How Leadership Development and Mentorship Programs Can Change Your Small Business
How Leadership Development and Mentorship Programs Can Change Your Small Business
I know CEOs and Business Owners are tired of hearing that salaries and bonuses across the board are skyrocketing. Running the numbers and realizing the weight that has on your small business is a little overwhelming. However, I do think there are free ways to retain and hire and can dramatically affect your organization.
One way that I have seen to Retain and Hire that costs no money is to develop Leadership Development and Mentorship Programs within your organization. Before you roll your eyes and think this is a huge waste of time and money, watch this 2-minute video where I talk about some ideas that we have advised big companies like Delta Airlines and small businesses. Both have had a ton of success:
You know the saying, "It's the thought that counts." Leadership Programs are about creating a space where your employees know they are being invested in. Creating these programs is not a ton of work, and the program can be as big or small as you want it to be. We have seen some companies go all out and put a lot of time and money into "building the program" as a recruiting strategy that we believe does work. Or we have also seen book studies led by managers every two weeks at lunch also work. I think Book Studies with your team is a great place to start. Books like "The Ideal Team Player" (we give this to all of our clients when they start a search with us: Hungry Humble Smart) by Patrick Lencioni or Raving Fans by Ken Blanchard if you are looking for a Customer service type book are two great suggestions for your first book study.
When it comes to Mentorship Programs, younger people are starving for it. I tell this story about my son, Matt Filer, all the time. When Matt graduated from the University of Georgia (Go Dawgs), he had 3 different job offers. One was a sales role with a very established payroll company and one was at a company who offered a Mentorship Program where Matt would spend 15% of his time being developed by two different managers. Matt chose the job with the mentorship program for 25% less of salary. I will say that again: 25% less salary!
Putting these programs together show you CARE about your teams. Do it and watch your retention rise. If you do not know where to start, I am happy to talk to you about this! Here is my Calendly. I do 30-minute consultations, and I love talking about this subject.
Here are a few more things that can help with the HR side of your business:
1. The HR Quiz: If you have no idea where you are at when it comes to HR in your business, we developed an HR Quiz to get you thinking about some areas that we thing are really important. Should only take you 5 minutes and should be worth that time to see where you stand.
Press on image to go to the quiz
2. Our HR Audit: You know you need help with your HR, but you do not know where to start. This is the tool you are looking for! Starting at $2,500, we do a full examination of your HR practices (compliance, retention, talent, compensation, etc.) Link to that is below or you can message me or email me to get started:
Press on image to go to link and get a quote for an HR Audit
3. We love helping companies hire for their office positions. This will continue to be what were best at: https://www.innovative-outsourcing.com/hiringhome
How to Retain Your Staff Better than Other Small Businesses
How to Retain Your Staff Better than Other Small Businesses
Let’s talk about Retention.
If you know me or have heard me speak, you know how passionate I am about how retention in small business can drastically change your bottom line. I talk to a lot of Business Owners and CEOs about retention, and the overwhelming theme is that HR is “soft”, “touchy feely”, or the “only department that does not have to reach a goal or quota.”
I am a Mathematical Economics major. You are probably asking how I got into HR, and that is a fair question. However, that means I love data. So we are going to go over some statistics that disprove that HR “does not affect your bottom line as a small business.”
The stats:
3.7% Unemployment Rate (this is staying for the moment)
47% of Active U.S. employees are “watching or actively looking for new opportunities”
Replacing exiting workers costs .5x - 2x the employee's annual salary. Assuming an average salary of $50,000 that replacement cost translates to between $25,000 and $100,000 per employee.
Obviously, your small business is probably perfect and no one will ever leave your organization. However, 47% is a huge percentage of employees who are looking to leave for a new job and actually admitted to it on a survey. If you combine that with the cost outlined above you will hopefully realize that HR and retention dramatically affect the bottom line of your small business.
Want more stats? Here you go:
- In 2021-2022, a majority of workers who quit their job were asked and they said these were the top factors:
63% - Low Pay
63% - No Opportunities for Advancement
57% - Felt Disrespected at Work
Before you roll your eyes, think for a second about this. Maybe you cannot match the offer that Google just gave your EA. However, there are things that may be considered “touchy feely” or “soft” that can affect your bottom line. And did I forget to mention… a lot of this is free!
So here are the areas of Retention that we are going to focus on the next couple of weeks:
Competitive Salary
Career Path for Employees
Health Benefits, 401k, and PTO
Flexible Hours
Flexible Work Location (some 4-day workweek talk as well)
Unique Benefits No One Else is Offering
Leadership Development or Mentoring Programs
Great Looking Work Environment
That’s the start! Can’t wait to hear your thoughts in the coming week.
