HR Notes

5 Ways to Build a Solid Business Culture That Attracts Great Employees AND Customers

By Delmar Johnson

Business culture is imperative for entrepreneurs. Don’t sacrifice it just because you’ve only been in business for a short time. Read below to discover the 5 ways to build a solid business culture to attract customers and employees to your business.

The culture of any business is one of the most important things to have established from the beginning, way before you have clients or a team.  It creates a foundation for the type of workplace environment you want, even if you operate an online business.

Maybe you’re asking yourself, why is building a business culture so important? Simply put, a company’s culture can potentially make or break the enterprise. With the world watching, the perception of your brand and business is a big deal.  As the saying goes, people like to do business with those they know, like and trust.

However, without the presence of a company culture, the brand’s image and reputation suffers, and few will have you on their list to work with you or buy from you. When businesses shy away from investing in their culture for long periods of time, in both time and money, consequences can be detrimental to its growth.

So how can you begin to build your culture and create a reputation that attracts your ideal customer and team? Let’s jump in and look at five points that focus on developing a culture that you can create and nurture!

1.  Be clear on your core values and what those values are.

Maybe your values include a company of integrity, innovation, creativity, strong customer service, fun atmosphere, and open communications.

Great!

Whichever ones you choose, just make sure you have clarity on them, so you can adequately explain them to customers and future employees. There are several things that could be identified as core values in your business. All of these will set the foundation you’ll want to build your company on and will result in the kind of environment you want as your business evolves.

Whether you have a brick and mortar or a virtual business, the core of your culture drives how you do business.

It will always start with YOU.

2.  Be clear on your expectations.  Clear expectations require you to ask yourself several questions like…

• What are you expecting in your business?
• What are your goals?
• What are some of the standards you’re setting? (These come from your core values).
• What are your expectations for the people that you bring on to support you? Are you expecting that they be committed to the vision?
• Are you expecting your business to grow to a certain level over the next 1, 3, 5, or even 20 years?

See what I mean?

Maybe you have a brick and mortar that you’re looking to expand, or maybe you have a thriving online business. Either way, it’s important to know what your expectations are in your own business.

3.  Be proactive in establishing processes from the beginning

Take the time to be proactive and create the needed processes for your business.  When you’re in the beginning stage, a lot of times small business owners think, “Oh, I don’t need that yet because I don’t have employees.”

Wrong.

The key is for you to create those processes before you have team members, so you can begin establishing those standard operating procedures or processes to stay consistent and organized with your operations.

Maybe you started out, as most of us have, as a solopreneur.  But now you’ve evolved into a growing small business and have your CEO hat on.

Congratulations!

But processes are even more imperative when you reach this stage of business because everyone needs to be on the same page.

So, go back and think about the daily activities you complete each day and write them down on paper or type them up on a Word document on your computer, iPad, or whatever’s most convenient for you.

6 Must-Have Benefits Every Business Needs to Attract the Best Team

By Delmar Johnson

If you’re looking to hire within your business, there are 6 key things you should have in place to help you stand out among other recruiters. Read below to learn how to find the best talent for your business.

When it’s time to hire employees, you do it with the hope that they will be a part of your team for the long haul right?

Of course you do! It’s important to create a company culture that promotes your core values and beliefs. CLICK TO TWEET

Why?

Because all employees are looking for the same perks… BENEFITS!

I’d venture to say that the first thought when business owners hear “benefits” is typically healthcare coverage.

This makes total sense with the legal changes over the last several years.

But there are other benefits besides Healthcare that you can offer to your employees.

Let’s take a look at some MUST HAVE benefits for you to consider in your business

1. Minimum wage and overtime pay

While there is a federal minimum wage, states may elect to raise the minimum wage within their borders. The minimum wage can be modified by a change in federal law.

2. Employees time off to vote, serve on a jury and perform military service.

Employers big and small understand that civic duty and serving the country is admirable and support those decisions.

3. Pay state and federal unemployment taxes, thus providing benefits for unemployed workers

Unemployment insurance benefits are mandatory and vary by state. However, employees terminated with just cause typically do not receive unemployment benefits.

