Think Differently

 

Smaller firms often complain that they can’t offer employees as much as bigger companies, but entrepreneurs believe you should look to give something a bit different.

 

The co-founder of Concert Live says he looks for creative potential: “We try to nurture people who want to stand out from the crowd. That’s one of the things we have to be wary of when recruiting.” This company has yet to lose an employee to a larger rival business.

 

The diversity of experience as small firm is able to offer employees can be a huge advantage. Mr Horseman, Perkins Office Heroes nominee, says: “All of our roles overlap, so I’ve been able to get stuck into a lot of different things, including marketing, IT and the web, I see the whole package.”

 

Perkins also adds that: “Rather than having clear, process-driven roles, we like them to be adaptable.”

 

Share Your Vision

 

Work hard to include your staff in the planning of the business. If it’s their company and they started from the beginning they are more likely to have visions for it in the future.

 

Rachel Kay of Green-Tech says: “We have fabulous business, We’re the best in our niche – I believe this so it’s instilled into the staff. It’s our motivation that inspires our staff to keep achieving results.”

 

Conducting regular meetings and communicating the growth plans for the next 5 years for your business is also important.  Group brainstorms into the plans could also produce cost-cutting ways of increasing business.

 

Look & Listen

 

As senior management, seeming approachable is always god motivation. Perkins says: “We want staff to feed back the value they feel they’re adding to the business, what they’re getting out of it, what they could be doing that’s more effective and how they could be using their time more efficiently.”

 

Regular Personal Development meetings are also important. “If you keep on top of PDPs, you’re aware of the skill sets you’ve got and how they might be used in the future, you can also identify where you might be lacking, so you know what you need,” advises Kay.

 

Praise & Prizes

 

Set an ambitious but achievable, measurable target with your staff, offer training opportunities and reward them for achieving the tasks set out. You may not be able to afford to pay premium wages but you can put policies in place to help you motivate and retain high performing staff.

 

If you give staff the opportunity to grow with you, you’re likely to have a happy motivated team. “Employees…know they’re valued and that if they do something particularly impressive, it will make a significant contribution to the business and be appreciated.”

 

Perkins says: “People have personal goals in both their career and private life, so we have days where we allow staff to go off and fulfil something they’ve always wanted to do. There’s nothing big or clever about what we do, just keep it simple.”

 

What Do You Think?

 

Tell us your thoughts and opinions here.

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