Your business has grown and you have just hired your first employee. She (or he) can do most of what you need to have done. You have promised her a review in 90 days, and possibly a pay increase. The thought makes you nervous. What if she doesn’t do well? Do you have to fire her and begin the process all over again? What if she argues with you? How will you handle that? What if your definition of “clean and neat” is different from her definition of “clean and neat”?
The best way to handle these issues is to manage expectations. Your new employee needs to know what you expect from her and you need to know what she thinks she is capable of doing.
The three step process that helps you manage employee expectations is the review process.
Step One is the job description. You need to have a well-written job description for each position that you want to fill. One of the most important parts of that job description is to give a purpose for the job. Why is that job important to your vision of your business? The more you articulate your business vision and show people how they fit into that vision, the more successful you will become.
The second part of the job description is a more detailed description of the tasks that you need done to support your vision. Many new entrepreneurs have difficulty using crisp and clear language when writing job descriptions. You might say that one of the tasks for your new employee is “Handle all phone messages promptly.” The immediately question that arises is, “What is promptly?” Better language would be, “Handle all phone messages within one hour of returning to your desk in the morning, after breaks and after lunch.” See? It’s very specific and both you and your employee know what “promptly” means.
If you can’t be clear in a sentence or two about what each task in the job entails, you will need to write a procedure for the task. For example, “Clean up patient room after each patient leaves” might be a task you want done. So that both you and your employee know what that means, you could add, “according to the Room Cleaning Procedure and Checklist.”
Step Two is setting up an Employee Review Procedure. This procedure lays out exactly what will occur, when it will occur and how it will occur. It pre-handles the sticky situation of what you do if the new employee disagrees with your evaluation and decision about pay. Within this procedure you are defining your roles. You are responsible for creating a business that thrives so that you can pay your bills, your payroll and make a profit. At the same time, if you are like most women, you care about employees and their welfare. It’s important to create a balance so that you understand where the boundary of what you can do for another person ends and their responsibility for their actions and lives begins.
The Employee Review Procedure, along with other employee manuals and documents defines that boundary.
* The procedure should include the following:
* The purpose of reviews
* The timing of reviews
* How goals will be set
* How activity will be measured
* The recourse an employee has if he or she disagrees with the review
* What will happen if the review is wildly satisfactory or dismally unsatisfactory
Step Three is setting goals for a specific period of time. Like job description tasks, these goals need to be very clear and defined. Avoid fuzzy language. Fuzzy language leads to misunderstanding, resentment and a job that isn’t done to your satisfaction. Goals are best set when they are in relationship to your overall company goals and plans. Everyone in your company must be working to move your business forward to the vision you have in your mind.
Have your employee review the goals and sign off on them. This will help insure that you have communicated effectively. Make sure your listen to her concerns and questions and take action where necessary. It’s o.k. to negotiate during this process, as long as you remember that you, not the employee, are ultimately responsible for the success of the business.
The Employee Review Process for Women Entrepreneurs - To learn more about this author, visit Casey Dawes's Website.
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Casey Dawes
(Visit Casey's Website)
Casey Dawes helps women small business
owners get on the fast track to business
success through consulting, education,
coaching and speaking. She is passionate
about helping women business owners
succeed. Go to ww
w.WomensBusinessFastTrack.com to get a
free report that tells you how to get on
the fast track for business success.
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