Dealing with Personnel Issues in a Small Business
Your employees are a big factor in the success of your small
business. One bad employee can impact business in a negative way and can cause
you to lose money.
There are several problems your business can have with its
employees. The job of the employer is to identify any potential problems before
they get too costly. If you have a sales business, for example, tools such as
performance management software can help keep track of employees who aren’t
effective.
A great human resources department is essential in helping
manage personnel issues. Not only do they do the “hiring and firing”, but they
are also responsible for boosting company morale and taking care of the little
niggly issues.
Potential Issues
There are a variety of issues you could have with your
staff. For example, if the performance management software reveals that an employee
is ineffective, actions can be taken to either increase productivity or give
the individual different tasks that play to their strengths.
Other examples include lack of reliability, conflict at the
workplace, poor customer service skills, interoffice dating, and stealing from
the company. Each situation needs to be managed as it arises.
Not every issue needs to be solved by firing the individual.
It will depend on the situation.
Develop your human resources
Even the smallest business should have a human resource
department. Human resources are responsible for hiring new employees, dealing
with leavers and terminations/dismissals, keeping track of the payroll, and
boosting morale.
When you are selecting people for your human resources
department look for people who are caring, upbeat, and efficient. You not only
need them to perform their jobs well, but you want to position them as people
to go to when dealing with personal problems that may affect performance or
situation within the company. Of course, their tasks will vary depending on the
nature of the company.
When there is conflict
Conflicts at work can cause friction amongst your staff.
This can hurt your business because you could lose both customers and money.
It may be tempting to let the human resources department
handle the conflict. However, if a situation is severe, you as the small
business owner will need to get involved.
First, you will need to understand the nature of the issue.
Ask questions. How was the conflict caused? Was it based on one situation, or
has it been ongoing?
Then, you will need to find solutions that will end the
conflict. You can’t find anything that will help, you may want to consider
going down a disciplinary route and ultimately dismissing the person.
What personnel issues means for your business.
As mentioned previously, you can lose time and money when
dealing with personnel issues. If
you need to fire someone abruptly, it will
probably take a while to fill the position. Unless the rest of your staff can
fill the gaps, this can really hurt your daily operations.
If your personnel issues originate with one person, measures
need to be taken to prevent this individual from being a complete distraction.
When the rest of your staff is annoyed, this can also hurt productivity and
cause you to lose money.
Preventing personnel issues
The best way to deal with problems with your staff is to
prevent them from happening in the first
place. When problems are not resolved
quickly, they can escalate to something much more dramatic.
This is another essential role of the human resources
department. One of their responsibilities is to organise events. Most
businesses choose to have an office Christmas party and other gatherings
throughout the year - and employees enjoy it when the business pays for them to
have a good time!
Another great way to prevent any problems from occurring is
to make yourself accessible. If you are available to talk with your staff and
understand how they feel, you are more likely to catch a situation before it
gets out of hand.
Create a healthy environment
When your small business has problems with its personnel, it
can affect your business negatively. To create a healthy work environment you
need to deal with personnel issues before they become too difficult to manage.
Solve the problems any way you can, whether it is to fire the individual or
speak with them about their conduct. Each situation is different and using
tools such as performance management software can help.