According to the Oxford dictionary, management is the process of dealing with or controlling things or people. Why? Well, people create the product, people make the marketing, and people handle the customers. Without your employees, your "people," your business would no longer exist. How each of these areas performs is based on the people responsible for them, and if they are not happy, your customers will not be either.
Your employees are an extension of your company and will represent you in and out of the office. Management involves coordinating and overseeing the work activities of your employee's performance to ensure efficiency and effectiveness in your company.
There are a lot of tips and tricks to help managers, but here are some of my favorite ten that I have found:
Be Fair, honest, and consistent.
Be Fair, honest, and consistent.
Hire with an eye for tomorrow: Plan to grow; hire within your long-term plan for the company.
Delegate by design: Realize you can't do it all, but give the task to the right person.
Pay accordingly
Reward appropriately: Bonuses encourage people to work hard.
Listen, then lead: Listen to what people have to say, then make your decision to act.
Praise publicly, critique privately: If you praise in public, you will lead by motivating; if you tear down in public, you will lead with fear. There are times you can do both, depending on the issue. Public corrections can be done carefully when you need a strong and quick change. It is best, in public scenarios, to address the problem, not the individual.
Avoid complacency: Idle people create lost opportunities and can become a place of malcontent / busy workers who have less time to gossip.
Seek camaraderie: Strong teams look out for each other and perform more efficiently.
Trust Wisely: Give people a chance to fail, and succeed, so trust wisely and carefully.
One of the vital responsibilities entrusted to a manager is the performance management of the employees under the manager. One of the most stressful parts of management is figuring out whether and how to discipline or fire an employee. But if you ignore or mishandle the problem employee, it can lead to costly outcomes.
Some possible adverse outcomes that lead to the high cost of a problem employee are lawsuits, employee turnover, and/or poor morale. Lawsuits can be brought in by current and former employees. If you lose one, it could easily have a payout of hundreds of thousands of dollars or higher.
For example, in California, a jury awarded $61 million to two drivers for Federal Express in 2006. They claimed they had been harassed and called derogatory names because of their Lebanese heritage. (Delpo, Amy; Guerin, Lisa; 2010)
If you ignore the problem employee or handle workplace problems ineffectively, you will have a retention problem. Hiring new employees in today's market can be challenging, so retaining good employees is vital for success. Good employees leave because they will be forced to pick up the slack or have to put up with that abuse from the problem employee.
This leads to staff having a poor morale level. Problem employees can also drag down your good employees. As coworkers watch the difficult employee "get away with" their behavior of mistreating, failing to perform, or breaking the rules, they will start to feel resentful and unappreciated. In some cases, the problem employee may even pose a threat to your good employee(s). In this case, you need to act quickly. The poor morale with spread to all of your employees quickly, and in some cases, it can be near impossible to recover from.
So how do you deal with the problem employee? First, you can always use proven hiring practices to help avoid hiring problem employees in the first place. Once you become aware of the problem, you will need to effectively deal with specific issues that arise in the workplace when you become aware of them. This may be something minor, or it may need to be a more severe action plan, but you need to act before it creates a worse environment for others. You will need to coach problem employees into becoming productive employees and, if necessary, safely and legally terminate employees who will not improve or threaten others.
In conclusion, your employees are your most valuable asset that needs to be managed and directed. If you need help in these areas, let us know, and we can help!