, and motivation are not based on pay.
To truly care about your business, your employees need these eight things—and they need them from you:
1. Freedom. Best practices can create excellence, but every task doesn't deserve a best practice or a micro-managed approach. (Yes, even you, fast food industry.)
Autonomy and latitude breed engagement and satisfaction. Latitude also breeds innovation. Even manufacturing and heavily process-oriented positions have room for different approaches.
Whenever possible, give your employees the freedom to work they way they work best.
2. Targets. Goals are fun. Everyone—yes, even you—is at least a little competitive, if only with themselves. Targets create a sense of purpose and add a little meaning to even the most repetitive tasks.
Without a goal to shoot for, work is just work. And work sucks.
3. Mission. We all like to feel a part of something bigger. Striving to be worthy of words like "best" or "largest" or "fastest" or "highest quality" provides a sense of purpose.
Let employees know what you want to achieve, for your business, for customers, and even your community. And if you can, let them create a few missions of their own.
Caring starts with knowing what to care about—and why.
4. Expectations. While every job should include some degree of latitude, every job needs basic expectations regarding the way specific situations should be handled. Criticize an employee for expediting shipping today, even though last week that was the standard procedure if on-time delivery was in jeopardy, and you lose that employee.
Few things are more stressful than not knowing what your boss expects from one minute to the next.
When standards change make sure you communicate those changes first. When you can't, explain why this particular situation is different, and why you made the decision you made.
5. Input. Everyone wants to offer suggestions and ideas. Deny employees the opportunity to make suggestions, or shoot their ideas down without consideration, and you create robots.
Robots don't care.
Make it easy for employees to offer suggestions. When an idea doesn't have merit, take the time to explain why. You can't implement every idea, but you can always make employees feel valued for their ideas.
6. Connection. Employees don’t want to work for a paycheck; they want to work with and for people.
A kind word, a short discussion about family, a brief check-in to see if they need anything... those individual moments are much more important than meetings or formal evaluations.
7. Consistency. Most people can deal with a boss who is demanding and quick to criticize... as long as he or she treats every employee the same. (Think of it as the Tom Coughlin effect.)
While you should treat each employee differently, you must treat each employee fairly. (There's a big difference.)
The key to maintaining consistency is to communicate. The more employees understand why a decision was made the less likely they are to assume favoritism or unfair treatment.
8. Future. Every job should have the potential to lead to something more, either within or outside your company.
For example, I worked at a manufacturing plant while I was in college. I had no real future with the company. Everyone understood I would only be there until I graduated.
One day my boss said, "Let me show you how we set up our production board."
I raised an eyebrow; why show me? He said, "Even though it won’t be here, some day, somewhere, you'll be in charge of production. You might as well start learning now."
Take the time to develop employees for jobs they someday hope to fill—even if those positions are outside your company. (How will you know what they hope to do? Try asking.)
Employees will care about your business when you care about them first.
Pay is important. But pay only goes so far.
Getting a raise is like buying a bigger house; soon, more becomes the new normal.
Higher wages won’t cause employees to automatically perform at a higher level. Commitment, work ethic, and motivation are not based on pay.
To truly care about your business, your employees need these eight things—and they need them from you:
1. Freedom. Best practices can create excellence, but every task doesn't deserve a best practice or a micro-managed approach. (Yes, even you, fast food industry.)
Autonomy and latitude breed engagement and satisfaction. Latitude also breeds innovation. Even manufacturing and heavily process-oriented positions have room for different approaches.
Whenever possible, give your employees the freedom to work they way they work best.
2. Targets. Goals are fun. Everyone—yes, even you—is at least a little competitive, if only with themselves. Targets create a sense of purpose and add a little meaning to even the most repetitive tasks.
Without a goal to shoot for, work is just work. And work sucks.
3. Mission. We all like to feel a part of something bigger. Striving to be worthy of words like "best" or "largest" or "fastest" or "highest quality" provides a sense of purpose.
Let employees know what you want to achieve, for your business, for customers, and even your community. And if you can, let them create a few missions of their own.
Caring starts with knowing what to care about—and why.
