Dearest Clients, Readers, and those just passing by,

The last few months in small business HR have been fast-paced in terms of changing workplace dynamics and a huge, HUGE, growth mindset around racial equality.  Collectively we have a tremendous amount to learn. As a consultant, entrepreneur, and mom I am learning just as fast as I can. 

If you're like most of my small business clients you believe in and support the Black Lives Matter movement and seek to find racial equality in your workplace but feel paralyzed about how you and your small business can or should support, react, be an ally to, and advocate. I've navigated these conversations with several clients and one thing that is abundantly clear is that doing nothing, being a late adopter is not an option. I think that the sky's the limit in terms of growth and that this is not a one-time, trendy fix. Having a growth mindset is imperative for small businesses. Here are five steps small businesses can do to support racial equality in the workplace.

1. Communicate to your team members and perhaps even your clients your stance on racial equality in the workplace. Here are examples from Barre3, Ben and Jerry’s, and Chipotle.

2. Adopt a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) policy that will create cultural shifts to ensure equality for all in your workplace. Evaluate your workplace policies and practices and critique your unconscious bias. Specifically look for opportunities to improve in the areas of recruitment, training, professional development, employee relations, performance management. Perhaps develop a committee of teammates to help provide insights and reduce unconscious bias during your evaluation. MacArthur Foundation has a stellar example of their DEI policy and work.  

3. Invest in training for your workplace. Franklin Covey has a solid resource offered on-demand on Unconscious Bias. Note; I have no affiliation with Franklin Covey, I simply admire their work and this program. 

4. Seek feedback from your workplace. Allowing your workforce to provide feedback to you anonymously will help you understand opportunities for improvement and allows for the individual teammates to feel protected. Resources that may be helpful include; ThoughtExchange, Officevibe, TinyPulse (again, no affiliation).

5. Don’t be silent. Most likely your workforce is waiting to hear your response to the unveiling of racial inequality in the United States. Your silence speaks volumes. Take a proactive, thoughtful approach by communicating the value that each of your team members brings to the workplace (past, present, and future) regardless of their race, gender, LGBTQ+ status. Communicating your stance is crucial to creating equality, and a sense of belonging, for all people in your workplace.

We all have work to do in the areas of bias and workplace equality whether you’re a beginner or you have been studying this for years EVERY ONE OF US IS LEARNING. Coming at this with a growth mindset, even a beginner growth mindset, is fantastic. This article from Lattice gives examples of how bias exists in recruiting, promotion, and even simply listening to ideas: How to Reduce Unconscious Bias at Work. You may also want to watch this TedTalk that has a great exercise at the beginning that highlights some of our biases. Both of these free resources would be appropriate to share with your leadership team and even your workforce as you begin to approach educating and unraveling unconscious bias in your small business.

What obstacles have you encountered in your workplace? I feel strongly that the obstacles are our greatest opportunities. Change is happening at lightning speed and it’s the best time in my career for our work cultures to grow.

Also, what ideas have you implemented, or has your workplace implemented that feel like a step in the right direction?

I look forward to hearing from you about your thoughts, comments, or questions.

Humbly learning with each of you.

Amy McGeachy

Early last year, a client came to me with difficulty retaining talent, a high turnover rate, and overall a feeling of employee disengagement. They were not using tools to measure or collect data about engagement. Based on both intuition, turnover numbers, and an HR Audit (including interviews with employees) we had enough touchpoints to develop a strong understanding that the workforce was disengaged. Anytime a workforce is disengaged business leaders should be worried about employee retention and its opposite, employee turnover.

The cost of turnover

It might be important to note that turnover has enormous ripple effects on a business. It takes time to recruit new team members, train new hires, and get them to their most productive state. A business that has high turnover is almost never fully effective because they have too many team members who are not working at complete capacity. The toll turnover takes on existing staff can be suffocating in terms of the workload. 

You can quickly understand this if you imagine a restaurant; consider the plight of a micro restaurant that has a server, cook, and a dishwasher. What if their turnover rate is 33% and their dishwasher has quit. That leaves the cook and server to manage the entire restaurant until a new dishwasher can be hired and properly onboarded to full productivity. The cook and server might be able to manage this for a short time period however, it will take a toll, cause them to work more during their shift, not be as focused on their customers and they might even drop the ball more often. This results in long wait times, orders that are inaccurate, unhappy customers, and exhausted, overworked employees. This example translates to other businesses too but the chaos may not be as obvious to leaders or clients.

