Startups, Home and Small Business are two sectors that constantly crave real hard for Employee satisfaction. However, despite all the Employee satisfaction policies and surveys and questionnaire campaigns, what comes out as bye-product is hardly more than a conglomeration of data. Priding on that data alone is no achievement. Before that data could be made an instrument of performance improvement and peaking productivity, all small business owners and startups have to keep their existential structure in good focus. These business sectors are by nature of there composition and scale are stress-inducers.
The very edifice of most small businesses thrives on the bedrock of economic discipline and budget rationing argument. Lesser hands invariably end up donning several hats all tailored to make continuous and lasting business sense. Sounds a bit confusing? Okay, all it means is getting few qualified and/or semi-qualified employees to wield different responsibilities so as business needs are fulfilled.
The direct result of such a business view leads straight to the heart of STRESS. Yes, that wicked cousin of Satan who turns each and every stone to bring discomfort and dislocation in our daily lives. Needless to say, quality suffers the brunt too with a fagged out workforce struggling to cope up with multitasking instructions! All small and home business owners including startups, could find the origin of stress in the following- understaffing, lack of qualified and experienced workers, uncertainty, overwork, and personal issues.
When staffers, who are not always hired for experience and qualifications feel that the demands of job are not in line with their abilities, the quick result is stress. Oftener in small businesses, employees find themselves in overload situations juggling too many roles sheepishly. Not all of us find the route to ‘quick learning’ less intimidating. Providing adequate training inputs could actually be helpful, though in a limited way. Further, uncertainty about one’s ‘key result areas’ that keep on fluctuating with requirements, kicks up higher stress levels. Hence a certain ambiguity of KRAs spoils the workplace élan and vitality.
The limitations on staffing also hinder better and higher performance as owners continuously bugle about not affording more headcounts. Understaffing normally results in overloading and a spurt in demands from employer triggers greater stress- all viciously arresting delivery of better products and services. At a time when customer expectations are continuously shooting up, this reduced attention to quality in turn puts the customer base too in danger.
Yet another potent but glossed over fount of stress is the set of personal problems staffers bring to workplace. These could range from death of a kin, breakup, divorce, family squabbles, illness, childbirth, marriage and the like. Together these are high stress events and life-changing affairs. It is essential that all employers understand and provide a way to handle and reduce these stress inducers proactively.
The crying need for Small & Home Business owners then is not to follow measures like Employee Satisfaction Surveys and creation of policies in a one-track manner. What they need to realize and attempt is to lessen the impact of stress clawing at their employees. A supportive, caring and reassuring response mechanism should be put up in place to counteract stress and stressors. Good strategies and well-meaning steps should be taken to reduce physical and mental stress experienced by workers on a continuous basis. This could involve communication of well-defined job description & job specification, additional training calendar, career progression plans, spot compensation, timely appraisals, efficient recruitment measures amongst other things. Deliberate, planned and sustained efforts from Small and Home business owners would gradually and positively lower/eliminate stress levels at workplace.
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Tags: Appraisal, Attrition, Compensation, Customer Satisfaction, Home Business, Human Resource, Overload, Performance Evaluation, Quality Management, Recruitment, Retention, Sales, Small Business, Startups, Strategy, Stress Reduction, Training, Understaffing, Workplace Morale