You’ve got plenty on your plate as a small business owner, and chances are you’re not doing this all alone – your employees likely pull a lot of this weight. That’s why employee management is perhaps the most important task on your plate. This guide to employee management for small business owners can help you stay organized and manage your company more efficiently. Below, learn some tips on how to master communication, teamwork, goal-setting, and more.
A significant part of effective employee management is effective team communication. That’s because workplace communication:
Below, several employee management best practices are grouped into eight key areas:
Effective teamwork is more likely when you and your employees:
The best leaders figure out how to grow their employees from their current roles into more demanding, exciting ones. That’s because employees who grow alongside a company often feel more motivated to see the company succeed. To help your employees grow in this way, you’ll likely need an employee development plan.
A great employee development plan offers training opportunities that pertain to both your employees and your company. That said, an employee interested in growing isn’t always ready to move up, so assess whether now or later is the time to start the employee’s development. Then, set up a plan based on available opportunities that you know of and regularly check in on the employee’s progress.
Employees perform better when they’re working toward goals that come from leaders. This way, they’ll know what work they must do and how to do it.
Any employee goals you set should be SMART: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-based. This way, employees can work on tasks with clear details and tracking processes, and their assignments will be realistically achievable by the deadline you’ve set.
Your employees can be involved in your goal-setting process as well. To make goal-setting a team effort, you should get your team on the same page about processes and expectations. Sharing some example goals can help too. Once you’ve aligned everyone, assemble a shared calendar to display whether your deadlines are realistic according to everyone’s schedules. Then, detail your tracking metrics and explain how employees can request goal adjustments.
Employee feedback can be a tricky part of effective management. There’s a line to walk between coming off harsh and giving employees the constructive criticism you know they need. Complicating matters is that immediately providing feedback can prevent employees from making mistakes, but delivering feedback when you’re most bothered can make you appear intimidating. Of course, there are solutions to all these feedback-related problems.
Try setting up regular feedback sessions or one-on-one meetings in which you give fair, specific feedback. Remember that an employee’s way of doing things, given their background and skills, may differ from yours, and often, that’s okay. Try to give an equal amount of positive and constructive feedback. Consider giving the employee in question a preview of your feedback session beforehand so they can prepare to explain their perspective.
At the end of your feedback session, offer some next steps and allow the employee to give you their own feedback. This way, feedback becomes a two-way, rather than a one-way, street.
Employee retention, performance, and engagement are all key to long-term company success. For example, when employees constantly come and go, you lose their expertise, not to mention the time and money you’ve spent training them. To retain high-performing employees, you should implement employee recognition initiatives.
Tried-and-true employee recognition ideas include highlighting employee accomplishments, making small but meaningful gestures, and turning your break room into an especially fun space. It can also mean giving employees more choice and flexibility in their workdays, getting to know your employees outside the workplace, and simply saying “thank you” more often. Anything that tactfully shows your employees how much you value them can be worth the effort.
Let’s face it: Work can be exhausting. Even employees who love their jobs sometimes get overworked or deal with personal stresses that bleed into their workdays. As a small business owner, it’s on you to keep your employees motivated both when employees are feeling driven and when they are not.
An inviting office space helmed by a respectful, supportive, transparent leader is a great start. So too are opportunities for employees to grow and earn incentives. Flexible scheduling can be especially helpful, as some employees simply work better outside the traditional hours of the nine-to-five workday. Perhaps the most important thing is to address your employees’ wants and needs. This way, your team appreciates you and feels more motivated to work for you.
Although the first Friday of every March is Employee Appreciation Day, you should consistently go out of your way to appreciate your employees. After all, when employees feel seen, they’re more likely to stick around and do their jobs well.
Where employee recognition initiatives regularly shout out your team, employee appreciation ideas are bigger once-in-a-while gestures. They can include happy hour with the team, remote meal deliveries that you pay for, gift cards, or group chair massages. These occasions can function as employee gifts, which employees do appreciate.
Remote work means a lack of in-person interaction and, often, an abundance of distractions. It also eliminates casual office conversations that help improve employee performance the very moment potential issues arise. In other words, it’s missing a lot of what makes offices special. But it’s also here to stay, for now, given the COVID-19 pandemic, and, as a small business owner, part of your role is to effectively manage your remote team members.
Doing so is a matter of setting expectations, implementing cloud-based project management and time tracking software, and conducting regular employee one-on-ones. You should also make up for the isolation that can accompany remote work by carving out social time with your entire team. Arrange for video conferencing happy hours or, if feasible, in-person events. No matter what, make yourself consistently available so that, even from a distance, your team remains connected.
No two small business owners have quite the same management style, but the most successful leaders prioritize all the same things. Teamwork, goal-setting, employee development, transparency and employee motivation, recognition, and appreciation – it’s all part and parcel of great employee management. So too is constantly figuring out how you can improve as a manager, and the SmartBiz Loans® Learning Center has plenty of employee management resources. Just as you’re there for your employees, these resources are here for you.