Job satisfaction

Keeping excellent employees is not just a matter of throwing money at them. Employees want to be content in their positions doing worthwhile jobs. You need to talk to them, find out what’s on their mind and how you can make their role in the organisation more desirable.

And don’t just talk to other management employees – you need to be seen at the coalface. This is where your team invariably deals with customers. How do you expect these employees to communicate with your customers and keep them happy if management never communicates with them?

You don’t want to lose great employees. But you might need to develop strategies to retain them, which would include:
 Treating employees as individuals and involving them in decision making
 Trying to hire internally first
 Continually offering training and skill improvements
 Discussing career development opportunities with your team/staff
 Encourage a life/work balance and being flexible on issues such as parental leave, job sharing, part-time work
 Developing a supportive environment where employees feel they can openly discuss problems with management
 Creating a team culture where employees participate together in sporting teams, social club events and social evenings
 Reviewing salary packages and other benefits at appropriate intervals.


The greatest asset of a small to medium-sized business is a well-developed and loyal team. Whether it emerges will depend on whether you, as the employer, have instigated best practice in human resources.

www.astillhawke.co.nz

Keep Reviewing the Business

When was the last time you checked performance against your business plan?

The business plan needs to be under continual review to make sure you are successfully implementing each planned stage. It won’t be any use to you unless you use it.

By writing a business plan you’ve taken the time to plan in detail what your business goals and objectives are – it’s a living, working document, not something to be filed away and then dusted off for review in a couple of years time.

This concentrated thinking, discussion and debate is the key to the formulation of a workable and achievable business plan. And as long as actual performance is monitored against it, the plan should significantly assist in the long-term survival of the business.

Ideally you should review performance on a regular monthly basis, or at the very least on a quarterly basis. Ask the fundamental questions:
 Where are we?
 Are we heading in the right direction?
 Will we achieve the goals and objectives of our business plan?
 Should we review pricing structures?
 What has been the effect of the consumer price index increase?
 What has been the effect of price rises in our particular business?
 Should we raise our prices?
 Should the gross profit percentage be higher?
 Have we got empathy with customers?

On an annual basis you need to compare actual financial performance to the budgets and cash flow forecast. Ask:
 How did we perform?
 What went wrong?
 Have we learnt from the mistakes?
 Did we exceed budget expectations anywhere? Why?
 Can we capitalise on these improvements?

A valuable assessment is to compare your business figures to industry statistics (ask your accountant about obtaining this information).

You’ll also want to know: What is the general business climate in your area? Is it conducive to your type of business? Should you be expanding, drawing back or diversifying? What is the status of your investment in stock?

Don’t forget that the business review should also include an appraisal of what has been happening within your team. You need to look at:
 Recruitment
 Training and development
 Meetings
 Employment agreements
 Wage/salary reviews.

Use your business plan as a day-by-day, week-by-week, month-by-month reference point to compare where your business is against what you planned it to be. If there are any deviations, immediately investigate them and try to take corrective action.

www.astillhawke.co.nz

Networking – the Way of the Future

Running a small business these days is no mean feat. Far from it. In fact small business owners today need very diverse skills and considerable expertise – not to mention many more hours in a day – just to survive. It’s little wonder we keep seeing so many businesses collapse.

You have to find a smarter way to do business.

Give some thought to networking. Networking happens when a group of enterprises get together to pool their talents and resources to obtain results that otherwise
This is an ideal way to glean useful skills and expertise, as a group of people can bring a huge number of different skills to the table. But the real gains are to be made in forging links with other companies – your combined strength or clout may open up opportunities not available to single entities, for example in developing new markets both domestic and export.

Think about it this way. You might see a fantastic opportunity to market your products internationally, but because of your size you just don’t have the resources to develop it. With the support of a network you’re likely to have a much better chance.

Like many small to medium-sized enterprises, your business may have limited resources, limited skills, limited capital base and insufficient critical management skills to be truly international. But the strength you gain from a network, which brings together different skills, resources and more capital, could offer the support you need to clinch the deal.

www.astillhawke.co.nz