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Using Employees to Your Advantage

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Business people looking to improve their bottom line often over look an incredible source of solutions for increasing revenues or decreasing expenses. That source is none other than your employees. Your employees are often overlooked as a supply of ideas and suggestions for improving the bottom line of your business. Unfortunately, business managers don’t always take these ideas and suggestions seriously, let alone take the time to solicit their employees. 

Those managers and owners who haven’t bothered to consider this supply of expertise and knowledge should consider asking themselves the following questions:
- Who deals with my customers on a day-to-day basis and thus hears first hand what my customer’s wants and needs are?
- Who knows which customers are expensive to service and which customers are the most profitable?
- Who knows what new and existing products and product lines customers most commonly request?
- Who can tell me what small incremental changes will make a difference to my bottom line? 

Of course, the answer to all these questions is your employees. While you or other managers may also know some of the answers, you may not have the detailed knowledge and expertise that your employees have. If you are like most businesses, employees know before management what the answers to the above questions are. This is because employees have direct day-to-day interaction with your customers and don’t have to depend on reports that are usually compiled on a monthly or yearly basis.

As a business operator, you should be taking advantage of this information, and built-in knowledge network, by using it to be more competitive and profitable. 

For example, if you hired an employee away from a competitor, take the time to talk to the employee about how the competitor operated. You will also want to identify any potential customers you are not dealing with or if there are products or services that you have not offered. 

You should also do this with employees who have worked for your customers and suppliers. As a person who has dealt with your business, it is very likely that they will have some input and thoughts on how your business could be enhanced and improved.

Once you decide to take full advantage of your employees’ expertise and knowledge, there are some concerns that need to be addressed. First, don’t be insulted or close-minded. Your employees are not trying to make you look bad, but are actually telling you that they have a vested interest in ensuring the continued success of your business. This is a great opportunity to give them some ownership over certain aspects of the business or the idea they have suggested. Nothing helps to get employees to buy into a new idea than when they are given the chance to own and implement it.

Don’t forget to publicly acknowledge ideas that your employees bring forward. Of course, providing some form of monetary reward should always be offered. If an employee has come forward with an idea or suggestion that will positively affect your bottom line, they should receive a share of those rewards. This will not only reinforce your commitment to seeking employee input, but it will also give employee a reason for continuing to present those ideas and suggestions. Remember, almost all your employees are working because they want the pay cheque, so feel good acknowledgements only go so far. 

However, having said that, you must be careful not to alienate your employees by only rewarding a few. Every business has employees who are too shy to bring suggestions forward, or don’t think their suggestions have any value. You must ensure that you include these employees, even if it means taking the time to have a private one on one chat. These employees may not want public attention. Thus, you may have to quietly present them with rewards or use a team approach for disbursing rewards. 

Another initiative you can implement is the use an advisory group made up of employees from different areas of the business. The role of this group is to examine ideas and suggestions from all employees and then present them to management. This ensures that individual employees don’t use it as a stage to stand out in front of their coworkers. 

Employee advisory groups can also be used to identify personnel issues and problems. Whether the issues are with employees, management or owners, advisory groups can help bring these issues to the surface without having to identify individuals. 

No matter how you utilize the expertise and knowledge of your employees, you will certainly find that they will provide you with an arsenal of ideas and solution that will add to your bottom line.

-Myron Gordon owns TMSG Management Services Group, which provides management and financial services to growing businesses.

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