Your Business Success is in the Hands of Your Employees

By Valerie G. Cardenas

Getting the right people on the job is mission critical for all companies. Employees, whether staff or management, can make or break an organization.

Companies frequently call on my business consulting services to help with employee and hiring issues, and I’m never surprised when I hear that request. One thing I’ve learned in my years in business and as a business consultant is that hiring and managing employees is right up there with productivity systems, sales and marketing as driving factors for profits.

There’s really no mystery to choosing the right person for the job, but there are some methods of going about it that, while well understood by some, are inconsistently applied at best. I’ve had people tell me that they hire based on “gut-reactions” to people; others go for the consensus, hiring-by-committee approach. And, while I know that almost any approach, these included, can work some of the time, in business, I encourage clients to seek out approaches that can better “their hand” with new positions and further enhance results over time.

I always tell my clients that a successful hiring process includes

1. Hiring process
2. Policy and procedures
3. Orientation
4. Training and development
5. Management/leadership that will retain the employee.

Strategic Hiring for Success

Strategic Essentials uses a predictive index that gives us a very good idea of how someone will perform in specific work situations. And once we have this analysis, we go several steps further. We look at the personality and expectations of the potential manager and teammates to make sure we’re setting up new hires to be successful – for themselves and for the company.  This information can be used to coach all parties on development needs, playing to the individual’s strengths and how to offset what may be perceived as challenges.

The right hiring, development and management practices can have a tremendous impact on your overall organization. But the best way to explain this would be with real-world examples, so here are a few examples from Strategic Essentials files.

Case Brief: Good Employees Mean Vacation Time

A family-run distribution company came to Strategic Essentials with what they saw as an insurmountable problem. They could not take a vacation or more than one day away from their 70-hour workweeks without jeopardizing their production.

In addition to business consulting, they specifically needed to find someone – that perfect someone – who could be comfortable in a warehouse setting, work with out-dated computer systems (at least at first), learn thousands of products, be ready to shoulder increasing responsibility, and be highly detailed.

This one hire was the lynchpin for further expansion and development. We found this individual by screening through numerous people, many of whom seemed competent. We needed exactly the right person, and we found that person. The difference for the company was profound. The leadership is now taking vacations, and the staff is capable of keeping the company running successfully in their absence.

Case Brief: Too Much Business

A business came to me with what seems at first glance to be an enviable problem: too much business. They had basic needs such as manageable systems and structure. But even more, they had few staff guidelines, no job descriptions, along with poor attitudes and job performance from staff.

Their hiring challenge went past bringing people into the door. It encompassed bringing the RIGHT people in, and then motivating them and giving them performance guidelines. Job satisfaction and productivity amongst their staff was critically low.

Through a mix of consulting and organizational development, this client developed standards, hiring practices, management techniques, and accountability. This focus and combination was what this firm needed to shift their organizational culture and their results!

Case Brief: Disruptive Staff in a Non-Profit Corporation

Non-profit corporations attract employees with a passion for their cause. This is a good thing, but for one non-profit that came to us, that same passion was holding them back and burning out some of their key staff.  One employee was also particularly disruptive.

Our first task with this group was to work with the leadership on management skills and handling disruptive situations in the workplace. Our goal was to improve workplace satisfaction. Because their non-profit guidelines made it almost impossible to let the disruptive staff member go, we worked on effective leadership.

And we worked on understanding what to look for while hiring for new positions to lessen the potential of similar challenges in the future. It takes more than a passion for a cause to be effective for the cause.

Hiring coupled with managing well affects every aspect of a company, from productivity, to workplace satisfaction, to worry-free vacations for top management. It is just one piece – but a very important one – for business success.

2010 – It’s Time to Make the Sale!

We all know that great productivity methods and advanced business leadership skills depend for success on a third element: sales. And if ever there was a time in our economy to boost our sales techniques and improve results, it’s now.

As we go into 2010, my clients are telling me that they are hitting the road with tighter workforces, tighter margins and greater needs for productivity in all departments, especially in sales. In response, I’ve teamed up with a national sales expert for a 10-workshop series I’m calling Make the Sale! – Powerful Selling Strategies for Business Owners.