The national average for turnover in 2019 according to Salary.com was 19.3% across all industries. That means that 80.7% of the workforce remains in place over the period of time that is measured; a month, a quarter, a year. The opposite of turnover is retention, ideally, a business would have a retention rate of 80.7% or better (some turnover is healthy). If it’s lower than 80.7% it can cause issues with productivity and overall well-being of the workforce. Also, understand that turnover can vary by industry and it might be helpful to understand the turnover rate in your particular industry. 

Why is it important to measure turnover and retention?

If your small business is experiencing heavy workloads, unsatisfied employees, perhaps a lack of engagement, a good place to start is to examine your turnover and retention rates. Conversely, if things are going really well at your business it might be that your workforce is fully productive and your retention rate is excellent. A positive retention rate is an attractive number to share with potential new hires, investors, and business collaborators. This will give you the data to help understand the dynamics of your workforce as opposed to going off of intuition or a hunch. A good best practice for small businesses is to track this quarterly and annually. 

Taking action to overcome problems with your small business employee turnover

Last year my client implemented an employee engagement tool that measured both eNPS (employee net promoter score) and employee engagement. Having new knowledge of live data (it was a weekly tool) helped this business understand their areas of opportunity and slowly, over the next 12 months, they were able to deliberately make decisions, implement new tools, policies, and a mindset of employee value and development, that has changed their workforce. Employee retention is up by 34.3%, employee engagement has consistently shown improvement and is currently up by 10%, and the eNPS has improved by 46 points all in a 12 month period.  

“Employee retention improved by 34.3%, employee engagement improved by 10%, and the eNPS improved by 46 points. Employee engagement tools are a great resource to help impact employee retention for small businesses.”

The eNPS score has been the last target we have tried to impact and largely this is just getting started. However, by changing many of the other behaviors and tools it has had an impact on eNPS.

These improvements are not by accident or good fortune. Using tools to understand your workforce can help provide information and data so that you know exactly where to invest. In this situation, a combination of an HR Audit, utilizing an employee engagement tool*, and effective leadership had a profound change on the retention rate and overall employee engagement.

If retention and workforce uncertainty keep you up at night, let’s fix that. Contact Amy.

* Examples include; TinyPulse, Officevibe, 15Five, CultureAmp to give you a few examples. McGeachy Consulting has no affiliation with any of these companies.

Amy McGeachy, PHR, SHRM-CP

HR Consultant to small and medium sized businesses in Oregon and Washington.

Amy McGeachy is an HR Consultant and the Founder of The Exceptional Workplace, a newsletter to help small business leaders stay focus on proactive HR and People Practices. Never miss an issue - join HERE.

Dear Small Business Clients,

I am here for you!

These are complex times to be an employer. Making decisions about furloughs, layoffs, or business viability are emotionally taxing. Having helped some of you with these decisions, I’ve been in the trenches and feel some of that burden. The effects of COVID-19 not only impact your business but your workforce, individual team members, and their families. I’ve also been helping small business clients develop and roll out a new Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA) policy to guide them through these various leave situations. There are a lot of scenarios to consider between federal and state leave laws.

You, my clients, have largely focused on a balance between business viability with what's in the best interest of your workforce. What amazing humans you are to consider the whole during these stressful circumstances. I am encouraged by this level of leadership despite your heavy burden.

Federal FFCRA Paid Sick and Family Leave Policies effective April 1st.

The federal government legislated new leave policies that go into effect April 1st (tomorrow as of this post). This gives small businesses very little time to understand, prepare, and communicate about the new leave to their employees. I get that you are under a significant time crunch. 

The Society of Human Resource Management (SHRM) for which I am a member and certified professional developed a comprehensive policy for employers. I’ve customized this policy for clients, and I’m happy to jump in and help you too. The important thing is that you read the law, understand what it is asking of you as an employer, and communicate it to your workforce ASAP. Like all employment policies, you will need to follow the policy once you roll it out. Employers are accountable to this new legislation beginning April 1st. 

