Costco Connection - August 2010

RHONDA ABRAMS:STRATEGIES

Small businesses
can do it better
leave him behind. I negotiated a dog-friendly
lease, and we’ve had up to three resident
of;ce dogs at one time.

* Small businesses often can’t compete with big corporations when it comes to pay scale, but we can be creative with bene;ts. My employees get their birthdays as a paid holiday, and they get “well days.”

* I say “thank you” to my employees every day. When I worked in a big company, management rarely acknowledged employees, fearing they’d have to give raises.

* It’s important to me that I enjoy going to work every day. That means that I want to have some fun projects to keep me engaged, and I also want to have fun with the people I work with. We have lots of celebrations— birthdays, holidays—and some spontaneous group lunches (paid for by me).

The result of these policies? I have great employees who work their heart out, and I’m still in business after 25 years! And I run my business in a way that re;ects my values.

And that’s what’s important—that you run your business in a way that you’re proud of, that you treat your employees the way you’d want to be treated.

If you want to create a better way to run a business, then it’s time to start doing it the small-business way—your way. C

Rhonda Abrams is the president of The Planning Shop, a publisher of books and software for entrepreneurs (www. planningshop.com).

ARE YOU TRYING to run your small business as if it were a Fortune 500 company? Well, cut it out! Small businesses can do things differently—and, hopefully, better. After all, you make up the rules. You have ;exibility in how you run your company, so use it.

Of course, you have to be ;nancially realistic—and you certainly have to obey the law—but it’s time you give yourself permission to run your business in a way that makes you proud, not just that makes you money.

I do a number of things in my business that aren’t exactly what they teach in business school, but they work for me and my business. Here are just a few.

* When my of;ce manager, Rosa, had a baby, I decided she could bring baby Michael to work. It was a good business decision; I didn’t want to lose a valuable employee. But it also meant I could live my values. And it turned out to be great for morale.

* I love my dog, Cosmo, and when I outgrew my home of;ce, I didn’t want to

More in archives
On Costco.com, enter
“Connection.”At Online Edition,
search “Rhonda Abrams.”

Feeling valued?

IS THE ECONOMY affecting employees’ sense of being valued?

Are the lack of raises, reduction in bene-
fits and increased workload taking their toll?
Those are questions raised by Costco member
Cindy Ventrice, author of Make Their Day!
Employee Recognition That Works (Berrett-
Koehler, 2009), on her website, maketheirday.
com, in a survey asking, “Do you feel more or
less valued than a year ago?”
“People who don’t feel valued aren’t usu-
ally engaged or motivated, so knowing the
effect of economic changes on sense of value
is important information for companies
struggling to stay productive,” Ventrice says.

FRESHviews

Well-being and work

By Tom Rath
and Jim Harter

AFTER A MASSIVE research initiative, including a survey of more than 150 countries, we’ve found that most of what people think of as well-being is wrong. Not merely health and wealth, as is often supposed, well-being is actually composed of five different elements: career, financial, community, social and physical well-being.

Though well-being may seem outside the purview of business, our research indicates that high levels of well-being provide a significant productivity, profit and competitive advantage; for instance, the annual per-person cost of lost productivity due to sick days alone is $28,800 for people with very low levels of well-being and $840 for those with high well-being.

Clearly, employee well-being is vital to organizational well-being. Managers can increase both by paying close attention to a few key things.

Improve employee engagement. The engaged are twice as likely as the actively disengaged to be thriving in their lives overall; they’re 21 percent likelier to participate in workplace wellness programs; and they have substantially higher levels of customer engagement, productivity and profitability.

Mentoring programs, professional development opportunities and corporate-sponsored charitable initiatives create an environment that stimulates community and social well-being. Even idle chitchat in the office improves productivity, we’ve found.

Financial well-being is more dependent on financial security than on actual income. Actively promote 401(k) and similar programs to boost employees’ financial well-being: Only 6 percent of workers strongly agree that their companies help them manage their finances effectively.

Create incentives for healthy behaviors. Employees with high well-being see their annual medical costs grow at half the rate of those who have lower well-being.