As the economy continues to improve, your employees have more options. They can take other jobs or even start their own businesses. While that might a great move for their future, their departure could really hurt your business. That’s why we’ve focused on employee retention in a few previous posts. To review any info that you may have missed you can read here or here. Today, we’re going to continue this series with some cautionary advice. Retention is key at Canvus. Every person responsible for building and supporting our small business inventory software is held in high regard. We don't plan on losing ANYONE EVER!
Whether you’re aware of it not, your small business has its own culture. Your employees relate to you, and to each other, in specific ways. If you’ve followed our hiring advice you have a staff full of people who work well together and are all genuinely happy to be working for you. Kudos! As we’ve pointed out in the past though, this doesn’t mean that your business is its own little utopia. Even the happiest employees occasionally have bad days, experience burn out over time, or just need a little pick me up. Another threat to the calm of your small business culture, is the blame game. Placing blame is not part of our culture and would actually prevent us from evolving our small business inventory software in a quality manner. So we stick together!
We’ve all played it. Everyone would prefer to the knight riding in on the white horse to save the day, rather than the fumbling jester who created the mess in the first place. When things go wrong, as they inevitably do from time to time, it’s only natural to want to point the finger at someone else. Being on the receiving end, however, can be extremely uncomfortable, particularly when the blame was undeserved.
I was once blamed for an expensive computer monitor that was damaged during shipping. Nevermind that I was on the other side of the country representing my company at a tradeshow when the monitor was boxed up and shipped. I somehow should have known that it was going to be packaged incorrectly and stopped it from going out. My boss was adamant that the shattered screen was all my fault, even though she was in the office when it was shipped. Not a good feeling, let me tell you, and certainly a large part of my decision to terminate my employment with that company.
It’s important, as the boss, to create an environment where your employees aren’t afraid to admit to their mistakes. People are much more likely to blame others if they fear termination or other repercussions. We’re not suggesting that you blanketly forgive every infraction, but when possible allow your employees to learn from their mistakes and move on. When you remove, or reduce, the fear factor your employees will be much more likely to own up. Not only will it make your life easier, it will improve overall morale because your other employees won’t worry about being blamed for things that weren’t their fault or put in a position where they would have to “tattle” on their co-worker. Both of these situations can be toxic in the workplace and lead to increased employee turnover. Leadership is one of the most important characteristics of a quality organization. We work hard at it. It's what has made our small business inventory software one of the best products available.
If you do find yourself in a situation where no one is willing to step forward and take responsibility for a mistake, you’ll need to tread lightly. Coming down too hard on your staff, or accusing someone without adequate proof can really disrupt the camaraderie within your business. You want employees to feel comfortable coming to you, even when the news they have to deliver isn’t good. Showing a willingness to work with them to solve the problem over a need to identify a person to blame will let them know that you are all on the same team, working towards a common goal. The important thing is overcoming the setback, not knowing who to blame for the initial failure.
When in doubt, there’s always Murphy’s Law. It’s not anyone’s fault, it’s just one of those things.
Have you tried our small business inventory software?
Looking for someone to blame for your inventory woes? If you’re not using our small business inventory software, you’ve got no one to blame but yourself. Stockpile is a powerful inventory management solution designed for your small business. It gives you the power to access critical business data, anytime, from anywhere. Setup is quick and easy and tracking inventory within a single location or across multiple locations is always stress-free. Speaking of free, did we mention that using Stockpile is free? There’s no reason not to try Stockpile today!