In the meantime, here is our Small Business HR Quiz. See where you are at and where you may need some help:
How to Onboard New Employees Better than Other Small Businesses
How to Onboard New Employees Better than Other Small Businesses - Part 1
“Even after accepting a position, 91% are willing to quit within the first month and 93% during the probation period if the job doesn’t match their expectations” - survey from Robert Half
Hiring is not easy in a small business. You spend time and money getting the right candidates for your organization. You make the job offer to your dream candidate, and they accept. The work is done, right? Wrong.
Now, the real challenge begins – Onboarding New Employees. It is time to make the best impression possible for their first 30 days.
The statistic above didn’t happen five years ago and we need to be paying attention to the onboarding process. Let’s talk about some things we can do to keep the talent that we just hired.
In this series, we will go through our thoughts and advice on the whole onboarding process in small business.
Today, we will talk about Pre-boarding.
This is what you do in between when the offer is accepted and prior to the start date. Here are some ways to ensure your new employee has a great feeling about your company even before their first day:
Day after the offer is accepted – Send something with your logo on it in the mail (a t-shirt, mug, frisbee – anything you have) with a handwritten note from the hiring manager about how excited you are to have this person coming.
3 days after the offer is accepted – Have each coworker (up to 7) email the person in the same morning – with a “we are so excited” email introducing themselves.
5 days after the offer is accepted – Share with them a schedule of their first week of employment including planned lunches with specific people, meetings with peers, time for them to acclimate at their desk, any training they need to go through.
6-8 days after the offer is accepted – The CEO (yes the CEO) calls to tell the person they are excited to meet them. If no one answers, just leave a message and your call back number.
If there will be weeks prior to their start date – keep emailing every Friday – to tell them some things that are going on in the department and giving them some additional information.
In addition to these things, you need to send your new hire paperwork during this time. The new hire paperwork needs to be:
Easy to complete and return (electronic signature only – no faxing required). If it can be done on a mobile device – even better.
Thorough and professional looking – not dripping 6 emails with different docs to handle – but in a one-stop-shop fashion.
If there is any document that is not absolutely required, drop it. Completing too many docs is onerous.
Whoever is sending the new hire docs needs to be pleasant and helpful in verbal and written communication. Use terms like, “thank you for completing so quickly”, “I know your hiring manager is excited to get you started”, and “I love my job here and I know you will too”.
Phone calls when needed should be gracious and helpful. This is not the job for a person who has been at the company for 25 years and is bitter and impatient.
As you look at this information – what are you doing well at your company in this process and what might need to change? Seeing that 91-93% of new hires feel it is fine to quit right away – it is important for you to strategize to get this right.
As always, our teams at Innovative Outsourcing and tHRiving: HR for Small Business can help you and your leadership with a plan to make this world class in your company.
If onboarding is just one area that needs assistance, consider our HR Audit. We will assess your current HR practices and give you a report of what is needed to be successful in the 12 different areas of HR. This service starts at $2,400 and goes up to $4,500 based on size and complexity.
How Toby from "The Office" Destroyed HR's Reputation In the Workplace
This article was written by my son, Matt Filer. If you have seen "The Office", we think you will enjoy this fun piece about HR in the most popular Comedy show in history.
Let me just start off by saying this: I never thought I would sit down and write a piece about "The Office" for work, but here I am. I can tell you this - I do not think I could be more prepared for something if I tried. Malcolm Gladwell talks about how executing an activity for ten thousand hours will make you a master of that craft. I do not think Gladwell had consuming a sit-com about a manager and his employees as a case study, but let’s just say I may have my ten thousand hours studying my favorite show of all-time.
So here we go:
Sadly, a lot of what I thought about the workplace can be traced back to episodes of “The Office”. As a 29 year old, I spent an embarrassing amount of time in high school, college, and even now watching this show. Obviously, I did not think that my boss would act just like Michael Scott. However, if you have seen the show, the stereotypes conveyed about the workplace are somewhat accurate. If you are reading this, and you get offended by the workplace stereotypes coming, I apologize:
The accountants are uptight, rigid, and not incredibly social.
The sales team is loud, obnoxious, and thinks they are better than all the other employees.
The receptionist dreams of any other job they could possibly have besides answering phone calls.
The manager thinks he is the greatest leader since Abraham Lincoln, when in reality, he offends more people than he helps. For example: He gave himself a “Best Boss Ever” mug (as seen here).
You can stop me if some of this is not a tiny bit accurate about your own office...
However, the most obvious workplace stereotype in the show is the depiction of Human Resources. HR is defined in this show as the rule following police with the mission of sucking the fun out of every room they walk into. If you think this could be an exaggeration by me, here is a quote from the one and only Michael Scott talking about Toby: “Why are you the way you are. Honestly, every time I try to do something fun or exciting, you make it not that way. I hate so much about the things that you choose to be."
