FOUNDATION BRICK #4: Guide Your PEOPLE

Think Staff Are Your Biggest Problem? Think Again!

The 3 Biggest Staff Frustrations and How To Resolve Them

In case you missed my previous blog, I've named 2024: The Year For Small Business Renovations and outlined these 5 Foundation Bricks you need to build a simple profitable brick business you actually love.

1. Embrace Your ROLE
2. Focus Your TIME
3. Design Your SYSTEMS
4. Guide Your PEOPLE
5. Build Your BUSINESS

And they all impact on each other so if you don't truly FIRST embrace your ROLE and focus your TIME, then cracks will appear in every other foundation brick.

Once you've made some tweaks and hard decisions on wearing the title of small business owner as a badge of honour and how you value your time, you can then target it more strategically to building the remaining 3 Foundation Bricks which will actually improve the profitability, productivity and performance of your small business.

In this blog, I share the 3 biggest frustrations staff tell me about and how to resolve them. And trust me, I could have listed 100 more!

You can read more of my blogs including about the first 3 Foundation Bricks here.

FOUNDATION BRICK #4 Guide Your PEOPLE

If you've already got staff or thinking about growing your team, you'll know how important it is to get the right people into your small business.

Make the right recruitment decision, and your business can flourish. Get it wrong and you'll wonder why you ever took the plunge.

When I ask my audience members and clients about their team, unfortunately too often they tell me they're spending all their time managing them so they feel staff are a hindrance to the business instead of the helping hand they thought they were getting.

And it pains me to hear story after story like this.

But I believe this happens because, with the best of intentions, small business owners:

1. Forget that people are the heart of their business which means as soon as you employ someone, you will be spending a lot of your time making sure they have the tools they need to succeed.

2. Just want a 'warm body' to do XYZ so if someone has the skills, they're in – regardless of whether they are the right fit for the culture of your business.

Having worked with registered training organisations (RTOs) for over 25 years, I see this all the time. They hire a trainer who has the qualifications and skills on paper but never take the time to actually see them present a training session or find out about their values, work ethic and expectations to see if they will suit their RTO business.

3. Invest lots of time and money on recruitment but very little on induction and training.

4. Don't have the documented systems in place so the new staff member knows what they can and can't do in their role.

If this is an issue for your small business, then please read my Foundation Brick Blog #3 which is all about designing your systems.

Now I've been around enough businesses to know there's always two sides (and sometimes more) to the story, and the perspectives of staff and management often vary considerably.

But before we start just blaming staff for why they're not doing their job properly, I think it's important to hear from the other side of the fence.

So let me share with you the 3 biggest frustrations staff tell me about and how to resolve them. And trust me, I could have listed 100 more!

The 3 Biggest Staff Frustrations and How To Resolve Them

FRUSTRATION #1 Changing Goal Posts

I'm sure you're not surprised this is number one.

After all, we know if nothing changes, nothing changes right?

We live in a world where the only constant we have is change. Yet despite knowing this, most people actually don't like change – even more so after dealing with everything the pandemic threw at us and it's still going as we navigate very challenging times with the costs of living pressures.

So is it any wonder staff get frustrated when the goalposts of the business, their role and responsibilities etc continually get changed as their business owner keeps chasing what I call 'shiny objects'?

One day, their customer base is individuals, the next it's suddenly organisations and new products, services and priorities keep appearing or disappearing in some cases.

Staff crave clarity and whilst they love your innovation and wanting to be ahead of competitors; what they want more is to actually finish just one priority before another 10 are thrown at them.

When goalposts change every day and sometimes every hour, rather than staying the course; all this does is frustrate and overwhelm staff who don't know what they should be focusing on.

Result: The 'good' staff will eventually leave and those that aren't the right fit will fly under the radar because you're changing your mind so much that accountability and responsibility have gone out the window so they'll just cruise along, doing what's needed and taking your hard earned money.

FRUSTRATION #2 All Talk and No Action

This frustration goes hand in hand with the first one because what's just as bad as the goalposts constantly changing is for an owner who says they'll do all these things but unfortunately does none.

They keep asking for ideas and feedback which staff happily provide, only to find it goes into a blackhole, never to be heard of again.

