By Hank Pierce

It’s no secret.  Small business owners don’t generally like the human resources part of running their business.  They think of it as drudgery, as overwhelming; an endless stream of paperwork; an administrative scourge.  Filling out forms for withholding taxes, workman’s compensation, health  and life insurance, payroll, work schedules.  And then there’s filling in when employees are absent, hiring new people, firing the ones that don’t work out, dealing with unsavory issues like theft, making sure everybody understands OSHA laws.  And on and on it goes.  No fun at all; just a drain on time and money.

And yet, every small business owner has heard that you’re no better than your people; that every business succeeds or fails on the basis of its people.  Everybody knows this, but it’s tough putting the maxim into practice when you’re dealing with that “admin scourge”.   One thing you have to do, according to Jeff Timpanaro, is to take yourself, as the business owner, out of the day-to-day battle and look at the situation from the nearest hillside.  From there you get a view of the strategic issues that may be holding your business back.  Jeff is President of Oberata Consulting, a Kingwood company which helps small businesses, and he says that getting the owner to do this is very tough work.  “It’s because they’re creative, high energy people who started the business by wearing all the hats, and they like working with all the nuts and bolts.  They don’t want to think about strategy or the softer side of people motivation.”

Timpanaro tries to get owners to think about “strategic vision”, a view of the company which can be shared by all the employees.  But the most important part of the vision is for each employee to act upon it; for each person in the organization to understand his unique capabilities and how each serves the customer, and how each makes a positive impact on the world through the company.  When this type of alignment is achieved and tied to compensation, Timpanaro’s clients have seen dramatic results.  “We help companies take their employees from ‘wage slaves’ to ‘job leaders’ and the transformation is shared by everybody in the company.”

Work provides a sense of accomplishment and belonging which is very important in most people’s lives, but money is what pays the bills.  So compensation is key in any business.  “We try to get our clients to get their staff to think like owners, and that takes cash, applied in the right places.  If it’s done right, the profits from a more successful business pay for it.”  That’s Stephen King, President and CEO of Growth Force, an outsourced accounting and financial services firm, located in Kingwood, with an emphasis on helping small businesses grow.  According to King, a common problem among small business owners is that they pay their people, often very well, but without tying compensation to the goals that are most important to the company.  There’s a lot of wasted effort in this approach; a lot of money left on the table.

Growth Force’s approach to improving this situation is what King calls “open book management”.   To put this into practice, the business owner must provide all the company’s financials to all the employees, in a form which is transparent and understandable by everyone.  No fancy accounting terms are allowed.  Once the financials are laid out in this way, key performance indicators, or KPIs, are identified and agreed to.  These are the main expenses or activities which have the biggest impact on the success of the business.  From these, goals are identified for each employee and compensation is paid basis how well the goals are met.  “If the small business owner will take the time to provide the leadership which is necessary to implement this type of plan, the results can be very dramatic; the difference between a losing business and one poised for profit and growth.”

One of the best ways to get off on the right foot where human resources is concerned is to hire the right people in the first place.  Becky Resendiz is Recruiting Performance Consultant at Administaff, and she has a lot of ideas about how to hire the best people.  “There’s no single thing that a small business should do to be successful in hiring.  We help them set themselves up for success by using a variety of approaches, each customized for the individual company”.  For example, Administaff uses a concept called “employment branding”.  Traditionally, business people think of branding in relation to products or services, but it can be successfully used to create an identity for a company in the minds of prospective employees.  A well designed website, awards and scholarships, editorials in local newspapers, presentations at local schools and colleges, employee referral programs, a reputation for good pay and benefits, and a well understood strategy and plan for growth all help establish the employment brand.  “If you do it right, you won’t have to look too hard for applicants; they’ll seek you out!”

This is just one of the elements to a good strategic hiring process.  Other areas include workforce planning, and developing a recruiting infrastructure, which addresses, among other things, how applicants apply, behavioral interviewing, and background checking.

Each of these experts has a lot more to say, and they’ll do so at the upcoming seminar, “Creating a High-Performance Culture:  Making Great Teams & Great Profits” which takes place on September 25^th at the North Harris Community College from 8:00 a.m. - 10:30 a.m.  The seminar is part of the “Best Practices” Seminar Series for small businesses and is put on by the Humble Area Chamber of Commerce.

About the Author:  Hank Pierce is a Kingwood resident and a member of SCORE (R), Counselors to America’s Small Business and a Resource Partner with the U.S. Small Business Administration.  SCORE is partners with the Humble Area Chamber of Commerce in providing free and confidential counseling to small businesses in Kingwood, Atascocita, Spring, and Humble.