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E-Myth – “Why most small businesses don’t work & what to do about it”

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Edmonton Business Consultant | How To Keep Great Employees Forever


Many entrepreneurs have a goal of keeping all of the employees that they have in their business forever says Edmonton business consultant. While this may sound like an admirable goal, it is far from a realistic one. Not only do entrepreneurs lose employees through no fault of their own on a regular basis, employers also cannot be afraid of saying goodbye to the wrong employees because they think that it is so expensive to hire new ones.

Business owners should ensure that while they are working to keep the employees that they have for as long as they are able, their goal should not be to keep employees forever. One way that business owners can work to retain staff that they have, is by holding regular periodic reviews instead of annual reviews. Edmonton business consultant says that this is extremely important because annual reviews may not be proactive enough, or allow enough communication between business owner and employee. By hosting regular conversations with staff, business owners can normalize these reviews so that it is an unexpected event and not because issues have cropped up in the business or the employeeís behaviour. These regular reviews can ensure that this is owners are thinking employees for their hard work and rewarding good behaviour, as soon as it is noticed to encourage that behaviour to continue. As well, it allows entrepreneurs to address problems with struggling employees, or correct problematic behaviours as soon as those behaviours are noticed. By doing this, an entrepreneur is cultivating a staff of people that are behaving in a way that is similar to the values of the Corporation.

Although entrepreneurs do what they can to increase the retention of their staff, they should understand that it is inevitable that people are going to leave from time to time. If they are always looking for staff in their business, business owners do not have to wait for someone to leave in order to start the process. Edmonton business consultant says it can take meeting a high number of people in order to identify the people who are good be the best fit for an entrepreneurís business, therefore the sooner they are able to start the process, the more likely it is they are going to find a great person when they are needed.

Another great way that entrepreneurs can ensure that they are looking for and finding the best people possible, is by clearly communicating the corporate values during the interview process. This way, potential employees can see the values that are important to the business, and make the decision if that aligns with their values as well as if it does not align with their values. By operating on a value-based system of finding people, business owners can ensure that they are eliminating the people that are not going to be a great fit for their business early on in the process. By doing this, business owners have a better chance of finding the best people they can for their business.

Entrepreneurs often believe that not only should they keep employees forever says Edmonton business consultant, but if they do not to keep employees forever that it is a feeling of theirs. This is actually very untrue, business owners have to understand that employees leave businesses for a variety of reasons, and it is not a feeling of the entrepreneur. In fact, currently, the average millennial employee only stays 2.3 years on average with each employer. Employee turnover rate is a normal and expected part of business ownership.

Because it is such a regular part of business ownership, business owners should ensure that they are building their business in such a way that can minimize the transition of getting a new person in their business as well as their maximizing their ability to find those great employees. Edmonton business consultant says the two biggest costs associated with losing an employee and having to hire another one is the recruiting and training of those people. One way to minimize the effect of trading a new employee in a business is by ensuring that an entrepreneur always has at least two staff members at all times who can do any role in the business. That way, it does not matter which staff member leaves, a business can continue to operate as if nothing has happened.

Recruiting a new employee is the other cost associated with transition, and Vinceís owners can minimize the cost of that very easily by never stopping the search for great new employees. Many entrepreneurs stop searching for people once they have a full complement of staff in their business, this would be a mistake says Edmonton business consultant. Since business owners are never in control of when they might have a staff member leave their business, they should never quit looking. Especially because it takes meeting a large amount of people in order to identify the few that are going to be great fits in the business, business owners should ensure that their maximizing their chances of finding the best person the matter when they have a person choose to leave.

In addition to ensuring that they minimize the transition of people leaving their business and then people coming on, entrepreneurs need to understand that one way that they can work to keep great employees is to eliminate annual reviews, in favour of more frequent periodic reviews says Edmonton business consultant. By having regular conversations with staff, entrepreneurs can reward good behaviour as soon as they see it, and correct problem behaviours as they surface. That way, a business owner is cultivating the staff that they wish to see in their business, ensuring that the staff that they do have our continuing to be great fits in their business. When entrepreneurs understand this balance in their business, they can ensure that they are doing whatever is necessary to minimize the effect of people leaving their business and keeping the great staff that they have.