Looking after your Staff
Staff management is one of the hardest but most rewarding parts of owning a business. I have always felt that my staff are my second family, we spend enough time together and over time we watch each other grow and progress. It is true when successful business owners say “I could not have done it without my amazing staff”.
As the business owner you can’t do everything, which means itis your job to impart to your staff your ideas and how you want things to work so that they can run with it. You have to figure out what works and then give clear instructions to your staff so that they can replicate that many times over.
My staff have always been good at following instructions and processes and also thinking outside the box. Many minds are much more resourceful than one, I have always made sure that my staff feel comfortable to tell me if I am getting it wrong or if there is a general problem that we need to do something about. If your staff have the power to fix problem areas in their workplace and can make their day more effective with better systems, then of course they are going to be much happier and stay longer.
We are now in the month of July and all of these wonderful staff have receive their payment summaries (by the 14th July).
- #1 Of course they will be happy to hopefully get a Tax Return and will go and buy themselves a present generally.
- #2 They may be summarising the year that was and looking at that total figure to decide if it was all worth it.
So what can be done to make sure everyone stays happy at this yearly check in point?
Staff Performance Reviews –
Schedule your staff reviews for this time (July). Take time out to discuss how the year went, how your staff member is feeling and what you are both planning for the New Financial Year ahead.
Thinking about it, there are quite a few areas to be covered during this meeting so it pays to allow a good hour at least.
- Staff self and management evaluation – this is a list of questions that the staff member and manager will answer before the meeting and then bring to the meeting, the staff member will mark themselves in regards to their communication, appearance, accuracy, team work, and output and where they see themselves in the future. Each area is discussed during the meeting and provides a great way for the staff member to understand how you think they are going. This is also a time to get a feel in regards to what the staff member is wanting from the job overall. The discussion will hopefully also sort any annoyances that are happening day to day for the staff member. Of course everyone wants to be happy in their workplace!
https://www.thebalancecareers.com/sample-questions-for-an-employee-self-evaluation-1918891
- Job description – If your business is growing then each job description will be changing year to year. We generally take this time to look through this and draft any changes. It is then left to either the manager or the staff member to update the job description (or write a new one if not yet done) and then communicate it back 1-2 weeks after the meeting. Downloadable sample JD here https://www.fairwork.gov.au/how-we-will-help/templates-and-guides
- Targets given, reached, new targets for the coming year including any areas of professional development needed – You can setup a table for this. List clearly what is expected from the staff member so that they can progress in their career or so that they can move up to the next pay group.
- Discuss pay rates and any incentives – If your staff are paid as per award then you will need to check this each year to ensure that you are paying on award or above. There has been an increase of the minimum aware announced this year https://www.fairwork.gov.au/how-we-will-help/templates-and-guides/fact-sheets/minimum-workplace-entitlements/minimum-wages. Not sure what award you are using? https://www.fairwork.gov.au/awards-and-agreements/awards . If your staff member is being paid above award then this does not have to be done every year. BUT if all targets have been met by the staff member then pay rates should be reviewed and increased. Generally CPI does go up each year so the home costs are increasing so its great if this can be addressed each year.
I have provided some links to these staff management tools for you, if you are really keen to put this all together then please contact me, I wouldn’t say that my forms and templates are perfect but they work and I am happy to share them if I have what you are looking for.
Regards Cheryl