4. Expectations. While every job should include some degree of latitude, every job needs basic expectations regarding the way specific situations should be handled. Criticize an employee for expediting shipping today, even though last week that was the standard procedure if on-time delivery was in jeopardy, and you lose that employee.
Few things are more stressful than not knowing what your boss expects from one minute to the next.
When standards change make sure you communicate those changes first. When you can't, explain why this particular situation is different, and why you made the decision you made.
5. Input. Everyone wants to offer suggestions and ideas. Deny employees the opportunity to make suggestions, or shoot their ideas down without consideration, and you create robots.
Robots don't care.
Make it easy for employees to offer suggestions. When an idea doesn't have merit, take the time to explain why. You can't implement every idea, but you can always make employees feel valued for their ideas.
6. Connection. Employees don’t want to work for a paycheck; they want to work with and for people.
A kind word, a short discussion about family, a brief check-in to see if they need anything... those individual moments are much more important than meetings or formal evaluations.
7. Consistency. Most people can deal with a boss who is demanding and quick to criticize... as long as he or she treats every employee the same. (Think of it as the Tom Coughlin effect.)
While you should treat each employee differently, you must treat each employee fairly. (There's a big difference.)
The key to maintaining consistency is to communicate. The more employees understand why a decision was made the less likely they are to assume favoritism or unfair treatment.
8. Future. Every job should have the potential to lead to something more, either within or outside your company.
For example, I worked at a manufacturing plant while I was in college. I had no real future with the company. Everyone understood I would only be there until I graduated.
One day my boss said, "Let me show you how we set up our production board."
I raised an eyebrow; why show me? He said, "Even though it won’t be here, some day, somewhere, you'll be in charge of production. You might as well start learning now."
Take the time to develop employees for jobs they someday hope to fill—even if those positions are outside your company. (How will you know what they hope to do? Try asking.)
Employees will care about your business when you care about them first.
12/14/10
How to Promote From Within
Establish a company culture that nurtures talent and promotes high-performing employees on the basis of merit.
Many people in the workforce have experienced the feeling of being stuck in the same position far longer than the proclivity of their interests and ambitions. This often leads to a general feeling of angst regarding their job, causing employees to seek out another company for more challenging prospects. Consequently, this works against business owners who will lose a high-performing employee in the process. Instead of watching as their talent pool slowly dwindles, employers are better off establishing a company culture of promoting from within.
"It's important for companies to promote from within. Otherwise, there's no career path for the people there and it forces [employees] to constantly be job hunting because they know they're not going anywhere in that company," says Penelope Trunk, founder of Brazen Careerist, a networking hub for young professionals.
While leadership development programs are great for identifying existing talent within your ranks, it's also a good idea for business owners to establish an overall company culture of promoting from within. The following will provide steps, examples, and advice for advancing your high-performing employees into positions within the company that are commensurate with their talent.
How to Promote From Within: Hire Right the First Time Around
Craigslist may be cheap and tempting, but it's not necessarily the best way to go if your long-term goal is to promote from within.
"Spend the necessary amount of money on recruiting because you're stuck with who you're recruiting if you promote from within," says Trunk.
Headhunters, established networking events, online networks, and word of mouth recommendations can lead to reputable prospects in lieu of blind ad posting. However, no matter what method you choose to line up an employee, their performance is ultimately what matters most. Luke Holden, co-owner of Luke's Lobster, shifted several of his employees that began in food preparation positions into managerial positions over the course of the company's first year, including his general managers and director of catering and special events. "We haven't necessarily gone in the direction of finding someone that has a ton of previous experience, but rather hiring good, smart people that want to learn and achieve."
Ooshma Garg, formerly of Anapata and founder and CEO of Gooble, an online marketplace for home cooked food, has implemented an eight to ten week trial-to-hire strategy. "When I meet someone who I think will be a great fit for our company, I'll meet with them and if we decide that we want to try out this relationship, we'll set a certain project for them with a completion date that is typically eight to ten weeks away (our trial periods are always eight to ten weeks) and a set deliverable," she says. The deliverable will be a metric and will vary depending on the position. "For instance, if I were to hire someone on the marketing end or the sales end, I would say, 'this metric is that in eight to ten weeks, you'll bring 250 new chefs to the Gobble network,'" Garg explains. For a more technical position, the metric may be for a developer to improve upon or to create a program within the Gobble infrastructure. During the trial period, Gooble provides class credit for candidates who are students, and a stipend for those who are not.