We’ve set this up for business owners because owners are (or should be!) the best sales people in their business.

Business owners who learn to sell can typically outsell anyone they hire to sell, even while running their business. Much to my chagrin, I outsold every sales person that ever worked for me. Why? Because business owners have the passion, belief and know-how to answer client questions and deliver on their commitments, as well as make decisions on the spot.

Think of this Make the Sale! series as our gift to you, a self-propelled economic stimulus package for you to put in place immediately. I’m jazzed about Make the Sale! because my clients need it. You need it; in fact, we all need big sales to pull us out of the slumps of 2009. I hope you can make it a part of your 2010; I’m sure that this program can make a difference for your business.

The Sales Strategies Details

Make the Sale! is a 10-session series providing beginning to advanced sales techniques for business owners. Don’t forget: We’re focusing on owners because the higher you go in the organization, the better your sales techniques need to be. The workshops are limited to 15 participants, and designed for owners of small to medium-sized businesses. This is an in-depth, in-person course, the only one of its kind offered in northern Nevada.

The sales techniques learned during Make the Sale! – Powerful Selling Strategies for Business Owners are based on individual preferences and personalities, and you’ll build your style through real-world application, using your own strengths to create personal sales techniques that will work for you in your ongoing businesses.

Make the Sale! includes sessions focused on defining target markets, developing personal sales approaches, planning for and conducting a sales interview, determining individual buying motives, closing sales, and everything that comes in between.

The course begins Feb. 5, 2010, and meets weekly on Wednesdays for 10 sessions. So, my final question to you is: Are you ready to make a powerful leap forward into 2010? I hope so, and I hope to see you there. (Click here to read more about this series on my dedicated Make the Sale! Web pages.)

Alice Heiman is Interviewed by Nationally Recognized Host of “The Loral Langemeier Show”

On August 10, 2009 Alice Heiman was featured and interviewed by Loral Langemeier, nationally syndicated radio talk show host, on the Bizradio Networks. If you would like to hear this insightful interview, click on the following link:

http://feeds2.feedburner.com/TheLoralLangemeierShow

-Blog Administrator

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For more information about Strategic Essentials small business training and education programs or our coaching and consultation services please call 775.826.8282 today!

Strategic Essentials primarily serves business owners, business leaders, entrepreneurs, managers, supervisors and decision makers in Reno, Sparks, Carson City, Tahoe, Truckee Meadows and surrounding communities.

Strategic Essentials is a Managing Partner for Leadership Management International.

Upcoming BizTalk Blender™ Dates

A Powerhouse of Business Networking… Make sure you attend one of these powerful networking events put on by my business associate Alice Heiman, and be sure to tell her I sent you!

• Sept. 10, 2009 at Access Pass & Design in Sparks, NV you can register here http://www.acteva.com/booking.cfm?bevaid=187373
• October 16, 2009 from 5:30pm – 7:00pm at UNR. For more
  information, contact Jane Bessette: bessette@unr.edu
• October 22nd from 6:00pm – 7:30pm at Buckbean Brewing Company

For more information, to watch a introductory video or to sign up for the next gathering…
Visit the BizTalk Blender™ page on Alice Heiman’s web site >

Here is what Alice has to say about her event:

“Tired of networking events that waste time & money because they lack results? BizTalk Blender™ will achieve the results people have been looking for.

Designed by Alice Heiman, this unique networking program ensures that even the shyest participants can make numerous business connections. As a sales expert and business communication instructor, Heiman wanted to develop a way for business professionals to make more connections at networking events. BizTalk Blender™ runs itself. Open the box, follow the instructions and run the most effective networking event your organization has ever had.  No more coffee clotches of old friends that look unbreachable to new comers.  No more wallflowers standing in the corner wishing they had someone to talk to. Take the focus off the food and put it on the networking where you and your members will have the greatest benefit.

BizTalk Blender is perfect for Networking Groups, Chambers of Commerce,  Leads Groups, Service Organization, or companies with over 50 employees. If you think your organization could benefit from better networking within your organization, BizTalk Blender™ is the solution you are looking for.

Visit the BizTalk Blender™ page on Alice Heiman’s web site for more information and to sign up for the next gathering >