Analysis: why small companies need to look at their attitude to people when it comes to successful and sustainable business development
Small and medium-sized companies usually operate in a highly competitive environment, trying to solve all the issues on the fly. Facing constraints such as idea creation, finance and building a strong, effective team, entrepreneurs might feel stuck when it comes to sustainability implementation. Only approximately half of businesses feel informed about sustainability so it is still unclear for many how their firm can embed sustainability in its everyday activities.
However, every small company can easily include sustainability as a part of their regular performance. The common perceptions of sustainability are around green energy, reducing food waste and environmental protection, but small companies should also reconsider their attitude toward people when considering successful sustainable economic development.
Careful and consistent planning
Planning is vital to any business plan or project, but managers can sometimes forget this when dealing with their people. Consistency in planning is half of the whole business's success and needs to cover all company performance questions, including clear goals, timing and members' responsibilities.
Classical planning has always included taking notes, making priorities and managing tasks. Nowadays, the software can cover most of that routine, making the process faster, more accessible and more cooperative. Start your day with 10 minutes of planning, and you will see a significant rise in productivity during the day. Keep the planning process relatively easy and short to get used to and make it your everyday habit.
Designing your winning team
In most cases, small businesses are started by their owners. While the company is gradually growing, the founder will sooner or later face the issue of overwhelming tasks. Constant task pressure and the inability to work 24 hours nonstop will lead to hiring staff and designing their own team. Every business wants to hire the best employees so competitiveness in the labour market has been rising annually and makes the hiring process complicated and longitudinal.
Even if an outside agency is involved, an entrepreneur needs to actively participate in the employee recruitment process. As a central element of sustainable economic company growth, the owner cannot be just a passive spectator. Company culture, values, attitude, personal relationships and the ability to think fast and out of the box are critical for success in small companies nowadays. An entrepreneur's voice must lead in the hiring process and he or she should not put this responsibility on other people.
Retaining team members
Hiring suitable employees is only a starting point in a company's operation cycle. To avoid repeating the recruiting process with all its expenses and stresses, entrepreneurs should put all their efforts into developing staff and creating the conditions to meet their enterprise and individual goals.
Although this might sound easy, there are a range of complicated factors around how companies should offer something valuable to employees and vice versa. This involves a massive amount of work, which demands dedication and time, but will help to provide a systematic and consistent approach beneficial to economic, people and team development.
Team motivation and development
Sustainable team members are happy employees who share company values and respect each other and their company. While motivation and staff development have been widely researched for many years, there is still no one magic solution suitable for every company. Entrepreneurs need to monitor their current employees' motivation, regularly evaluate their effectiveness and provide required changes.
Small businesses are usually more flexible than multinationals in offering possibilities to their employees. Despite possible financial constraints, small companies can win talent wars by providing more opportunities to take on various responsibilities, developing leadership skills during real projects, participating in cross-functional teams, and dealing with customers and different vendors. Avoid hierarchical structures and tedious bureaucracy and give your employees more freedom in taking on challenges and responsibilities.
Support your people
Every business wants to hire and keep the best employees. However, we know huge amounts of people leave companies of their volition despite all the efforts to develop, motivate and retain them. Why does this happen?
The main reason for this is do we really know what our people expect of us as managers and leaders? The simplest way is to ask our employees informally during the short morning conversation about their problems, concerns and expectations. Some issues can arise if owners only use a formal survey, as they then only receive formal and pre-prepared answers. You need to value your people and support them if you wish to build an effective and prosperous company.
The views expressed here are those of the author and do not represent or reflect the views of RTÉ