"When I haven't followed this method, I can definitely see the difference, see the problems that occur when you put someone into a role without having worked with them before and without having developed them from day one," says Garg.
Once you have the right people onboard, how can you make sure that your employees move up accordingly?
How to Promote From Within: Make Your Employees Take Risks
Trial and error is a great learning process for everyone, and your employees aren't exempt from occasional failure. However, it's how they handle new tasks that will show you what they're made of, and if they have the potential to take on an increasing number of responsibilities. Advises Trunk, "sometimes when you're training someone to be promoted, you should give them work that they've never done before, and they'll mess it up. But the company culture has to respect that people who are learning mess up, and that's okay as long as they're learning."
How should a manager go about allowing an employee to botch a task? Trunk states that if you're managing an employee closely, you should be able to identify the exact area the employee will miscalculate. "If you know where they're going to fail, you can catch them before they do any damage," says Trunk. "You can say, 'well, you did this wrong and here's the thing that you should ask next time.'" She says that a good manager can manage all failure so that it's a learning experience.
In this case, a manager can decide indendently how much time they want to invest in helping the employee during the trial and error process. Based on the needs of the company, a manager may want to continue training an employee or, after a sufficient period, opt to promote someone else or hire an external candidate. At that point "it's a cost benefit analysis," says Trunk.
How to Promote From Within: If An Employee Wants More Responsibility, Give it to Them
Natalie Reinert started out as a merchandise hostess at Walt Disney World Resort in 2005. Desiring more responsbility, she took matters into her own hands. "I went to my leadership and told them I would like to move up, and they agreed I could do that," she says. Six months later, she became a coordinator. After informing her area leader that leadership (the lingo for management at Disney) was her ultimate goal, Reinert was assigned a mentor from the leadership casting team. She was then given a breadth of challenging tasks that included tracking the financial data in her assigned store, working with other departments to determine shelf inventory, and creating an efficient system to track customer orders. Leading up to her leadership assessment, "I mock interviewed with at least a dozen managers from across the park who volunteered their time to work with me," says Reinert. She became a retail guest service manager in 2008.
However, some people have remained in entry-level positions through their entire time with Disney, lacking the initiative to advance into positions that require additional levels of responsibility. Disney is a large conglomerate organization that requires an abundance of personnel. However, smaller companies or businesses in general that want to make sure their staff is working to the fullest extent of its potential can choose to adopt an "up or out" policy.
"An up or out culture tends to make people higher performers," says Trunk. "If I start seeing that [my employees are] not going to grow at my company, I try to counsel them about what they should be doing and where they would grow. Really, any good manager shouldn't have to fire someone. They should be making it totally clear that this isn't the right job for them and that person should want to leave anyway. The term is called counseling out as opposed to promoting from within."
Garg takes a different approach with respect to challenging her employees. She requires that they create a specific set of goals for themselves prior to being hired. During her initial meeting with a prospective employee prior to the commencement of their trial-to-hire period, she gives them a survey in which they are required to list three goals that they would like to achieve during their working relationship with Gobble, which do not have to relate directly to the position for which they are being hired. "What do they want to learn about? Do they want to learn how start-ups get customers? Do they want to learn about how start-ups do accounting? It doesn't necessarily have to relate to their role, but I want to make sure that they're developing themselves personally as well as professionally," she says. Those goals are later reassessed every quarter, along with performance evaluations as per their duties with Gobble. Garg credits this method for allowing her staff to visualize their goals. "I think that's helped people achieve their goals and, thus, take on more responsibilites almost consistently every three months," she says. "I am promoting them by using their own goals and their own chosen deliverables."
How to Promote From Within: Value the Teaching Experience
Managers are referred to leaders at Disney "because it's about finding talent and teaching," says Reinert. "A big part of your job is teaching."
