Episode 353: Are they set up for success?
In this episode, Fiona discusses the critical yet often overlooked step in managing staff. She also talks about the importance of setting employees up for success. Tune in!
Topics discussed in this episode:
Introduction
Responsibilities of human resources in managing staff
Employee access programs (EAP) and their benefits
Challenges faced in the process of managing staff in small businesses
Importance of assessing if employees have been set up for success
The role of systems and processes in employee success or failure
Providing necessary tools, training, and regular check-ins for employees
Conclusion
Get in touch with My Daily Business
Resources and Recommendations mentioned in this episode:
Welcome to episode 353 of the My Daily Business Podcast. Today is a quick tip episode and this is one that you want to read if you are lucky enough to have staff, whether they are subcontractors or people full-time, or you're working with someone remotely just for a few hours a week, this is such an important and very overlooked step in hiring people. If that is you, stick around Before I get stuck in, I want to acknowledge the traditional owners and custodians on the land on which are recording this podcast and that is the Wurrung and Wurundjeri people of the Kulin Nation. And I pay my respects to their elders, past, and present, and acknowledge that sovereignty has never been ceded. Let's get into today's quick tip episode.
Today's episode is about looking after your staff and whether this is somebody that you have part-time for a couple hours a week, or whether you have a staff of 80 or above. This is a question that I think is not asked enough by anyone who's responsible for those staff, whether it's the founder, the HR manager, or a manager. But in this case, let's say you're running a small business, you have staff, and often, the founder also acts as the HR person, and by HR, if you haven't heard of that acronym, it just stands for Human resources, which is your people management. If you were in a corporate, you'd have an HR team. That team would be responsible for recruiting, onboarding, firing, sometimes working with managers on management, and working out if somebody needs to be managed out or if somebody needs to stay in the business.
They would look at conflict resolution they're looking at bullying and harassment, and any charges like that, they look and they work very closely with the legal team. Sometimes, depending on the corporate, they'll have an EAP program, which is an employee access program. Is that what it stands for? It is psychologists and therapists that the company will pay for a certain amount of sessions. A lot of corporations will offer that. They don't always make it obvious to people that they offer that. If you're reading this, and you work in a corporate, just ask if they have an EAP program. What happens is that in a small business, when you don't have that department, sometimes we can hire these people feel like we've done a decent onboarding, get them into their role, and then down the track subtly be frustrated that, they're not working out or they're not doing it properly, or they're showing up to work like this. Or all sorts of things can happen.
I work with people, I would say probably the most staff that, if I think about most of the people I work with have about 20, staff 20 and under. There are a couple of outliers where they have 50, 80, and 90 staff. But what can happen is that when you have that smaller number of staff, you don't feel that it's necessary all the time to hire a person full-time in an HR people management role. You end up doing all of that and then it ends up being you that is looking at should we fire the person or should we manage them out? And how does that all work? What policies and what rights do each of us have as the employer and employee?
I'm talking about this from an Australian perspective. I do understand, because I have American clients that it is very different firing people in America. In Australia, you have a probation period most of the time, and that can be three or six months, six months usually if it's an executive or senior role. People have to prove themselves in those three months. In those three months, it is much easier to fire somebody once you get past that three-month or six-month probation and you have given them a letter or said you've passed your probation. It is so much harder to fire people. I think that in Australia, the employee has a lot of rights. It is quite difficult to manage people out and you've got to be careful of unfair dismissal and all the other things that can come up.
I'm not a lawyer, I'm not talking about that today. One of the things that does come up in conversation with clients is when staff aren't necessarily doing the job that the employer, in this case, my client, the founder of the business had hired them for. What I do always is I will ask them this question, which is, have they been set up for success? And that can be a confronting question. This is just human nature, people will get a bit defensive or be like, of course, they have. We told them all about the job when they got hired, we had a thorough recruitment process, or we had a thorough ad that went up. We also told them all the way through, this is what we expect. What can happen though is even if you told them, this is what I expect from you, this is the role.
Even if you have a great job description, a lot of people don't even have job descriptions, but if you had all of that, they could still not be set up for success. By that I mean, do they understand the tools they have to use? Do they have training opportunities? If they don't have an understanding of those, do they have regular check-ins with you? Do they feel comfortable being able to express themselves in those check-ins? Are you regularly giving them feedback so that they can grow and improve themselves? Are you showing them what they're doing well and making sure that it's just not all negative that's coming through the setting up for success? That is such an important question to ask yourself. I guess that is the core of today's podcast episode, if you have staff, have they been set up for success?
