One of the most of challenging aspect of running a small business is to have a dedicated staff, at many small business that I worked with, there was a lost of productivity due to the staff not knowing what is needed from them. There was no dedicated staff or the staff members did not know what was their jobs description.
It is typical in a small business setting to see jobs responsibilities overlap; you would see human resource doing the job of accounting and marketing trying to work with IT issues and so on.
Because of the nature of small businesses where resources are limited, the above scenario is typical, but from my experience, management must come up with a quick plan to assign job responsibilities to improve productivity.
On my last consulting job with a small IT firm, productivity really improved when I clearly defined job responsibilities to each staff member, I explained to them that working at small business, you may have to work in other areas not related to your job, but that’s only when we need an extra hand.
Most small business are owned by either a single person or few partners, and the owner(s) is usually doing marketing and public relations work outside and he/she is not available each day to oversee day to day activities, I saw this first hand in few countries I worked in.
Most business owners that I have worked with complain about staff members not being productive and he/she has to do everything. The fact is, staff members are productive and welling to work, they just need little guidance and direction, after all they are not the decision makers.
As an owner of a small business, you should schedule timely meeting with your staff, this may sound basic but believe me not many business owners meet regularly with their staff members, in this meeting you must assign tasks, make decisions, listen to problems, make plans and show support to your staff members. These meetings can be only once a week for an hour or so, but it will be a great tool to energize your employees and you will see the results almost immediately.