When Reinert first notified her superiors that she desired to advance into the position of coordinator, the company provided her with a binder filled with information, including the classes that she could take through Disney University and other management in various Disney support offices that she should meet with in order to better understand the chain of command.
"The only way to get someone to the next level is to have very strong coaching and very strong mentoring. If you don't reward people for good mentoring, then people aren't going to get the mentoring they need to be promoted," states Trunk.
For a smaller businesses, it is essential that management offer creative and cost-effective ways for employees to reap the benefits of on the job education. Presently, Gobble employs between five to ten people, which includes full-time and part-time workers, as well as interns. Garg has adopted an inclusive culture within her start-up so that employees can both learn and grow simultaneously.
"As much as I can, I leave meetings and events open that I am invited to for our employees to attend. So, if I'm meeting with an investor and an employee's personal goal is to one day start their own company or to understand how founders communicate or how founders fundraise, I will do my best to try and include them in one or more meetings that investors may consent to," she explains.
Garg is well aware of the apprehension that some of her associates may feel when it comes to including their staff in the intimate details of company operations, but she has found that many of those fears are misdirected. "Some founders might be afraid that involving employees in so many events or meetings may encourage them to leave or find other job opportunities or find other interests," she says. "But what I find is that it absolutely increases their loyalty to you and to the company because they understand that you care about them and not just their work."
How to Promote From Within: Be Open and Encourage Feedback
Do your employees feel comfortable talking to you? This may be a great indicator of your company's future success when it comes to promoting from within. Managers should be open to evaluation in the same way they allow their employees to be evaluated.
"I think it's important to consistently get feedback from your teammates; constantly culling your teammates to ask how their job is going, how you're doing your job, how you can do it better, the good things you're doing, constantly getting 360 feedback," says Holden.
Stacey Thomson, public relations manager at Disney Institute, the external training division for all of the Walt Disney Companies, believes that companies should institute open door policies that extend to both private and professional matters. "If you truly have that open door policy, then they're going to feel comfortable coming to you and saying, you know, 'I saw this position posted in XYZ division of the company and I'd really like to put my name in the hat for that,'" she says.
As with family, a close knit team may not be able to imagine the loss of high-performing employees that have become essential to the fabric of their department. However, Thomson stresses that, although those employees may be doing a great job, your best bet is to promote them into a position where they can do a better one.
"In reality, those employees will probably leave on their own if you don't encourage them."
http://www.inc.com/guides/2010/12/how-to-promote-from-within.html
Many people in the workforce have experienced the feeling of being stuck in the same position far longer than the proclivity of their interests and ambitions. This often leads to a general feeling of angst regarding their job, causing employees to seek out another company for more challenging prospects. Consequently, this works against business owners who will lose a high-performing employee in the process. Instead of watching as their talent pool slowly dwindles, employers are better off establishing a company culture of promoting from within.
"It's important for companies to promote from within. Otherwise, there's no career path for the people there and it forces [employees] to constantly be job hunting because they know they're not going anywhere in that company," says Penelope Trunk, founder of Brazen Careerist, a networking hub for young professionals.
While leadership development programs are great for identifying existing talent within your ranks, it's also a good idea for business owners to establish an overall company culture of promoting from within. The following will provide steps, examples, and advice for advancing your high-performing employees into positions within the company that are commensurate with their talent.
How to Promote From Within: Hire Right the First Time Around
Craigslist may be cheap and tempting, but it's not necessarily the best way to go if your long-term goal is to promote from within.
"Spend the necessary amount of money on recruiting because you're stuck with who you're recruiting if you promote from within," says Trunk.
Headhunters, established networking events, online networks, and word of mouth recommendations can lead to reputable prospects in lieu of blind ad posting. However, no matter what method you choose to line up an employee, their performance is ultimately what matters most. Luke Holden, co-owner of Luke's Lobster, shifted several of his employees that began in food preparation positions into managerial positions over the course of the company's first year, including his general managers and director of catering and special events. "We haven't necessarily gone in the direction of finding someone that has a ton of previous experience, but rather hiring good, smart people that want to learn and achieve."