What can happen is that when you dissect that question and think about every single part of what you are training them, how you're checking in, how you're reviewing, giving feedback, all of that, sometimes a lot of that stuff isn't happening. Or it may happen at the very start and it doesn't happen continuously. I've worked in places where I've had an executive role or I've had senior roles and I've had in different places, managers that are great and I could have great conversations with them. I feel like they're a mentor, they're there for me. I've had others where they're just too busy, they're too busy to have a session with you, they're too busy to run through something, and so you're left to fend for things for yourself. Sometimes you don't know the answer, and you're just fumbling about and you don't feel like you've got anyone that you can ask for help.
That can be a horrible position for somebody to be in. When that happens you can have other things that then come in, which are resentment, frustration, people being short in their tone, and lower communication levels. What you want to ask yourself is, have I set this person up for success? Have I been clear in their KPIs, and in what I expect? KPI is key performance indicators, what I expect from them, not just generally in the role, but what I expect in the first 30 days that they're in the role, the first 60, in the first 90 days that they're in the role, or even the first 180 days by six months, I would expect that you'll be able to do this and that. I'm not involved in this and this. In three months I expect this.
Those have to be regular conversations, not just something you give them once in a job description and then you never follow up on. I also think in terms of systems, so often it is the systems that are letting people down, not the people. There was a famous management consultant in the us who passed away called Dr. Demmings, and he had some quotes, I remember reading that was like 85% of the time, it is the process, not the people. I think we are so quick to blame people for issues in our staff or any issues in our business as opposed to being like, have they been set up for success? Or have they been set up to fail? Have they been set up with minimal systems, no guidance, no check-ins, and just expected to do the job and to do it well and to fully understand our brand even though they have barely been in the business for a couple of weeks?
That is the question. If you have staff to think about have they been set up for success, are there things that I'm assuming that they should know that they don't know? Are there things that I'm assuming they will be able to figure out without some system or process documented? Are there things that I have assumed because of the other positions they've held in different companies that they would just be able to do X, Y, Z in mine? Just look at your assumptions, but also look at the time that you're giving to that person. I'm not saying all employees are perfect and exemplary and it's all your fault as the business owner. Sometimes people just don't work out and that's fine. But before you go down the path of firing them and then having to hire them again, which could be a very costly exercise, you want to think about have I set them up for success.
Because even if you do go down the path of managing them out and firing somebody, you want to think about if the next person comes in, how can I learn from that and make sure that the next person is fully set up for success? It's a question that I ask my clients to consider quite often when they're looking at managing people. Sometimes it ends up that people do need to be fired and things are just not working. But in some cases it's like, let's go back. Let's rework this. Let's give that person the training, the tools, the guidance, the mentoring, and potentially they'll come out as this incredible, incredible force for amazingness in our business. I know at my last role, there was a person who had been hired for a pretty significant role in the business and it was prior to me coming in and then I came in and I was her manager.
I think I was her manager's manager, but there were a lot of mistakes that were happening. I remember taking her aside one day and having a pretty stern conversation, but instead of being like, you're just not cutting it. We are going to get rid of you. I was like, has anyone taught you how to do this? There were certain skill sets that she needed to have. I was pretty thorough with her and said if I had seen your cover letter if I'd seen certain things that came in, I probably wouldn't have hired you because these skill sets were missing. However, you've got the basis of what we need, but you need to get better at this and this, and here's places you can look. I gave her information about websites that had a lot of like great blog articles on this.
I gave her a book that was going to help her with certain skills. I suggested that she look for training opportunities outside the business that the business could cover for a certain amount of money. I have to say to her credit, this person, I mean initially it's pretty hard hearing that stuff. And rightly she was a little upset about it, but she ran with that and took on the initiative and became incredible at her job and just excelled and did so many great things for the company. And too often we dismiss people without being like, has anyone shown you how to do this? If they still need to, how can I show you how to do that? Or can we get somebody external that can help you? Or can we get a training opportunity for you? Can we put you on a weekend course or something else that's going to help you?
If you are increasing your skillset, you're going to be better for the business. The question today is have I set anyone that's working in my business up for success? If I haven't, how can I go over what they need, and what the business needs, and combine the two and be that mentor and that great leader in the business for this person and also for any other staff that you have? The question again is, have I set them up for success? I'll leave you with that. That is the end of today's quick tip episode. I know it might seem like such a simple question, but believe me, it has had a massive impact on so many of my clients when they have sat down and considered that question and their answer to that question. If you want to look at this in text format, you can find the show notes for all of our episodes over at mydailybusiness.com/podcast. Thanks for reading, I'll see you next time. Bye.