To do: 

• Develop a Families First Coronavirus Response Act policy. Contact me if you need help or a template to get you started.

• Develop a pay code to track time for Emergency Paid Sick Time and ideally a separate one for Paid Family Leave. These codes will help you recoup the time in the form of a tax credit.

• Post the Employee Rights poster in your workplace (break room/copy room) when you return to your office. In the meantime, digitally share (email is acceptable) this poster to your workforce along with your updated policy.

• Review your states' COVID-19 Scenarios and Benefits Available poster. Washington (updated 3/26/2020) and Oregon (updated 3/23/2020). 

Additional Resources:

• Department of Labor FFCRA Q&A  

• Department of Labor FFCRA Employee Paid Leave Rights 

• Department of Labor FFCRA Employer Paid Leave Requirements

• Department of Labor COVID-19 and the American Workforce website 

Please reach out via email or phone if you have questions or need clarity, email or direct at 360-991-5727.

Stay healthy and safe!

Amy McGeachy, PHR, SHRM-CP

HR Consultant to Small and Medium-sized Businesses

Should small business owners care about the wellness or the well-being of their employees?

Yes.

In 2019, wellness and well-being are as much a part of the workplace as healthcare benefits and paid time off. Employers range from caring about wellness all the way to implementing a full wellness program. The range of options is huge.

Employers have learned that by caring about wellness they get a positive ROI in terms of productivity and engagement. It looks and feels different in each business from a small change to a full wellness program.

Adding a wellness program to your small business culture can literally save money. In a survey by SFM they found that “60% of employers said their workplace wellness programs reduced their organization's healthcare costs”.

Workplace wellness can really pay off

20 ways to add wellness to your small business

20 Ways to add Employee Wellness to your Small Business

1. Ensure that employees take breaks. This one sounds simpler than it really is but give employees a good reason to take a break from work.

2. Take a walking 1:1.

3. Sign up for a team 5K event.

4. Add a fruit bowl to your employee breakroom.

5. Encourage your team, or even set up a policy, to not send emails 24 hours a day. Check out this policy by Vynamic (healthcare industry management consultants) about zzzMail.

6. Add fresh water infused with cucumber, mint or strawberry to your employee breakroom.

7. Host an office ‘step challenge’.

8. Offer flexible schedules.

9. Add standing desks to the office.

10. Create a treadmill desk workstation that anyone can use.

11. Volunteer at a local running event (with your families).

12. Add a mindfulness activity to the start of your team meetings. As silly as this sounds, you will thank me for this as it changes the mindset and pace of your meeting.

13. Invite a yoga instructor to conduct a lunch time yoga class for your team.

14. Implement a ‘bring your well-behaved dog to work’ policy.

15. Invite a massage therapist to offer 15-minute chair massages for your team.

16. Add an Employee Assistance Program to your benefits.

17. Take a hike with your team for your next off-site or team builder.

18. Encourage your team to take mid-day exercise classes (together!)

19. Offer to pay for employees’ gym membership as part of their employee perks or (up to a certain dollar amount).

20. Lead by example. If the leader has a healthy work-life that translates to the workplace culture. Empower leaders to model a healthy balance.

How has adding a wellness focus or program to your small business made an impact? Please share via the comments section below.

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Are you looking for ways to retain the great employees you already have? Check out our post on what you need to know about your employees if you want to keep them around.

Are you looking to retain the great employees you already have?

According to the research conducted by Gary Chapman and Paul White the authors of The 5 Languages of Appreciation in the Workplace, people feel appreciated in 5 different categories: Words of Affirmation, Quality Time, Acts of Service, Tangible Gifts and Physical Touch (that last one is not appropriate for the workplace!). Given our workplace climate, we will focus on the first four. As you think about your workplace, showing your appreciation in a variety of forms will be the best way to reach your diverse team.

Employee Appreciation Day Formula --->

food + gift, act of service, or event + handwritten note of appreciation = employees who feel appreciated

Food:

• Lattes

• Specialty donuts

• Locally sourced bagels

• Healthy, delicious, catered lunch

Gift, Act of Service, or Event:

• Schedule a chair massage therapist to come to your office

• Car wash (or car wash gift card)

• Magazine subscription (how about Fast Company, Entrepreneur, Inc.?)

