When you are running a business, you do need to constantly consider whether your team is matching your needs. Your business team will be filled with a variety of different individuals, all working on different sectors of your company. Some will be providing customer service while others will be working behind the scenes to make sure that your business model is both smooth and efficient. Then there will be those who watching out for issues and dealing with them if and when they arise.
Regardless of which area of your team you are looking at, it’s important that you have the best, most skilled workers on the job. This will guarantee that you can provide an excellent turnaround time to customers and ensure that you are not falling behind your competition. However, how do you make sure that you have the best team operating in your company? Well, a few different factors must be considered here.
Getting the Best from the Beginning
You should make sure you are working to get the best team from the very starting point of your business. There are a number of ways to do this. For instance, you can consider using a recruitment agency. Consider these the gatekeepers of the job market. They will represent some of the best candidates and make sure that their CVs land on the tables of the top employees. Therefore, that is what you need to be seen to be. This is often just a matter of signing up for the services of a recruitment agency and getting them on your side.
You need to think about any ad that you put out onto the market as well. It must appeal to the type of workers that you want in your company. This could be anyone, but we recommend attempting to appeal to a diverse range of individuals. Studies have shown that diverse companies are forty percent more likely to be successful, so this is a goal to strive for. If you are using visuals, do make sure that they include images and graphics of different ethnicity and genders. If you are simply posting a written ad online, include a brief mention that you are an equal opportunities employer as this sends the right message.
Hiring practices should be fine-tuned as well. You want to make sure that you can find the best candidates in the thousands who will undoubtedly apply for the position. You might find it best to hire a professional recruitment agent who can run or attend the interviews and make sure that you are asking the right questions. This could be a smart move if you are new to the world of business.
Freshening Up the Herd
It is worth taking a long hard look at your team at least once a year and potentially once every couple of months. If you do this, then you may find that you have weaker and stronger employees on the field. If you are looking at the customer service section of your business, do assess the reviews of different employees from customers. You may notice a pattern with some delivering poor levels of service or refusing to go the extra mile for your clients and customers.
At this point, you will need to decide whether to keep the weaker employees or cut them loose. Cutting them loose does mean that you will need to go through considerable effort to fill their positions, which costs both time and money. However, it also gives you a chance to bring fresh eyes to your business and ensure that you are reaching the level of service that customers expect from you. Often, delivering a new, exciting service can be the difference between getting new customers to sign on and being ignored completely. A new team with fresh eyes can be key to doing this.
Training the Older Recruits
Alternatively, it might be that your current team just needs tune up. If you train your employees, you will provide them with the skills they need to deliver a better level of service and indeed maximize their potential. This is always going to be beneficial to you, often leading to an increased level of efficiency. That, in turn, can make your business model more flexible and cost-effective.
The problem with training is that it is often so long and arduous that no one gets out alive. Okay, fine they get out alive, but they rarely learn anything new because nothing sinks in. That is an issue because training is actually quite expensive. Thankfully, there are ways to make training more effective, and one of the options would be to use microlearning. Once you learn more about microlearning, you will discover that it is a highly effective way to train up virtually any member of your team. Bite-size pieces of information that are easy to digest without hitting employees with an avalanche of info to learn. This is exactly what you need.
Remember, through training there should be some structure in place that allows you to explore which employees are progressing. This can help you nudge those who need more help along and shine a spotlight on those who are exceeding expectations.
Build Loyalty
Many businesses these days are hiring freelancers and temporary workers as a cheaper alternative to full-time staff. While this will save you money, it does make building loyalty an issue. That is a problem because without loyalty there is no reason for employees to go the extra mile for your business and deliver an even greater service. You need to make sure that employees feel connected to your business and want it to succeed as much as you do.
One of the ways you can do this is to give your employees a voice. Let them share their ideas and opinions on your business. You never know who might deliver the golden nugget you need to bring your company to the next level.
We hope this helps you build a brighter, better team in your business model.