Employees can be entrepreneurs'
biggest challenge -- and their greatest asset.
Valued employees will be there for you when you need them. They can
perform in your presence and cover for you in your absence. Sure,
you may be taken advantage of on occasion. But my experience suggests
that will be the exception rather than the rule.
Which is why the wise entrepreneur will learn quickly to take care
of his or her people. Treat employees well, and most of the time they
will treat you well by coming through for you. They will help you
accomplish things you couldn't accomplish without them. Whereas owners
are like the tip of the iceberg that rises above the water line to
brave the cold wind or bask in the warm sunshine, employees represent
the unseen mass that keeps their heads above water.
Similarly, employers can be important in the lives of their employees.
Just as we all remember outstanding teachers in our lives who gave
us the tools, skills and opportunities to excel and then pushed us
to do our best, most of us can also remember employers who played
the same role in our lives. In a very real way, the employer-employee
relationship is symbiotic and can be vitally important to the happiness
and success of both parties.
Which is why I would suggest to entrepreneurs that employee service
should come ahead of customer service. Indeed, employees are our most
valuable customers. Good employers cultivate and develop employees
just as they cultivate and develop valued contributors. It should
be viewed as a compliment if employees go on to bigger and better
things.
Employee turnover can be fatal and is one of the biggest costs in
doing business. Some companies with high turnover seem to have an
attitude of "turn and burn." They burn through employees, who finally
get fed up with mistreatment -- real or perceived -- and go elsewhere.
Other successful companies lower employee turnover and its commensurate
costs by providing fair salaries, benefits and training. |
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"Fair salaries"
are especially important in this equation. To get the best, you have
to pay the best. Those who pay minimum wages can only expect minimum
results. Many shortsighted employers also keep employees at part-time
so they don't have to provide full-time benefits.
Mike Nichols of MNI said, "It seems unethical
to be getting rich while the troops are making minimum wage and remain
unprotected." Hyrum Smith of Franklin Covey believed that the most
valuable employee was the one who the outside world speaks to first.
This doesn't negate the profit incentive; it's simply a matter of
balance and doing what's right.
Nor should the older and more mature employees
be overlooked. Someone with more age, experience and gray hair may
be more stable and valuable to your company, especially through the
start-up years. Look around -- even McDonald's now has older employees
who want to be useful and who know how to treat customers right.
A wise man said, "We parents are only trustees
of our children. They are ours for a short time while they are with
us. Hopefully, they will become our friends." It's that way with our
employees, too. We need to stay focused on what's important for them
while we have them. If they know we believe in them and have faith
in them, they will respond accordingly.
Employees are our first and best resource. Take
care of them, and they will take care of you. |
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