How to Manage Small Business Employee for Better Efficiency

The success of a startup to a large extent depends on the small business employee recruited.

No serious entrepreneur jokes with his or her employee and as such take the company’s recruitment process very seriously.

You will agree with me that effective employee management will to a great extent transform a small brand and make it the toast of consumers.

It’s a no-brainer to say, a good brand needs well-informed, happy, and motivated employees to sell beyond the average scope of the business budget.

Also, for every business, time management is key to productivity and this you must spell out to the potential employee during the recruitment process. However, with the help of an employee time clock, managing your employees in real-time is easy thereby availing you the time to focus on other key areas as I will be mentioning further in this post.

So if you’re actually in search of how to take advantage of your employee for maximum and better efficiency, search no further, I will walk you through the most effective ways in this guide.

You will also get to know more about the following:

How many employees should a small business have?

How to pay employees in a small business.

Types of employees in a business.

Hiring employees for your small business.

How to hire a good employee for small businesses and many more.

What is Small Business?

A small business is a small-scale enterprise that employs a few or a small number of workers known as employees, it may not have huge sales. A small business is usually owned privately or in partnership.

Having gotten a clue of what a small business is, let’s look at the term employee as it concerns a small business.

Who is a Small Business Employee?

A small business employee is an individual hired by an employer (small business owner), to undertake a specific job. The employee is usually hired after an application and interview process.

How many employees should a small business have?

This largely depends on the employer and the type of his business. Some businesses require fewer hands while others require more hands for effective delivery.

Now you elementarily understand the position of a small business and who a small business employee is.

How then can you manage small business employees for better efficiency?

The earlier you recognize and agree that your employee has a great influence on your small business either negatively or positively the better for you.

I beg you not to treat the revelation you’re about to discover in this guide with a pinch of salt, take it seriously as if your small business really depends on it to survive.

To manage your small business employees for better output, adhere to the following strictly:

1. Customer-Centric Employee

Now listen, let me believe you’re a bit confused with the word customer-centric employee. An employee is said to be customer-centric if he/she has a love for the customers who in one way or another patronize the business.

A good employee-customer relationship is the first step in building brand loyalty, this is the key that opens the first door into a world of business relationships and experience.

You must have to seek out an employee who is ready to interact with your customers in a friendly way at all times, no matter what he or she might be going through.

Your business should be the type that ensures an employee is in constant touch with your customers. It’s advisable to redeploy that employee who by every standard is being discovered to be too moody at all times and will hardly smile at customers no matter how good they are.

Kindly redeploy such an employee to the back office to save your business, no matter your relationship with the employee.

2. Good listening skills

This is one of the very best communication skills you should look out for in an employee. If your employee can speak fluently but finds it hard to listen to a customer, it’s a red flag.

Customers cherish an employee who gives them a listening ear, not one who will interrupt them when they’re laying out their complaints.

Reiterate the importance of good listening skills in your business meetings, let it sink into everyone, and expect compliance to that while it’s being enforced.

If personally, you visit any business that you perceive to have given you a failed service in the course of doing business, you will expect a listening ear from any officer you are making the complaints to, it’s just natural if such officer interrupts you, you’re bound to lose your cool.

Constantly train your employees on good listening skills, it pacifies irate customers and will keep their loyalty if not forever.

3. Empathy is a business virtue

Empathy is the ability of an employee to put himself/herself in a customer’s shoes when such a customer comes complaining especially bitterly.

Empathy and listening skills will always intermarry in good business etiquette, it’s only when you listen to a customer that you can empathize in return, everyone likes to feel loved and expect concern from others when they’re going through difficulties.

An employee who has a perfect combination of empathy and good listening skills will keep customer loyalty, even when the customer gets better service than you have provided all through his/her experience with you. Empathy is a virtue, your employee must imbibe it.

4. Protect the brand

An employee who should take the business to the next level must be a brand ambassador, he or she must know the brand too well to protect its ideals and standards in the larger world. Such employees should have the ability to stand for what the brand represents.

The brand must be nourished and treated like a baby in prevalent harsh environments, if an employee speaks ill of a brand he/she represents, it’s common to say such a brand will die a natural death because the problem with the brand here is not the competitors but an internal enemy.

5. Cross-sell the product

A good employee should live the product at every given opportunity in a business sense. If your employee cannot spread the gospel of your brand, then they’re not fit to be on your payroll.

A good small business employee should tell the world about your product even when he/she is on a different assignment. Cross-selling the product will ensure it gets more exposure and awareness which ultimately will lead to more sales and advertising campaigns.

That being said, the above points should be the duty of a small business employee to the business.

However, let me strike a note of balance to say the employer himself has a duty and obligation he owes the employee.

How to Treat Employees for Better Productivity

The employer should have the following in mind when dealing with the employee:

Motivation: Motivation in a business sense means getting your employees excited. A study by Daniel Sgroi, an Associate Professor in the Department of Economics at Warwick University and team leader of Warwick’s ESRC Centre on Competitive Advantage in the Global Economy (CAGE) has shown that the more excited an employee turns out to be the more productive.

You can excite your employee by reviewing their salaries in upward progression with output and profit being made in the course of carrying out the business.

Give them bonuses and free gifts at intervals: This will in great measure encourage a good attitude to work. Do not owe them salaries, it does not encourage or boost performance but rather a bad attitude to work. A hungry man just can’t stop being an angry man.

Promotion: You must not deny any employee his/her promotion for any reason, if they merit it kindly give it to them. Promotion gladdens the heart, it encourages performance and a positive attitude to work.

Employees should be part of policymaking: Allowing the employee to contribute their ideas during the formulation of certain policies is key to business growth.

These employees interface with the customers, it’s therefore pertinent to say they have a firsthand idea of what the customers’ needs and expectations are. Carrying them along will help the business grow into a responsive and ear-lending brand that will be highly accepted by consumers.

Conclusion

Small business employees can be likened to the lubricant of every small business. The importance of these employees to startups cannot be overemphasized. They form the basis on which the business is being nurtured and therefore deserve good working conditions. If you truly want your small business to grow, then you must be on the lookout for small business employees with the qualities listed above, pay your own dues as well, and watch your business grow into a formidable brand that will stand the test of time.