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Part four in my multi-part series on employee relations.

When it comes to running a company or even managing one, it’s easy to see yourself as the head of a complicated body of workers, all of whom look to you for guidance because clearly you’re the only one who has the vision for how to make the company work. However, this is really little more than an ego problem, and one that continues to bring down otherwise good corporations.

Companies that empower their employees to make decisions, take a stake in the company, and be a part of the events going on around them find that costs are lower, efficiency is up, turnover is down, and they can do a lot more with a lot less. The reason is that employees feel that their work actually matters and they aren’t little more than a face to some otherwise mechanical entity. Here are a few methods for empowering your employees that other large businesses have used successfully.

1. Teach even entry-level employees the basics of management practices and give them the authority to do things often reserved for management, like closing a location or implementing ideas that might increase efficiency. Maybe even let them have a say in hiring, or design a role for some of your employees in the hiring process. Most importantly, pay them more when you give them more responsibilities. Let them associate increased work with increased wages.
2. Have an open-book policy regarding your financial records, especially expense accounts. Let your employees see where money was coming in and going out, who it was being spent on, what sorts of discounts people were getting, etc. Dorian Drake International implemented this plan in 2002 and some of the immediate benefits were that employees noticed that some departments were getting vendor discounts others weren’t and pressured the company to negotiate for everybody. Also, travel expenses were severely cut, at least partially because everybody in the company would see how much you spent on business trips.
3. Give your employees the authority to spend money. If there’s a customer problem, let them solve it up to a certain amount without having to go through management for authorization or, worse, higher levels of bureaucracy. It doesn’t have to be a large amount, but the ability to give away something free or correct an issue caused by your company without adding a wait for approval on top of it ensures better customer satisfaction and will help retain clients, if not also garner referrals.
4. While this isn’t a solution for all businesses, some places might benefit from de-structuring the workday. Allowing employees to work hours that they are comfortable with and setting concrete goals with deadlines that they have to meet is a good way to relaxing the pressure on them and allowing them to produce most efficiently. If it isn’t necessary that they work along a set schedule, focus on a more results-oriented approach to scheduling and let them work out how to get it all done.
5. Skyline Construction has an innovative idea: let their employees choose their salary. They could pick a salary from within a specific range. The advantage to taking a lower one was that it gave them the opportunity to earn a higher year-end bonus if the company met certain goals. Many employees took lower salaries throughout the year, but worked harder to meet and exceed those company goals, many earning more as a result of their bonuses than they would have if they had taken the maximum allowed wage.

These are only some ideas of what you can do to make your employees feel as if they are a real part of your company. You can’t do everything yourself, nor should you try to. Give your employees a little extra responsibility and they might just surprise you with how they run with it.

Another part in my multi-part series on employee relations.

One of the toughest things that a manager has to do is motivate his or her employees. It’s difficult, especially in lean economic times, to encourage employees to work their hardest when there is very little that you have to inspire them with. The traditional concept of “the carrot and the stick” no longer applies, as carrots are in remarkably short supply and the stick of having to potentially find work in such a dismal job market is so constant as to have either desensitized workers to the possibility or, more likely, simply allowed them to be beaten down, losing the will to strive. Instead of trying to work with the outdated concept of offering reward while threatening punishment, try finding new ways to motivate your people.

The first thing you can do is give your employees a sense of autonomy. Everybody wants to feel as if they have control over their own lives, their own futures. Part of the problem with lackluster performance is a sense of no longer having any choice in their future. Again, the constant threat of being out of a job leaves employees with a sense of being at the whims of outside forces, and giving your employees a measure of control back will create a haven from that feeling at work. Let them have control over their hours, give them some control over what projects they can undertake, give clear instructions then let them deal with the work on their own, and don’t micromanage.

Next, give them specific goals to achieve. A worker who can accomplish a task, reach a goal, gains a sense of mastery over their own work. My giving them the opportunity to learn new skills and get better at them, they’ll continue to pursue learning and get better at things that they feel matter. Training programs, department exchanges, and inter-team competition are all things that can be used to foster a sense of mastery, to make employees find new, better ways to achieve the goals the company wants to meet.

Finally, give them a sense of purpose. It’s easy to get into a rut at a job where you feel that your actions show no tangible results. Why should a call center employee work harder to deal with more calls when their contribution is largely meaningless when considered with the hundreds of other people doing the exact same thing? It’s easy for employees to feel as if they have no impact on the company and therefore have no incentive to excel. Try opening the financial records of the company to employees so they can see what they contribute to. Offer bonuses throughout the company based on merit (this includes at the upper levels) rather than by contract or standard throughout the company. Make sure your employees know how well the company is doing, how they contributed to that, and how they can meet the new goals you set.

Motivation seems like it’s a tricky thing to deal with, but really it’s a matter of empowering your employees and bringing them into the company. Make them a part of what you’re doing, show them that you value and trust them, and that they are important parts of your business, not simply a means to an end. Treat your employees like intelligent human beings and they’ll work hard to meet your expectations.

And now for part two in our ongoing series on employment and employee relations:

Running a company in the United States means that there are a lot of bureaucratic hoops to jump through. Most of them involve filing paperwork, sending information into the government, and allowing people to keep track of your records so that everybody pays their fair share. Some of the requirements you have to meet are educational, however, and it’s important that you take the time to properly train your employees so they’re aware of the potential risks they might face on the job.

The first thing you have to ask yourself is, “Who sets the standards for training?” Obviously somebody has to decide what qualifies as federally acceptable training, both in terms of quality and content. The answer is that this is determined by the US Department of Labor’s Office of Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). They are the ones who decide exactly what is important for every US worker to know in every conceivable type of corporation. Regardless of what you do, there are certain types of training you will be required to have, and in specific industries there is additional knowledge you will need to know. More importantly, as a company owner, you’ll have to make sure your employees know it.

Before you even consider hiring employees, start at OSHA’s website and take a look at the materials you’ll need in order to properly train your employees. The OSHA Compliance Assistance Quick Start is a wonderful guide that will be able to help you pick the industry that you’re in and the types of training that might be required for it. Construction and Health Care are vastly different from other industries and have a different set of regulations that you’ll have to follow in order to be considered in line with federal requirements.

The next question you should ask is, “How am I supposed to actually train my employees?” If everyone trains new hires the way they want, there is no guarantee that the same information is being passed along or that it’s being done in an efficient and effective manner. It would be far too easy for a business owner to give a five minute rundown to an employee still on the job that can be misinterpreted or simply missed. Either way, there is a solution to that as well.

To quote their website, “The OSHA Directorate of Training and Education (DTE) develops, directs, oversees, manages and ensures implementation of OSHA’s national training and education policies and procedures.” What this means is that they’re provided the training and reference materials you need in order to make sure that your employees are up to date on federal safety requirements and the processes involved in maintaining them.

This is by no means comprehensive. Federally mandated training is not difficult to do once you understand what does and does not apply to your company, but it is vitally important to stay in compliance with the procedures. It’s also important to ask questions. Spend time browsing through the OSHA resources and getting an idea of what is required for you, and if you have questions, contact them and ask. You have nothing to lose and everything to gain by spending a few minutes familiarizing yourself with these regulations.