Posts

Entrepreneurship 101: How to Set Your Employees Up for Success

ENTREPRENEURSHIP 101: HOW TO SET YOUR EMPLOYEES UP FOR SUCCESS
 October 4, 2022 |  Business Tips, Franchise |  inspection industry, hiring, business growth, entrepreneur

After a brief pause to enjoy the sun and hit the beach, we return to our Entrepreneurship 101 series. Here, we outline some of the best tips for running your franchise like a seasoned pro. In our first entry we discussed how to lead your franchise, and in our second entry we covered the best hiring practices. Now that you’ve got a new batch of employees, it’s time we made them into rockstar members of your company. Here’s how you can put your team on the fast track to success.

Start Strong
New hires have a lot to think about. They want to prove their competence, they want to give off a positive social impression, and they want to ensure they made the right choice for themselves in accepting their new position. It can be a stressful time! As an owner, a manager, and your team’s leader, it’s your job to walk them through an onboarding process that instills confidence for everyone on the team.

First things first, set clear expectations so that your new employee knows what success looks like. Start with the basics. What does their first week look like? Their first month? Give them a clear picture of who they will be working with and where they will be on a day-to-day basis. As your hires create their own mental picture of their new work life, their comfort level will increase, and their comfort is the first hurdle needed to reduce the length of their learning curve.

Next, build your new team member’s confidence. You’ve communicated a clear standard for them to aim for, but until they hit that mark, it's easy for discomfort to set in. Avoid this by giving your new hire attainable beginning objectives. Give them something small and somewhat simple that they can do fairly quickly to show they know what they are doing. Remember, to tell them how they did when they are done. This early “win” gives your new employee an opportunity for a confidence boost. Not only do they prove to themselves that they are capable, they see that their leader has recognized their efforts. Comfort, confidence, and competence are the best ingredients for building a strong foundation in your fresh new hire.

Creating a training schedule is key to employee confidence and ultimately, retention. Don’t be afraid to take longer than you (and even your employee) feel they need to learn the job. Inspection is unique–there’s a long list of items to assess, a clear report-writing style to learn, and a challenging customer service component. Each home is different, and each client and agent have varying questions, concerns, and expectations.

Training will ideally start with ride-alongs. Depending on your schedule, 10-20 is a good number to aim for. You can start with observation, then hands-on training, and finally, transition into having your new hire assist you during your inspections. Once your employee has learned the ins and outs, you’ll then want to shadow and potentially assist them on inspections. A number to aim for here is 5-10 inspections as your schedule allows. Once you and your hire feel confident, they may be ready to complete an inspection all on their own. However, you’ll want to continue to review reports for several weeks moving forward in order to avoid liability.

Keep Them On
Once you’ve established your new hires in your company, the real challenge of managing your employees has just begun: getting them to stay.

As your workers build their confidence and gain experience, it’s only natural that they start getting more opportunities. Companies may start courting them due to their increased skills, and sometimes an offer with a higher dollar sign can be tough to beat. The best way to retain your brightest employees is to make your company their most attractive option, but a competitive wage is only one facet to secure a high retention rate.

Create a culture where people want to work. Be friendly and encourage your team to develop familiarity with each other. Remember, comfort is the first step. Then, it is important to promote a feeling of fulfillment. Eventually, your confident, experienced team member will master their regular routine. Their basic duties will become optimized, and they will begin to feel unchallenged. According to Recruiting Daily, this is the biggest reason why people consider a change in their workplace situation.

The solution to this may seem obvious: challenge them! Give them new duties, offer new training, expand their role. Ultimately, people want to be stretched, and if you can provide new challenges for your employees to conquer they will be more fulfilled in their career. Once an inspector has mastered the technical aspect of the job, you may want to assign them marketing tasks. Networking is a challenging and rewarding opportunity that can help stave off burnout and create a renewed sense of responsibility. Plus, it leads to growth!

In addition to helping your employees expand their skill set, rewards and incentives will always go a long way. A quarterly team dinner is a great way to relax, get to know your employees better, and make sure they feel appreciated for their hard work. An outing to a sports game or a laidback activity, like Top Golf or bowling, is also an excellent option. As your budget allows, raises, bonuses, and monetary incentives will be the best motivator of all.

Grow Leaders
There are many ways to encourage growth in your team. Have them join in on workshops related to their specialties (whether online or in person). In particular, talk to them about engaging directly into the discussion so that they can show their knowledge! Plus, according to one study, those that actively engage when learning new information have much more success when bringing their new skills into applied scenarios.

At NPI, franchisees can have their employees take advantage of one-on-one training with our marketing coach or visit our corporate headquarters in Omaha to learn from our industry experts in person during our monthly franchisee classes. Perhaps just as important as taking these steps towards learning is to congratulate your employees’ efforts as their leader. An appropriate amount of praise and commendation can go a long way to make seeking knowledge a habit among your team members.

Congratulations! You’ve completed our crash course on hiring and managing a first-class team. With your leadership skills, your know-how for finding the perfect hire, and your advanced investment into those team members, the sky’s the limit!

Remember, you are never alone in building your business. If you need any advice or have any questions, do not hesitate to contact your NPI Marketing Team. We are always happy to help! Additionally, if you’ve had success with a new idea or innovation, let us know so we can pass it on!