4. Workers Compensation

If an employee suffers an accident on the job, workers’ compensation insurance usually pays for medical costs, and time off in some cases. Workers’ compensation varies by state, and the federal government administers its own program for federal workers.

5. Social Security payment credits

When an employee works a certain number of hours in the job, the employee receives Social Security credits. These credits are applied toward retirement benefits when the employee reaches retirement age.

6. Comply with the Federal Family and Medical Leave (FMLA)

When your business has at least 50 payroll employees FMLA must be implemented as an option when employees must take a leave of absence due to family and medical leave (e.g., pregnancy, caring for a spouse, adoption and more) The truth is, benefits are a company’s bargaining chip! CLICK TO TWEET

When considering which benefits to offer, think of what is appealing to potential employees.

What will make a top prospect choose your company over the competition?

Let’s be honest, how often are benefits mentioned when a company is being recommended to a job seeker?

EVERY TIME!

Even before submitting a resume, prospects want to know if there will be medical and/or dental plans.

Is there a retirement package? Are there allotted hours for leave?

You know, the basics!

In summary, these are my best tips to attracting the best team to help you build your business. Creating the right package, not only benefits employees but benefits your business and contributes to the culture of values you’ve created.

Ghosting, Is It Today’s Worker New Way of Saying I’m Out?

By Delmar Johnson

Has it gotten that bad in the workplace? Or is the job place economy undeniably good? According to the New York Times this could possibly the best time for the American labor market in at least 18 years and maybe closer to 50.

Most of us have heard the word “ghosting” being associated with a bad date or ditching out on a party that you weren’t really into. But today it seems like ghosting (leaving without notice and nobody can find you) is on the rise in the workplace. It’s a term that doesn’t have longevity in the vernacular, so there is not a lot of stats on it, yet it is showing up in the industry across the nation. And since there aren’t many stats on it, I’ll just give you my take on what ghosting by employee is all about in the workplace today.

Now if you’ve done any type of job and been in the workforce for any length of time, you have probably heard the term “at will”. If you are employed at will, your employer does not need good cause to fire you. Doesn’t mean you don’t have rights under state and federal laws, because you do. But for the sake of this article, lets look at the very simplified perspective.

An employer can terminate your employment; however, I see “at will” as being a two-way street. Just as they have a right to fire you, you as the employee have your own will and option to leave when you feel like it.

Sometimes depending on your position and industry there may be some specific parameters around how you leave a job, for instance maybe a doctor or a tenured professor may require you to truly give notice not to have unnecessary backlash in leaving. Or maybe as a Corporate Executive, who has a parachute clause that’s attached to how they terminate their employment, it wouldn’t be very wise to just “ghost.”

However, if we look at it from a general working-class population, many employees may feel like they have not been treated properly, or they’re being underpaid and overworked, or could it be their work schedule has no flexibility and it’s affecting their life outside the workplace walls. Honestly there could be a plethora of things about why they’re choosing to ghost their employer. Now by society and workplace terms it’s always good etiquette to give the employer an advance notice no matter the reason you’re leaving. For example, a week or two-week notice; depending again on what type of job you have. Yes it may leave a bad taste in the employer’s mouth about how a worker left, but again let’s go back to the fact that if you are living in an at-will state which all states are, except Montana, the possibility of “ghosting” can and obviously will occur.

Again at-will truly can apply to both sides of the fence, even when the job market seems strong and the economy is seemingly booming. Today there are so many ways to make a living and earn the type of income you as an individual believe you deserve, whether through a job or entrepreneurship.

Ghosting to be clear, is not necessarily something I agree with or would do myself. Hey, I have 25 years in this HR game, so there’s a certain way that I conduct myself however, I also see this as we are living in a time now where people are choosing to live their life very differently then maybe 20 or 30 years ago in the workplace.

The economy may be better for some and the job market may be better for others; however people personally I would venture to say are dealing with other things outside of the workplace, like illness mental-health issues, family issues, could again be so many things that they’ve even lost a concentration in the workplace and they have consciously decided you know what “I’m going it figure it out in my own way.” So as an HR consultant to entrepreneurs and small-business, I will continue to look at how this new way of leaving employer, ghosting, as it’s being called and how it is truly going to affect the workplace.