Small Business Solution: Avoid Following All Generic Advice

 It pays to be creative in handling workers-related issues if you are running a small business. Your business does not need every advice no matter the credibility of the source. What gets good results is all that counts no matter who is giving the advice. This doesn’t in any way mean you shouldn’t follow a business advice when genuinely given. You must be able to distinguish between genuine advice from blanket statements. Avoid the one-size-fits-all type of advice because same advice may not necessarily apply to every business. In many cases, following generic advice is often what leads to avoidable mistakes.

Generally, as each situation is different, so the solution! Small and large businesses all have their own peculiar characteristics and have to do what’s best for them. Anytime you read up or hear something that could be good for your business, be sure it is suitable for the business before you apply it. What works best is to follow your instincts most of the time. Alternatively, you can seek out expertise advice from a professional who will tailor such advice specifically to your situation. Generic advice can fail you but expert specific advice hardly does.

 

Small Business Solution: Don’t Handle All Performance Issues Same Way

As a small business owner, there is no other way you can measure progress without being able to track your performance. As the business grows, it is inevitable that your workforce will grow along too. As your team grows, you might opt to create a Human Resources department to deal with hiring and other employment related issues. That is a direct and logical way to go in expanding but handling all performance issues in the same way is not advisable. Issues relating directly to employee performance are very sensitive and should be handled differently. If not well handled, you risk hurting employee feelings thereby experiencing even more issues that could impact their work performance.

Granted that your HR department is responsible for employee performance issues, it is not advisable to send all matters relating to employee performance to your HR department. You get better and quicker results by empowering team leaders to speak directly and right away with associates who are experiencing performance issues. This is because many workers always feel that all poor performance matters referred to the HR department involve disciplinary measures. Having your managers or team leaders speak with them directly to see if they need any help always allays such fears. Showing them some support outside the HR department can often help workers more than going right to some form of generic disciplinary action which many HR departments are notorious for.