Ooshma Garg, formerly of Anapata and founder and CEO of Gooble, an online marketplace for home cooked food, has implemented an eight to ten week trial-to-hire strategy. "When I meet someone who I think will be a great fit for our company, I'll meet with them and if we decide that we want to try out this relationship, we'll set a certain project for them with a completion date that is typically eight to ten weeks away (our trial periods are always eight to ten weeks) and a set deliverable," she says. The deliverable will be a metric and will vary depending on the position. "For instance, if I were to hire someone on the marketing end or the sales end, I would say, 'this metric is that in eight to ten weeks, you'll bring 250 new chefs to the Gobble network,'" Garg explains. For a more technical position, the metric may be for a developer to improve upon or to create a program within the Gobble infrastructure. During the trial period, Gooble provides class credit for candidates who are students, and a stipend for those who are not.
"When I haven't followed this method, I can definitely see the difference, see the problems that occur when you put someone into a role without having worked with them before and without having developed them from day one," says Garg.
Once you have the right people onboard, how can you make sure that your employees move up accordingly?
How to Promote From Within: Make Your Employees Take Risks
Trial and error is a great learning process for everyone, and your employees aren't exempt from occasional failure. However, it's how they handle new tasks that will show you what they're made of, and if they have the potential to take on an increasing number of responsibilities. Advises Trunk, "sometimes when you're training someone to be promoted, you should give them work that they've never done before, and they'll mess it up. But the company culture has to respect that people who are learning mess up, and that's okay as long as they're learning."
How should a manager go about allowing an employee to botch a task? Trunk states that if you're managing an employee closely, you should be able to identify the exact area the employee will miscalculate. "If you know where they're going to fail, you can catch them before they do any damage," says Trunk. "You can say, 'well, you did this wrong and here's the thing that you should ask next time.'" She says that a good manager can manage all failure so that it's a learning experience.
In this case, a manager can decide indendently how much time they want to invest in helping the employee during the trial and error process. Based on the needs of the company, a manager may want to continue training an employee or, after a sufficient period, opt to promote someone else or hire an external candidate. At that point "it's a cost benefit analysis," says Trunk.
How to Promote From Within: If An Employee Wants More Responsibility, Give it to Them
Natalie Reinert started out as a merchandise hostess at Walt Disney World Resort in 2005. Desiring more responsbility, she took matters into her own hands. "I went to my leadership and told them I would like to move up, and they agreed I could do that," she says. Six months later, she became a coordinator. After informing her area leader that leadership (the lingo for management at Disney) was her ultimate goal, Reinert was assigned a mentor from the leadership casting team. She was then given a breadth of challenging tasks that included tracking the financial data in her assigned store, working with other departments to determine shelf inventory, and creating an efficient system to track customer orders. Leading up to her leadership assessment, "I mock interviewed with at least a dozen managers from across the park who volunteered their time to work with me," says Reinert. She became a retail guest service manager in 2008.
However, some people have remained in entry-level positions through their entire time with Disney, lacking the initiative to advance into positions that require additional levels of responsibility. Disney is a large conglomerate organization that requires an abundance of personnel. However, smaller companies or businesses in general that want to make sure their staff is working to the fullest extent of its potential can choose to adopt an "up or out" policy.
"An up or out culture tends to make people higher performers," says Trunk. "If I start seeing that [my employees are] not going to grow at my company, I try to counsel them about what they should be doing and where they would grow. Really, any good manager shouldn't have to fire someone. They should be making it totally clear that this isn't the right job for them and that person should want to leave anyway. The term is called counseling out as opposed to promoting from within."
Garg takes a different approach with respect to challenging her employees. She requires that they create a specific set of goals for themselves prior to being hired. During her initial meeting with a prospective employee prior to the commencement of their trial-to-hire period, she gives them a survey in which they are required to list three goals that they would like to achieve during their working relationship with Gobble, which do not have to relate directly to the position for which they are being hired. "What do they want to learn about? Do they want to learn how start-ups get customers? Do they want to learn about how start-ups do accounting? It doesn't necessarily have to relate to their role, but I want to make sure that they're developing themselves personally as well as professionally," she says. Those goals are later reassessed every quarter, along with performance evaluations as per their duties with Gobble. Garg credits this method for allowing her staff to visualize their goals. "I think that's helped people achieve their goals and, thus, take on more responsibilites almost consistently every three months," she says. "I am promoting them by using their own goals and their own chosen deliverables."
