What is your perspective?

When I’m away from home, I find the best way to get to know the area is to go for a nice long run, it gives me a totally different perspective from being in the car. I can focus 100% on my environment and can take in all the little things I wouldn’t have seen from the car.

We are away this week for half term and even though I’ve run in this location before, this morning I decided to turn left instead of right and I saw the area from a whole different perspective, and it was beautiful and enlightening!

When we drove in on Monday, we saw a castle on a hill, that disappeared as we approached our destination. The castle seemed so far away! Today I found was only 2 miles away!

The thing is this is often the way with your business. You spend so much time making sure you’re delivering excellently that you don’t see the other perspectives.

It’s always a good idea to see your business from all angles and to experience what your team experiences, so that you think about your business strategy from their point of view.

When I’m working with my clients on people strategy, I always ask about the details on delivery and how changes will affect the way the business delivers their product and/or service.

Often the senior team are too removed from the process to be able to answer and often this is the reason why plans fail. You can’t have an effective business plan without taking input from the people who will deliver it!

Your team often have great ideas for efficiency and input for innovation. Engaging with your team as you plan, helps you to improve on your plans and makes the joint effort of achieving your business goals alongside your team, SO MUCH EASIER!

Are you stepping back, stepping in and changing your perspective?

Are you loving on your Biggest Asset?

I don’t believe that any entrepreneur would deny that their team is their businesses biggest asset.

Even if you have an amazing product, without your team how would the world know about it?

There always comes a time in the growth of your business, where you come to the realisation that you need those with expertise that exceeds your own to boost the growth of your business. As it will enable you to focus on the areas that you are highly skilled in; but once you’ve found those amazingly skilled individuals, how do you keep them motivated and loyal?

We know that competitive remuneration is a must - after all, we’ve all got bills to pay! - no one who knows their worth is going to take a job paying less than the industry standard, but what else?

I want to look at starting well, by mastering the on-boarding process …

Throughout the recruitment process, we focus on creating an amazing candidate experience. It’s a two way selling process; we want the best person for our organisation and they want, well ... they want, what they want!

So once you’ve negotiated these waters, made an offer and had it accepted ... ask yourself “What’s Next?"

Often there is a gap of a month or more between getting that offer accepted and an individual starting with your organisation. So how do you keep them feeling warm and fuzzy, as well as helping them to settle in, once they do start?

Here are a few pointers:

Give them a Buddy

One of the best experiences of on-boarding that I had was being given a ‘Work Buddy’ before I’d started. I received weekly emails in the lead up to my joining date, was invited to payday Friday drinks before I was actually on payroll! Had someone to ask silly questions like where is the nearest sandwich place and is there a good place to get a lunchtime pedicure or how does my new boss like to be communicated with.

Day 1 Brilliance

Make sure their first day runs smoothly. I worked for one organisation, where on my first day the receptionist was waiting for me, my desk was prepared with my laptop, phone, note pad and other items and when I checked my emails, I had my induction meetings scheduled for the next few weeks (it included a trip to an international office). Everything was so smooth, I was able to hit the ground running and had access to all that I needed.

Induction Plan

So touching on Inductions, nothing is more frustrating than starting a role and having to find your way around an unfamiliar landscape unassisted. I remember starting a senior role with an organisation, and I didn’t even receive my laptop until three days in. I had deliverable's, but no way to deliver them! It was very frustrating and I felt like they were unprepared for me and had left me to fend for myself, with no support. Don’t worry I soon changed the starter process!

Having a detailed plan to introduce a new employee to key stakeholders, systems and processes cuts down on the time it takes to get a person up to speed, and allows you to get value from your new employee sooner.

Warmest Welcome

A welcome lunch on the first day/week is always good. Getting to know someone socially is always useful and it helps to build team rapport. I worked at one organisation where every month they had a welcome afternoon tea; you were tasked with speaking to at least three people you hadn’t spoken with before, it was a really good way to get to know people in different departments.

Implementing an on-boarding process is a great way to engage with staff before they even start and show them how valued they are as an addition to your team.

Is your team engaged?

My friends used to call me a party planner! I was always arranging staff events and refreshments were always part of the deal!

You see, in a former life, I used to spend a lot of time trying to find the magic formula for retaining great staff. Improved communication and employee engagement has always been in the top 5 list of staff initiatives for our clients, regardless of size or industry.

The major question that employers ask is how to engage with staff at the most efficient price point. Often the biggest expense is the staff Christmas (and/or summer) party; but not everyone likes to party or to drink, so what other things can you do?

Most recently a client of mine held sessions with staff and asked what interested them most, the variety on the list was astounding:

• Business briefings
• Employee/team of the month
• Volunteering opportunities 
• Mentoring
• Lunch time learning sessions
• Parties
• Pay day Friday drinks
• Charity events (coffee mornings, Christmas jumper day, etc)
• Charity activities (running, 3 peaks, etc)

The interesting thing was diggings down into how staff like their hard work to be recognised otherwise all your efforts go completely over their heads and they feel unappreciated even though you are putting in all that hard work.

I’ll be taking about employee engagement activities in the next few weeks and how to monitor their effectiveness.

But first things first, what motivates you and your team? How do you like to be appreciated (on top of your renumeration)?