As an entrepreneur, especially small business owners with employees, the word reputation holds a tremendous amount of weight.  What you do on a daily basis, how you conduct yourself with your clients, to how you cope with stressful situations and overcome adversity with challenging decisions that impact you, your team and even the direction of your business, all shine a bright light on reputation.  How you are perceived.

And while not to be confused with Character, which my favorite definition has always been “What you do when no one else is watching”, the word reputation holds a very similar connotation.  The big difference… everyone is watching.  Well, at least your employees are, and one could certainly argue the clients that interact with them are as well.

One of the fastest ways to test this is to start showing up late.  Every day, show up late to work, or late for a meeting, or even late for an event.  This is just an example, and I DO NOT recommend trying this AT ALL, but imagine what would happen if the boss suddenly just stopped caring.  The ripple effect amongst the staff would be noticeably close to immediate and would certainly be one way to change the culture amongst the team.  Likely not the culture you want, however.

So how does this relate to what you do with your internal HR practices?  Think of this in another way that’s maybe not so visible as what you do in front of your employees, but for example (AND JUST AN EXAMPLE) testing the same theory by suddenly taking away everyone’s health insurance and with no explanation.  Well, if you survive the personal persecution and mass exodus from your staff bailing, this would likely be a very eye-opening experience on how well your staff also notices the changes made to things that affect their lives as well as how they perceive their own value from their employer. 

All overly dramatic examples aside, the reason that any of this matters is simply this: as a business owner, if you endeavor to grow your company (or even maintain), what you do with your HR practices and how those choices impact your team makes a difference. 

In a recent study done by Development Dimensions International, the top 5 reasons employees stayed with an employer were:

#1. Feeling valued and respected

#2. Career growth, learning and development

#3. Involvement in the direction and growth of the company

#4. An inclusive culture

#5. Fair Compensation and benefits

Interestingly though, according to a Gallup study, the top 4 reasons for an employee looking for a new job were as follows:

#1. Work-life balance

#2. Compensation and benefits

#3. Job stability

#4. A job that allows me to do what I do best

Pay close attention to how Compensation and Benefits moved from #5 as a reason to stay suddenly to when an employee doesn’t feel valued, feels stagnant or in a poor culture, its weight changes to #2 on the list for a needed job change.  The translation could be as simple as “If I’m not going to be respected, I might as well get paid for it from someone else.” 

HR and how you manage your policies say a lot about your relationship with your employees and if “everyone” is watching, what you do with these decisions matters.  Paying attention to the top 5 reasons to stay with your employer, only reason #5 for fair compensation and benefits has a hard dollar amount attached to be able to offer.  #1 through #4 can be done with the right programs, efforts and time spent with your people. 

Keeping good staff is just as important as retaining clients.  Both save you a ton of money and help you grow your company that much faster.  In my humble opinion, keeping happy employees goes a long way to solve both as the reward for happy employees typically results in well taken care of clients.  Putting proper HR practices in place that have a positive effect on your staff is not always easy and there is a lot of information out there to dissect on which method is best for you and your staff.  As a small business some of these practices seem difficult to put in place, especially without resources.  There are cost effective ways to find this support through Outsourced HR, Fractional CHRO and PEO (Professional Employer Organization) services that can address specific or multiple needs.  If you have questions on how to find the best resources for your business, Right Fit PEO can be a guide to help find solutions and introductions for any of these categories.

Article by: Glen Antwiler