So... when I entered the workplace, this actually was my perception of Human Resources. I thought every HR Manager wears a brown suit and an overwhelming vanilla shirt and tie. Their voice would be painfully monotone because that is what Toby is like. I thought HR’s job was to make sure the rules were being followed and the fun was terminated. I thought all of this was true, and my own mother speaks to large groups of people, on the topic of, you probably guessed it... HR.
The writers of the show display that everyone else in the office is fine with Toby when they are just coworkers besides Michael. However, as soon as they are managers for the day or when Michael leaves the show, they turn on him.
For example, when Andy is manager, he begins developing a similar hatred for Toby. Additionally, when Jim is acting manager in one episode, he's annoyed by a simple request from Toby, describing him as "a little bit much".
This is just further proof that the boss is always supposed to be at odds with Human Resources just because their role is now that of the boss. Michael also says, "Thanks to Toby I have very strong prejudice against Human Resources. I believe the department is a breeding ground for monsters." It is hilarious writing, but it really does put HR in a tough light.
Toby from "The Office"
You might be thinking to yourself that I am overgeneralizing the amount of people who took this sit-com seriously and let it shape their expectations of the workplace. However, I do believe that millions of Americans have done exactly what I did, and have probably seen it close to 6 times through, watched the bloopers, and are probably begging Greg Daniels to put together a reunion. With that being said, I really do think people in their jobs view HR as the boring, rule following, and sad people of the workplace. And I believe a lot of that comes from the perception of Toby Flenderson’s character.
However, in my opinion, HR is actually the opposite of the perception that Toby portrays. I will admit to you that Compliance with guidelines and work protocols is not the most exciting thing, but Human Resources is way more than just some rule enforcing robots. The job of HR, especially in small businesses, is to create a culture where people love where they work. HR creates environments where your team becomes a version of your extended family, where they are trained in the values and mission of your organization. The job of HR is to work as a partner to the leader of the business, and they have the responsibility to take the people or paperwork issues in their organizations and handle it. Your HR team should be helping retain and hire the best staff possible and be putting together plans on how to do that going forward. Your HR should be providing feedback plans to your employees to know what they are doing well and how they can improve. I could really go on for days into the role that human resources SHOULD be playing in your businesses.
If your small business views HR like Michael views Toby Flenderson more than what you see above, I recommend you talk to our team. Our two HR experts, Cindi and Karen, will be able to talk to you about your organization and how you can utilize your human resources to affect your bottom line.
Small Businesses Required to Perform In-Person I-9 Verifications
I enjoy talking about culture, retention, and best hiring practices of HR. However, compliance is an extremely important part of HR, and these new I-9 Regulations will affect small businesses. So this may not be the most exciting newsletter for small businesses, but it is necessary.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced that employers in the United States will have until August 30, 2023, to physically inspect the identity and employment eligibility documents of employees whose Form I-9 was completed virtually due to COVID-19 flexibility provisions.
During the pandemic, in-person reviews of employees' original identity and employment authorization documents were deferred. Instead, employers were permitted to conduct virtual or copy reviews of the documents, with the expectation that a physical inspection would occur when normal operations resumed.
Now that flexibility provisions are ending, employers have until August 30, 2023, to perform all required physical examinations of identity and employment eligibility documents for those hired on or after March 20, 2020, whose identity and work eligibility documents were examined virtually or remotely according to the flexibility accommodations. Employers must write "documents physically examined" with the date of examination in Section 2: Additional Information on the Form I-9 or in Section 3, as appropriate.
Employers should consider different scenarios when performing physical reviews, such as the same or different employer representative conducting the review and distinguishing between expired List A or List C documents that require reverification or not. If the employee is not in proximity to the employer, an authorized representative may complete Section 2, and the employer is liable for any paperwork deficiencies in the Form I-9 completed by the authorized representative.
In conclusion, employers in the United States have been given a deadline of August 30, 2023, to complete physical inspections of identity and employment eligibility documents for employees who had their Form I-9 completed virtually due to COVID-19 flexibility provisions. Employers should be aware of the different scenarios and follow the guidelines provided by DHS and ICE.
This was just announced last week, and we do expect final regulations to come out at some point soon. If there are any changes, we will continue to keep you updated.
Sales Pitch of the Day:
The HR Audit is a tool designed for small businesses in any industry to identify the strengths and weaknesses of their HR function.
We evaluate the 14 areas of HR from compliance to retention. We develop an HR strategy to make your employees proud of where they work. Watch the video to the right for more information or visit our HR Audit Page on our website.