Result: Frustrated staff who not only stop providing ideas and feedback to improve the business, but they've lost trust in the owner and therefore don't believe them when they say they'll do something. Staff then just keep soldiering on the best they can until they reach the tipping point and leave OR keep taking a pay check from a workplace they no longer enjoy because that's the easiest option for them right now.

Neither outcome is great for your small business.

FRUSTRATION #3 Role Keeps Getting Bigger

In any business, you'll always have a few staff who seem to do tasks quicker and easier than anyone else. Which usually also means you give them more and more work because they fill any crack when it appears.

Maybe you've said this to a staff member: 'Oh could you just please do XYZ by this afternoon?'

And I bet they probably say yes and get on with it. But eventually this takes a toll on them – and they become mentally and physically burnt out under the weight of expectation.

So instead of you having this great staff member who loves coming to work; they've become overwhelmed, exhausted and at a loss as to why you can't see that the workload expectation is unrealistic.

And their family are probably saying, 'isn't it time to look for something else?'

Aside from small businesses, I see this a lot in not for profit organisations where someone has joined the organisation because they believe in the cause and want to make a difference. Then under the guise of 'money's tight', staff continue to be asked to work longer and longer hours and they feel guilty if they don't because they believe in the cause.

But eventually, people reach a tipping point and say 'enough' and exit quickly which can certainly leave your business stretched to say the least.

Now to be fair, staff like this also have to take some ownership of getting themselves into this because they kept saying YES rather than having the honest conversation with you like 'Well if you want me to do that, I have to stop doing this. Is that OK?'.

But often staff don't feel empowered enough to say that to their boss – something I help staff understand and gain confidence to do because by saying yes, they're not helping you, the business or themselves.

If they keep saying yes and delivering the outcomes for you, then how are you to know the workload is unmanageable if they don't tell you?

So rather than lose great staff who'd prefer to leave than have this discussion with you, I encourage you to have an honest conversation with every one of your staff to talk about their current workload to determine if it's realistic, do they have the capacity and capability to undertake it, what tools and support do they need to be given the best chance of success etc.

And please remember: If it's been a while since you've done that role or task, rather than assuming it still takes 1 hour to complete, ask the staff member how long it takes because our memories can trick us into thinking it only takes a short time when maybe your systems, technology and amount of eg data entry means it takes four times as long as you thought.

What's Next?

As you can see, these three common frustrations are all inter-related and can be easily fixed by:

• Doing what you say you're going to do (or if you can't, then just communicate this with your team)

• Stop saying YES to everything and everyone

• Being clear on the priorities and don't have too many

• Checking in regularly with staff to ensure their workload is manageable

• Ensure staff have the tools (documented systems and training) for success

• Providing clarity to staff about what they can and can't do in their role, and also who does what in the team

• Asking questions rather than assuming.

And here's my final thought:

When you think about it, it's easy to set staff up for success by providing them with Clarity, Systems and Support each and every day.

So before you start blaming staff or getting frustrated with them, please first invest in induction and training to ensure you always Hire Slow but Fire Fast.

Then staff will be the help you need for your small business to grow rather than the hinderance you might be feeling at the moment.

P.S.Please join me on Thursday 25 July for my FREE Webinar where I'll share the Top 7 frustrations causing your team to crack and how to resolve them.

And if you can't make it live, please register anyway to get the recording.

Cheers
Tamara

Author: The Five Little Business Pigs Book

Tamara Simon helps owners build their small business foundations from straw to brick and beyond by...

- FIXING the cracks

- FINDING missing bricks

- FACING the Wolves

so they can FORGE AHEAD, be FORMIDABLE and FLOURISH.

For over twenty years as a Speaker, Author and Coach, she's been providing much needed support to small business owners, CEOs and their teams so they can build, manage and grow a simple profitable business they actually love.

So if your organisation's members are small businesses or you're a small business owner looking to renovate their business, then book your FREE 30 min chat with Tamara here.

And check out her website to find out how to work with her, and book her to speak at your next event.
www.tamarasimon.com.au

BUY NOW

To find out more and buy your copy

CLICK TO BUY HERE

JOIN MY COMMUNITY TO GET MY MONTHLY NEWSLETTER FULL OF SMALL BUSINESS TIPS, INSPIRATION

AND EVENTS

I promise not to bombard you with emails and you can unsubscribe anytime.