How to Promote From Within: Value the Teaching Experience
Managers are referred to leaders at Disney "because it's about finding talent and teaching," says Reinert. "A big part of your job is teaching."
When Reinert first notified her superiors that she desired to advance into the position of coordinator, the company provided her with a binder filled with information, including the classes that she could take through Disney University and other management in various Disney support offices that she should meet with in order to better understand the chain of command.
"The only way to get someone to the next level is to have very strong coaching and very strong mentoring. If you don't reward people for good mentoring, then people aren't going to get the mentoring they need to be promoted," states Trunk.
For a smaller businesses, it is essential that management offer creative and cost-effective ways for employees to reap the benefits of on the job education. Presently, Gobble employs between five to ten people, which includes full-time and part-time workers, as well as interns. Garg has adopted an inclusive culture within her start-up so that employees can both learn and grow simultaneously.
"As much as I can, I leave meetings and events open that I am invited to for our employees to attend. So, if I'm meeting with an investor and an employee's personal goal is to one day start their own company or to understand how founders communicate or how founders fundraise, I will do my best to try and include them in one or more meetings that investors may consent to," she explains.
Garg is well aware of the apprehension that some of her associates may feel when it comes to including their staff in the intimate details of company operations, but she has found that many of those fears are misdirected. "Some founders might be afraid that involving employees in so many events or meetings may encourage them to leave or find other job opportunities or find other interests," she says. "But what I find is that it absolutely increases their loyalty to you and to the company because they understand that you care about them and not just their work."
How to Promote From Within: Be Open and Encourage Feedback
Do your employees feel comfortable talking to you? This may be a great indicator of your company's future success when it comes to promoting from within. Managers should be open to evaluation in the same way they allow their employees to be evaluated.
"I think it's important to consistently get feedback from your teammates; constantly culling your teammates to ask how their job is going, how you're doing your job, how you can do it better, the good things you're doing, constantly getting 360 feedback," says Holden.
Stacey Thomson, public relations manager at Disney Institute, the external training division for all of the Walt Disney Companies, believes that companies should institute open door policies that extend to both private and professional matters. "If you truly have that open door policy, then they're going to feel comfortable coming to you and saying, you know, 'I saw this position posted in XYZ division of the company and I'd really like to put my name in the hat for that,'" she says.
As with family, a close knit team may not be able to imagine the loss of high-performing employees that have become essential to the fabric of their department. However, Thomson stresses that, although those employees may be doing a great job, your best bet is to promote them into a position where they can do a better one.
"In reality, those employees will probably leave on their own if you don't encourage them."
http://www.inc.com/guides/2010/12/how-to-promote-from-within.html
12/1/10
What to Consider When Giving a Holiday Bonus
'Tis the holiday season, and for businesses that means considering how to indulge employees with vacation time, holiday parties and, the most loaded perk, holiday bonuses.
Holiday bonuses are a longtime tradition for industries like finance — think the big Wall Street firms that get Christmas bonuses the size of annual salaries — and the National Labor Relations Board has allowed unionized workers to make holiday bonuses a contractual obligation. But small businesses operate in a nebulous realm of personal discretion, where owners set their own precedent for holiday extras.
Owners can establish gifts around the holidays as an act of goodwill or as part of employees' pay package, says Harry Dannenberg, chairman of the New York City chapter of SCORE, a national nonprofit organization that offers small business counseling and advice. "It's such a personal issue that there's not a precedent for it," he says. "Different industries have different attitudes about it. If you're a mom-and-pop operation and you're part of a business family, you might have a more generous approach to the holidays than if you run a chain."