• A special book

• Bottle of wine

• Use chalk on the sidewalk outside your office to draw your appreciation: 'Our team ROCKS!' If your team is large, have a few of your leaders meet you early in the morning to help cover the sidewalk with appreciation of everyone on your team. You could even use alliteration to match the first letter of their first name with an adjective such as: Can-do Carly or Sales Slugger Sam.

Handwritten Note of Appreciation:

Write handwritten notes of appreciation for each person on your team.

Finally, it’s not about how significant your appreciation day events or gifts are, it’s how much love goes into the act of appreciating your team members. Something simple with buckets-full of appreciation can be magnificent.

Note: This post was originally shared in 2017. With a few covid modifications and creativity it can be used for this years planning. Enjoy!

In honor of Thanksgiving and the upcoming Small Business Saturday gratitude and all of the love for small businesses is in the air. To reinforce the benefits small business leaders enjoy, as opposed to their counterparts running massive organizations, here is a list of reasons to be grateful for leading in a small business.

10 Reasons Small Business Leaders can be Grateful.

#theexceptionalworkplace #smallbusinesssaturday

1. You know all of your employees by name, their family, and you might even know their dog's name too!

2. Your entire leadership team can sit around one table.

3. Making a business change to ebb and flow as needed is like steering a kayak, it takes some effort but your hard work will pay off, versus captaining a large vessel.

4. You have a significant influence on what's happening in your workplace. Awe, the sweet feeling of good ol' American independence.

5. Team building, with your entire team, is possible! Try this one --> Portraits of Appreciation

6. Calling a morning huddle in the lobby or conference room doesn't usually require calculating time zones and video conferencing.

7. A dozen (or two or three) Blue Star Donuts makes for a sweet snack for your afternoon all staff team meeting.

8. As a leader you can share your vision in 1:1 dialog to ensure that everyone is engaged.

9. Some fantastic tools are free to small businesses under a certain number! Officevibe (employee engagement tool) is one example.

10. In times of significant excitement or significant sadness for your business or team, your whole workforce comes together to support and encourage.

Bonus: Small business leaders know their workforce well enough to realize that enrolling team members in a "Jelly of the Month" club is not a good holiday gift (a la the movie Christmas Vacation with Chevy Chase).

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Love practical tips for creating an exceptional business? We’ve got loads more in The Exceptional Workplace! We help small business leaders (CEO, Owners, HR, Controllers) cultivate exceptional workplaces through strong HR and people practices. 

Life can be hectic, let’s not be plagued by the preparation for Employee Appreciation Day, which will be here in a few short weeks, March 2nd, 2018. Let’s brainstorm some options to help you show big appreciation to your team.

And, if you’re hesitating STOP.

This is about creating culture, helping employees develop a love for your company, giving your team members a reason to tell others about their delightful workplace (hello, instagramable workplace). This is not about you giving more. It’s about you caring about your team.

EMPLOYEE APPRECIATION DAY IDEAS --->

It's not how much we give, but how much love we put into giving.

Mother Teresa

SERVICE:

The idea of taking care of those people who are in service to you is such a lovely act of kindness. This, aside from all other acts, can go a long, LONG way. Why not flip things upside down for a bit and serve your team members?

How about a waffle bar with the CEO as the main server? Another spin on this is a nacho bar or a car wash.

SURPRISE + DELIGHT:

Some employees will be overjoyed with a little bit of surprise on this day of appreciation. Take for example a conference room that is filled with balloons, each with a sharpie-written note of appreciation for individual team members, “Charlotte your customer service skills are exquisite. We are lucky to have you!” What fun it is to find your balloon and read your note. Order lunch in and give them a coupon for an hour (or more) of flexibility in their workday in the coming month and you’re all set.

Have a whiteboard in your office? Cover the whiteboard in notes of appreciation for your team. Big, bright words telling them how grateful you are that they are part of your team. The bigger, the more of an impression it will make. Add a dessert buffet to the conference table and a small gift. Well done.

