BUSINESS ADVICE
Protecting the greatest assets in your business
by Jon Gratland, Chief Executive at Wiltshire Friendly Society
Do you have challenging targets for growth in 2018? Will your employees be there to support you?
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Group Income Protection – that doesn’ t need to cost you anything! Your employees are your business’ s greatest asset and business owners like yourself are getting wiser to the need to look after staff. Many are putting in place employee benefits to help attract and retain the right people to support their growth plans. A useful benefit is a Group Income Protection Scheme that provides replacement income to your employees if they are unable to work due to illness or injury.
Have you thought about this valuable insurance protection? And if not, why not?
You may be saying to yourself that you can’ t afford it … after all you could already be
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paying for, or contributing towards, pensions and life cover.
Did you know there are a range of options that mean you can put a Group Income Protection Scheme in place from fully, to partially funded, to no cost to the business at all?
You have options An employer-funded scheme is the traditional approach where the business chooses the level of benefits it wants to put in place for its employees, within its budget. There is now a new option where just your employees contribute, at a discounted rate, still as part of a group scheme that you set up for them. They choose the level of benefits that’ s
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right for them and fits within their budget. Whichever option you take everyone can benefit:
• You deliver a really valuable benefit to your staff that can help retain them.
• Illnesses and absences can be more effectively managed.
• You, and or your employees, can choose the level of benefits and budget that’ s appropriate.
• You both have the security and peace of mind that their income is protected and
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they have some financial security if illness or injury strikes.
Wiltshire Friendly Society is a local, specialist, income protection provider who can assist in helping you better understand how this insurance could be valuable to you and your employees.
01225 752120
For more info: www. wiltshirefriendly. com
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HOW DO YOU KNOW IF AN EMPLOYEE IS MAKING A DIFFERENCE?
The bigger you grow as a company, the more staff you will take on but in some businesses, it’ s hard to quantify what the difference they make to the company is. So how do you tell if someone is really making a difference to your company growth and bottom line? Dan Barfoot, operations manager for CMD Recruitment shares some insights for employers.
When building a company, the equation for your return on investment per head is one of those officious sums you are required to make but it’ s not always obvious how to quantify an employee’ s worth to a business – so how can you find ways to gauge the value of someone’ s work?
KPS- Key Performance Indicators Now a staple part of a lot of appraisal measurements, having performance indicators gives everyone a clear idea of expectations, goals and what’ s important against what is not. Sales offices are transparent with their Return on Investment for staff because the numbers are there in plain sight to analyse. Whether the performance is measured in reviews, bookings, time put in or markers in quality, develop a way to understand what good work looks like for your operation to run well.
What others see One way to get to grips with how an employee is doing is to understand how people within and outside the business judge the employee. This exercise can include your clients, customers, third parties and those in other departments. Add the snapshot impressions up and you may get a view of how someone is representing the brand. You may find that there is more to someone than meets the eye, or alternatively, your view of someone being amazing may be‘ smoke and mirrors’. There is a useful and increasingly popular tool called 360 degrees appraisal that’ s used, which gathers together and presents everyone’ s opinions involved with an employee, to demonstrate the difference between what an individual
14 THE BUSINESS EXCHANGE 2018 believes, compared to what everyone sees. This can help in highlighting areas of performance to improve.
Keeping the team going An employee who boosts office productivity can be invaluable to your business. This can be taken for granted but the people who make other people enjoy their daily work and prosper in their tasks, are key players in your team. It may not be a manager either, it might be someone who keeps everyone smiling, acknowledges colleagues for doing a great job – but someone who drives everyone’ s positivity and a person that people connect to, look up to and respect. These individuals keep morale and motivation high.
Being a brand ambassador Everyone in your company IS your brand. They tell other people about it, they have opinions they share. If you have people in your company that say openly to anyone, what a great company it is, you are doing well but more than that, the people who champion your business from within, they do you a great service. Someone who is on your team and always championing your brand speaks volumes to anyone who is listening. Word of mouth is a powerful referral method.
The problem solver Often in a business, there will be someone who’ s very slick at getting to the bottom of how to solve issues – cutting through the noise. A problem solver can be a huge asset. This is the person who is assertive rather than someone who sits at their desk counting the minutes till 5pm. A problem solver
in this respect, is the kind of person who does not always pull your sleeve and ask you a question every other minute when there are problems that they could easily sort out themselves with a bit of initiative. The problem solver will be working through the challenges methodically and get back to you when they’ re solved, rather than flapping about, passing the buck or ignoring the problems when they occur.
The backbone of the company Not all the jobs in a company can be said to be exciting, cash generating, go-getter roles. Some are critical for administration, take away pain from the go-getters or simply free up time for the company to get on with business development. Every business needs roles in the workforce which help keep‘ the machine’ running. Don’ t overlook people who are effective at the maintenance side of your business. Those staff, working away in the background, getting on with it, are often the foundations for your growth you can not do without.
CMD Recruitment has three offices in Wiltshire, based in Melksham, Calne and Devizes. They specialise in Commercial and Industrial recruitment.
For more info: www. cmdrecruitment. com
01225 805080