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Small Business Staff Need Special Qualities: What To Look For When Recruiting Staff

By Leon Noone

Republish: EasyPublish™
Published: 13Aug2009
Word count: 517
Viewed: 374 time(s)

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Summary. Small business is unique. It's not a kindergarten big business. Staff who succeed in small business need adequate qualifications and experience. But they need other qualities too so that they'll "fit" the small business environment.

Employees Must Be Generalists. In a small business, all employees, tradespersons, administrators, operators have to do other than what they specialize in. If an accounts clerk has to placate a dissatisfied customer, so be it. If the receptionist needs to check credit suitability, that's OK too. And it's common for technicians and tradespeople to have to sell.

An employee cannot simply say "That's not my job" or "there's no one here to handle that right now". If your staff are too specialist, arrange some cross training to increase their value to you, improve their self development and enhance your customer service.

Customer Service Is Everyone's Job. This idea isn't new. Trainers and consultants spout it all the time. But in a small business it's not only true, it's essential. There's no customer service or customer relations manager in a small business. Everyone must know how to respond to a range of customer service issues.

To the customer the person he or she speaks with is the business. A customer with a query or complaint must feel respected and welcomed. Angry or unhappy customers are far more damaging to a small business than a large business. "I'll call you back" or "I'll get back to you" are inadequate responses. There must be a system that staff follow that guarantees customers a response within a certain time. You may need to use scripts so that staff know exactly what to say.

Find Employees Who Like Small Business. This applies particularly to other managers and specialists. Unlike big business, small business doesn't have a small army of people to delegate to. Managers and specialists need to be comfortable doing both "management" and "hands on" work. And they need to be willing to "cover" for other managers and specialists too.

People working in small business should enjoy the variety, the excitement, the immediacy and the unpredictability that's inherent to some extent in almost all small business. They should also be tolerant of the foibles of colleagues. Small businesses, even with 20-30 employees, are fairly intimate places. There's little room for personal aggravation.

Your Relationship With Staff. In small business, the relationship between the CEO and all staff is unique. Some staff may try to capitalize on it by self promotion. Some may simply be slightly uncomfortable that their performance and behaviour is so readily observed by the CEO. Others will be uncomfortable that, as they see it, other staff are more popular with the boss than they are.

As CEO in a small business, you'll be far more aware of individual employee error and limitations than in large business. Make sure you keep a balanced perspective.

Conclusion. It's great to employ the "best" people available. But they must be comfortable in the "rough and tumble" of small business too. It's yet another area where the unique needs of small business are different from large business.

If you've enjoyed this article, you might like to read my FREE, 42 page Special Report, "5 Proven Methods For Improving Employee Performance On The Job". It's yours to keep. You'll also get a free bonus eBook about setting Performance Standards for employees. Just go to http://www.leonnoone.com and they're yours. I work with small-medium business managers to improve on job staff performance without using training.

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