PRACTICAL:

Looking to add to your office perks to attract and retain talent? This is a great day to reveal the additions to your team.

• Extra holidays - World at Work says that the average business observes 9 paid holidays per year

• Enriched PTO Plan - Average PTO plans start at 16 days per year for new employees

• Add a 401k if you don’t already have one

• Implement a flexible workplace policy

Offer this along with donuts and coffee in the morning and a handwritten note from the team leader and you have a solid employee appreciation day.

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This might seem like one of those posts you can pass by — because c’mon, of course you know your workforce. If your business is small enough, then chances are you were the one who hired them!But actually, studies show that there’s often a huge disconnect between the management and the workforce of an organization. And if you’re not connected with your workforce, it’s only a matter of time before you start having serious problems.

The good news is that you can avoid so many issues with just a little bit more knowledge about your people. So if you’re starting to wonder if maybe you don’t know your workforce as well as you thought you did, ask yourself, do you know:

The #1 Gripe Going Around the Office

If you do nothing else after reading this post, I’d really encourage you to find out the #1 thing that’s bugging people in your workplace. It might be an easy fix that you’ve never even thought of simply because of your position in the company — by knowing what it is and addressing it, you’ll show people that you’re actively invested in making work better for them, which will go a long way to inspire loyalty and improve productivity.

As an example, a client in Portland recently upgraded their workplace coffee, water, and snack program to the absolute delight of their employees. Perrier sends a message of class, high-end, and engagement while tap water might send the message of unremarkable, ho-hum and unimportant. Every workgroup is different so it’s important to ask, and ask more than once.   

Even if it’s something that you can’t fix right away, you can at least let your team members know that you hear them and the lines of communication are open, which goes a long way towards easing tensions. Besides, there’s a good chance that this issue is related to the second most important thing to know about your workforce:

Why People Leave

You probably have some sort of idea of your turnover rate already — and if you don’t, you need to get on that ASAP. But it’s not enough to know that people are leaving. You need to know why people leave, and especially why your best people leave, otherwise you could be needlessly hemorrhaging talent and knowledge capital. Is it more money, better career opportunity, workplace culture, are they burnt out?

How do you figure this out? By asking and observing. Make it a point to include questions about this sort of thing in every exit interview, and make it clear that you really do want to know to improve, not to harp on people or defend the company. If you are afraid that employees will not be honest with you to the extent that you need have an HR Consultant or another key leader in your company conduct the Exit Interview. In the digital age, exit interviews can even be conducted electronically.

Why People Stay

Similarly, you need to know why people stay in your workforce, both the things that keep the great employees and the things that keep the not-so-great ones. That way, you can keep doing those things that encourage the people you want to stay, and stop doing the things that encourage the underperformers.

The best way to find out why people stay is to conduct Stay Interviews. Here are some great Stay Interview questions taken from the book, Hello Stay Interview, Goodbye Talent Loss.

• What about your job makes you jump out of bed in the morning?

• What makes you hit the snooze button?

• If you won the lottery and resigned what would you miss the most?

• What can I do to keep you?

• What would entice you away?

Have you ever heard an underperformer say that they like your company because they are on easy street while a top performer likes your company because of the rigor? This insight is valuable. The solution here is to balance the rigor with the goal of losing underperformers and attracting and retaining top performers. Hint; 1:1 meetings and mid-year reviews are a great way to balance the rigor keeping tabs on each team member's performance.

The Ambitions of Your Key People

You may already get a sense of this as you’re finding out why people leave and stay, but make sure you really get a good sense of the ambitions of your key people. This allows you to support them in achieving those ambitions (which is a very important part of leadership, and one of the top intangible things employees want from companies). This alone may keep you from getting caught off guard by one of your key people leaving to pursue an ambition you knew nothing about. You may even be able to keep them if you can find a way to support that ambition while still having them work for you!

An example of this is when a client of mine found that their right-hand gal had aspirations of working in the medical field in an auxiliary role. My client pursued clients in that industry, which satisfied the curiosity of her employee. Small businesses have a way of being nimble to meet these needs. Don’t be afraid to ask.

