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What's
love
got to do with it? ...
The latest industrial
relations laws have heralded a new era in employer/employee relations.
It may well be a retrograde step resurrecting the master/servant
relationship of the dark ages far from the enlightened days we now
enjoy.
The recent passed
small-business dismissal laws may be similarly horrific. Rather
than a positive step forward, they may be a move that will beat
employees into submission under the guise of improving small business.
This is not
to say that small business does not deserve the right to remove an
employee who can not, or will not, perform to the standards required.
Of course small business needs this right and it is foolish to imply
otherwise.
However, such
rights carry a duty of responsibility and a moral obligation that
may be beyond the capacity of some employers.
The capacity
to fire without due explanation (or even cause) is at one end of a
continuum of employer obligation and employee duty. At the other end
is the onus of care or, to use the four-letter word forbidden in business,
love.
While we enshrine
in law parameters that must not be transgressed, we have failed to
acknowledge the most "sacred" covenant we can enter, the one on which
real trust and commitment is based love.
By now, some
of you will be scoffing harshly at this journey onto "touchy feel"
grounds more suited to social work than business.
It is those
that laugh hardest that need this message most. And, to put your mind
at ease, I am not talking about romantic love nor a false world of
illusory sentiment. As a business person I am well aware of the realities
that accompany the workplace and the real difficulties that making
a dollar imposes.
However, I
have seen first hand the value of TLC Teaching Love to Companies.
The reality is that you cannot buy loyalty, nor can you "beat the
troops until morale improves". Both of these are no-win games.
However, you
can choose to fulfil the moral obligation, and duty, you have as an
employer: care first. It is only after first trying your best to build
a sense of community (or even family) in the workplace that you can
claim any right to fire an employee who fails to abide by your requirements.
Apart from
this, at a very practical level, you will fail to get the real benefits
that can be found by simply caring for your staff. There is profit
in taking good care of employees (emotionally and physically). Not
only will they work better, they also become your most powerful marketing
tools, with clients, customers, friends and family reaching an expanding
marketplace. And all this is achieved without spending any extra money
and almost no extra effort, except a little kindness along the way.
The TLC formula
is no great secret; nor is it rocket science. Our local tool retailer,
where margins are tight and performance crucial, uses it very successfully
with a staff of four. A baker in rural Victoria created a million-dollar
business on the premise that people mattered. Even one of the "Big
Six" accounting firms is undertaking TLC, mirroring a local accountancy
firm of 30, where staff enjoy going to work and love the people they
work for.
Personal values
The TLC approach
is simple and starts with your personal values system. If you think
you are worthwhile and deserve to be loved, then so do your employees.
Then, think about how you do what you do, and add a touch of love.
Real love, not the soppy kind.
An
ongoing formula you can use is the I SEE IT model.
I
Identifying potential employees wisely, knowing who you are, how you
operate and what you want;
S
Selecting carefully, which may mean seeking professional recruitment
advice;
E
Enlisting staff at an emotional level by building rapport (greeting,
smiling, politeness) then relationship-building (seeking input, acknowledge
effort and appreciating success);
E
Empowering staff by supporting them in learning new skills and then
trusting them to perform; and
IT
Interdependence and Teaming, which means sharing leadership.
This does not
mean you become soft there is much to be said for "tough love". The
tool retailer mentioned earlier had a fatherly talk with a young employee
about his work habits. Apparently, work was interfering with the young
man's social life and the boss had to help his youthful employee see
the consequences of constantly choosing the high life and drinking
then showing up late or hung over.
It was a tough
conversation, full of care, that took only a brief amount of time.
Six months later, the young man is one of the retailer's best salesmen
and very much an advocate for his employer.
These employee
attributes are also responsible for keeping employees for many years
beyond the average industry turnover a huge cost saving on its own.
The simple reality is that people can work better if you remember
that we are both mind and heart.
We are not
robots and passion drives us more then reason. Harness that passion
and you will drive action a lot further and, at a pragmatic level,
drive your wage dollar further.
By Leigh Kibby,
director of Kinematic Pty. Ltd.
Contact number: (03) 9471 8084
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