In a survey last December, Challenger, Gray & Christmas, an outplacement consulting firm, found that 64 percent of employers planned to give holiday bonuses, up from 54 percent in 2008, when most industries were strained by a bad economy. Greater economic conditions certainly play into whether to give a holiday bonus, Dannenberg says, but it's good form to show employees appreciation for a successful year. "If I had a good year and people worked very hard for me, I might make a statement of how grateful we all are by presenting them with a nice gift," he says. "But it's very individual, especially with small businesses, and how you relate to the people who work for you."
This year's holiday bonus will set the precedent for subsequent years', so structuring bonuses to be affordable yet considerate is key.
How to Structure a Holiday Bonus: Decide its Purpose
What role will a holiday bonus play in your overall, yearlong pay scheme? Is it a substitute for a year-end bonus? Is it a substantial contribution to annual pay? Or is it a token of holiday spirit?
If a business already pays a year-end bonus, a holiday bonus becomes more of a gift of appreciation than part of employees' annual pay and benefits package, Dannenberg says. "If you're in a business where you get year-end bonuses, usually Christmas becomes far less of a significant issue," he says. "If you're a clerk in the store and the owner wants to spread a little cheer and give some money, give families turkeys, it becomes a small thank-you. A big thank-you is a raise or a year-end bonus."
Ben Hemminger, CEO of Fashionphile, a Beverly Hills company that sells second-hand luxury handbags, says he gives a year-end bonus around the holidays. The family-owned business has 11 employees, mostly part-timers, and the full-time employees "are all related to me," he says. Full-timers get a $500 check — taxes deducted and all — around the last week of December, and part-timers receive a $100 cash card. "There's probably a more intriguing way to do it," he says, "but everybody would rather have the money than something worth the money."
Dannenberg agrees that token thank-yous like cash cards belong at the general employee level, not the management level. "It should be given to employees who provide a service in a business," he says. "In something like auto repair or retail, it becomes more of a gesture of recognition of service."
How to Structure a Holiday Bonus: Budgeting the Bonus
Holiday bonuses meant as tokens of appreciation don't belong in a business plan, Dannenberg says. Rather, he suggests looking at revenue from the first 10 months of the year to decide how to approach bonuses each holiday season. "Say it was a good year, I made money, therefore, on the strength of that performance, I can give 'x,'" he says. But use generosity in moderation, Dannenberg warned. Being too generous in a good year could make for an embarrassing downgrade in a bad year.
Six-year-old Fashionphile spends a few thousand dollars on year-end bonuses and year-end gifts for its part-time employees, but Hemminger says everyone understands the bonus is a small token. "No one gets paid a whole lot to begin with, so it's not like we have high expectations," he says.
Start-up businesses should do some footwork before deciding how to approach bonuses, Dannenberg says. "The issue becomes what is the precedent," he says. "If I were starting a new business, I would go around and chat with other similar merchants to see what they do. Get a feel for how other people make that evaluation and judgment."
How to Structure a Holiday Bonus: Cash versus Gift
If a holiday bonus isn't an established part of annual pay, a gift is just as meaningful as a little cash — sometimes more so if the cash gift is going to be small. "You give someone a really small amount, it's insulting," Dannenberg says. "But give them a nice bottle of wine and something that costs $10, it's nice. With a nice note, it's an expression of thanks, a matter of holiday spirit and cheer."
Hemminger says he's considering giving employees gift cards for the three restaurants they go to for lunch every day — a tax-free and useful gift, he says.
Blurb, a San Francisco publishing company where authors design their books online, during the holidays fields orders from businesses making books for their employees as holiday gifts. The employer designs the book from size and shape to content — photos or photos and text. Square books start at around $13.
When Dannenberg owned a chain of six retail stores, around the holidays he would give employees a big basket filled with fruit and a turkey. "They grew to look forward to it and enjoy it," he says, adding, "I would stay away from giving money at Christmas because of the potential cost.
"I'd go with a nice box of candy and a bottle of wine, something that you can have uniformity that everyone can enjoy."
So as you decide how to handle the holidays, keep in mind that whether it's cash or wine, to employees, it's your appreciation for their service that counts.
http://www.inc.com/guides/2010/11/what-to-consider-when-giving-a-holiday-bonus.html
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