How to Lead Teams in Economic Uncertainty
HR Strategy: Leading Teams in Economic Uncertainty
I am hearing from our clients daily about the state of the economy, and the uncertainty in the market. CEOs see some of the signs of 2008, but do not know how to prepare if a recession is looming.
Although I do not have the expertise to talk about cash flow management, I can talk about what you can do with your team from a leadership perspective. During the pandemic, I told our clients that decisions they made with their employees then will affect what happens the next two years. I will say the same about right now. Here are 4 ways you can lead your team during these uncertain times (or a 3-minute video if you prefer):
1. Communicate Often - This is when you should communicate more than normal as the CEO or business leader. If everything is fine at your company, let your team know that you are not going out of business. If you need to tighten budgets, tell them that. Do not let them hear through the grapevine what is going on at the company. Be direct, share KPIs, and let them hear from you often.
2. Ensure Job Security - If you are not planning on layoffs, tell your staff that as soon as possible. That looming threat often causes people to look elsewhere if they feel there is a threat to their role. Just telling your people that layoffs aren’t on the table (if that is true), will reassure people, and will encourage productivity without the thought of layoffs looming.
3. Show Empathy - The news is very negative out there. I actually recommend just acknowledging that. Tell your team that you know the news is rough and the markets are concerning. Understanding the concerns they might have will be oddly assuring.
4. Be Large and In Charge - Employees want to see their CEO be a leader worth following. People want a leader that has a vision and a plan, and who is not easily rattled by what is coming. They want to feel secure and know that their CEO is in control of the ship. We, as leaders, do not always have all the answers. However, when we are in front of our team, it is time to be confident and lead.
Strategies to Consider:
1. It is a great time to hire - If you are a company that sees no signs of slowing down, now might be one of the absolute best times to find great talent that we have seen in years. The clients we have worked with in the last month are seeing exceptional candidates!
2. Start the preparation for the worst - If you must, figure out a plan with your leadership team around what positions might need to be eliminated if a downturn turns worse. We learned in 2008 that you don’t want to wait on these decisions too long. Have a list of possible jobs that could be eliminated first (and the lowest performers listed), which could be a huge help if we get to that point.
Two Ways We Can Help:
1. There are always HR questions that come up when things are shaky - so please don’t hesitate to call me (30 minutes is always free). Email me to set up a time!
2. For the first time in two years, we are having a hiring sale. We are lowering our recruiting fees for the month of April to help small business that might need help during these times. Now’s a good time to get a deal with our fees! Email us if you are interested.
Sales Pitch of the Day:
The HR Audit is a tool designed for small businesses in any industry to identify the strengths and weaknesses of their HR function.
We evaluate the 14 areas of HR from compliance to retention. We develop an HR strategy to make your employees proud of where they work. Watch the video to the right for more information or visit our HR Audit Page on our website.
Unpopular Opinion: Why Right Now is the Best Time to Hire
Unpopular Opinion: Why Right Now is the Best Time to Hire
You might not be thinking this, but right now is a great season to hire. Have you heard the phrase: "Buy when no one else is buying"? You might hear this in the stock market or real estate world, but it is also a good hiring mantra.
Here are 5 reasons why you should be hiring right now:
1. This Economy: Many companies might be freezing hiring or spooked about the layoffs at big tech companies and what that means to the economy. The savvy small business CEO is going to know that this is a rare opportunity to pick up "A+ Players" for their organization. If you start to hire now, your candidate pool will be larger than when the markets start to go back up (which we all know it will). If your company had a great year or this small recession is not affecting you, we recommend hiring now!
2. Concern About Current Employer: Many employees are getting concerned about the profitability of their current organization. If you are stable and growing, you will be able to attract candidates that may not have been looking for a new role before now.
3. Less Competition for Talent: Less employers hiring generally means more favorable outcomes in quality and salary (something that was far from the case in 2022). In a time when hiring is slowing across the country, it is easier to find "A+ Players" that are willing to make a move. If you wait until conditions improve, you may have missed this unique opportunity that your competition is not taking advantage of.
4. The Right Time of the Year: On the candidate side, employees have time off around this time of the year. This means they are on their computers taking time to look for something new. Statistics show that when employees have down time, they often spend it wishing and searching for new situations. On the employer side, less companies start recruiting at the holidays because they want to “hire at the beginning of the fiscal year”. In January, the market will be flooded with work and your job will just be one of many when it could stick out now.
5. Put Employees on Innovative Outsourcing's Payroll: We can put your employees on our payroll. This is a no-risk approach to hiring. For both part-time and full-time positions, we can keep W-2 employees on our payroll for as long as you like.