Something Personal About the People You Work With

So you already know that people are not widgets or computers … but it can be hard to remember that when you’re head down in paperwork, schedules, and payroll. The truth is, most employees work to live, so make it a point to find out what they’re living for outside of work, and ask them about it! It doesn’t have to be a big production; something as simple as “Claire, how was your hike to Mt. St. Helen’s?” works just fine.

Doing this keeps you connected with the pulse of the workplace and makes people feel well cared for and not just as one more number on the payroll, both of which are characteristics of an exceptional leader. (Not to mention being crucial for a happy, productive workforce.)

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Well, for one thing, if you get this wrong, you’re going to be completely out in the cold when it comes to attracting great talent. Worst case scenario, you fail to innovate in this area and you become unable to offer an attractive compensation package to potential prospects. Or, even worse, you lose your current workforce as they go somewhere that is offering them the compensation and perks they want.

That all sounds pretty grim … but it can be much easier (and cheaper) than you think to make your business stand out from the competition.

Start by looking at the competition.

What are other companies in your industry sector offering? What about benefits and perks? If you don’t already know, and you’re not sure how to find out, there’s one very easy thing you can do: ask.

Ask candidates where they’re currently at in terms of compensation, ask new hires about their benefits, nose around at networking events and ask people what the latest hot perk is. And don’t forget to ask your staff — they won’t be shy in telling you what they would love to see at the company! And failing all that, you can always do some careful Googling to see what’s happening in your pool of competition.

Once you have an idea of the kinds of things going around, it’s time to look inwards.

After you’ve gotten a good understanding of what your competition is offering and what your workforce wants, then you should start to think about how to position yourself correctly in the marketplace. You can always look at traditional compensation changes, but there are also loads of non-traditional perks that can be really powerful, including:

1. Flexibility

As in, flexible scheduling, the option to telecommute, or creating a results-oriented workplace.

2. Opportunities for Growth

Including things like a professional development budget, succession planning, or access to an executive coach or mentor.

3. Vacation/Paid Time Off (PTO)

If you can, think about providing a generous vacation/PTO policy. World at Work reported that they average PTO plan starts at 16 days per year and that average employers offer 9 paid holidays annually. Here are the paid holidays that I recommend:

• New Year’s Day

• Memorial Day

• 4th of July

• Labor Day

• Thanksgiving Day

• Christmas Day

• 3 Floating Holidays (for any use such as Good Friday, Christmas Eve, the day after Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, etc.).

If you can’t swing that, then try for something like paid time off for volunteering.

4. Food and Beverages

This is one of the easiest things you can do to make your office a better place to work, so think about things like having an office coffee and beverage program, providing snacks (like this one), or doing something like a team lunch provided by the office on Fridays.

5. Health and Wellness

This is also an extremely popular area for perks, so consider getting an office gym membership, bringing in masseuses for in-office chair massages, or even offering wellness classes or lunch and learns.

At the very least…

OK, so maybe the in-office chair massages are outside of your budget for now. But at the very least, you should consider adding something to your perks to stay ahead. Some of the perks I listed above are very low cost and provide a huge return on investment. For instance, flexible hours and telecommuting.

Remember, when you’re treading water in a pool of sharks, your total compensation can make a great bite proof cage — that is to say, you’ll find it much easier to attract, recruit and retain your workforce when your total compensation is elevated. So take a look at your current compensation, benefits, and perks, and see what you can do!

Talent is one of the biggest predictors of your business or team’s success. But in the increasingly competitive labor market, it’s becoming harder and harder to attract and retain top performers. This whole setup sends a lot of small businesses into a tailspin. After all, when you’re small, how can you possibly create a compensation, benefits, or perks package that can compete with the bigger companies, so why even try?

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Amy McGeachy, PHR is an HR Consultant specializing in cultivating exceptional workplaces for her clients who are mostly small + medium businesses. Amy is the founder of The Exceptional Workplace which provides premium HR and people practices content for small business leaders. She is a certified HR Professional (PHR) through the Society of Human Resource Management (SHRM) and a Certified Coach through the Coach Training Alliance (CTA) and a member of the International Coaching Federation (ICF). Amy works with businesses in the areas of training, recruitment, employee relations, and strategic HR.