14 – Getting the Most from Your Team

Today’s podcast is a little different. We’re not going to be talking about you, your business, or your product. We’re going to focus on your staff.

You probably know by now that if you want to grow your business, you can’t do it on your own. You need a skilled, reliable, and happy team behind you. That’s right – happy. If you’re staff aren’t happy, they won’t perform their best, and if they don’t perform their best, your customer’s probably won’t recommend your services to their friends and family. And that’s money lost.

There are a ton of things to consider when it comes to hiring staff and keeping their job satisfaction high. You might be thinking:

• Where do I find quality workers?
• What am I legally obliged to do?
• How can I be an encouraging, inspiring leader?
• What happens when it all goes wrong?

Lucky for you, we have Human Resources expert Claire Harrison joining me today to talk you through each of these points. She is the CEO of Harrison Human Resources, which provides HR advice for a range of businesses across Australia. Claire comes from a family of builders, and is married to a builder, so she has plenty of industry experience when it comes to managing trade staff and contractors.

Claire has some invaluable advice for trade business owners, so sit back and have a listen.

Key Learnings

Here’s what I took away from my chat with Claire:

1. Ignorance of your legal obligation to staff is no excuse. Getting it wrong could cost you truckloads, as the roofing company discovered. Remember, contractors and employees are very different.
2. Your team culture is all about ‘how things are done around here.’ What kind of team culture do you have at your place?
3. Be a great leader and walk the talk. Set an example for your staff. While some people are natural born leaders, most of us have to learn how to do it. Be the kind of leader you’d like to have managing you.

To sum up – don’t muck around when it comes to recruiting and managing your staff. Disgruntled staff can damage your company and reputation. Happy motivated staff will help you grow and survive.  Hey – if you have the right team, you could even take some time off. How good would that be!

Let’s finish with a quote. This one’s from author Tom Rath.

If you have comments or questions, feel free to post a comment. Talk soon!

TWEETABLES

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Happy employees equal happy customers. #tradiesuccess http://bit.ly/tradiesuccess
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Business owners who care for their employees go on to grow and succeed. #tradiesuccess
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Be a good leader and walk the talk. Set an example for your staff. #tradiesuccess
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Happy motivated staff will help you grow and survive. #tradiesuccess http://bit.ly/tradiesuccess
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RESOURCES

If you’d like to contact Claire, you can find her at www.hhr.com.au

WANT TO GROW YOUR BUSINESS?

Why not invest in some personal development for you or your team?  No-one knows everything.  In fact the day you stop learning is the day they put you in a coffin.

You can get all sorts of practical business training and marketing how tos – head over to tradiemarketingsecrets.com. For just $20 per month you’ll get access to all our fabulous lessons, tools and quizzes to help you become a gun marketer – plus we’ll add you in to our members only Facebook group where you can meet other tradies and get answers to your burning marketing questions. I’m in there every day.

If you want to step things up a bit and get some stuff done in your business – get your own personal business coach and implementer. You’ll achieve more than you’ve ever achieved before, because we make sure you do. And for things you can’t implement yourself, we can help. Our marketing team becomes your marketing team.

SHARE WITH MORE TRADIES

Please share this episode with any other tradies or business owners you think would find it useful – share on Facebook or Google Plus or LinkedIn, share one of the tweetables in the show notes or even send a link by email!  And make sure you never miss out on an episode, subscribe by clicking on the itunes or stitcher links.