Intangible Productivity

I posted an interview the other day the Becky McRay had with Bob Phibbs, the Retail Doctor. Becky McRay is one of the contributors to Small Business Survival, a great rural and small town business resource website. One of the questions Ms. McRay asked was, "Limited workforce is another big issue in small towns. Are there special techniques retailers can use to manage their smaller workforce?"

I would like to take an unsolicited opportunity at share my thoughts on this question. I think many small business owners in rural regions often look at their labor pools as being a challenge due to the limited number of workers. I prefer to look at this as more of an opportunity.

There is an old saying used by HR professionals to "hire for talent, train for skills." In rural regions, there may be some limits to the number of workers to choose from, but there is a tremendous amount of talent to be found in remote regions. Talents include things like being polite, taking initiative and determination to exceed expectations.

In small towns, talents are often easier to recognize. As it is difficult to judge whether someone has talents from just a quick interview, the benefit of knowing a little background on a candidate prior the interview provides a huge benefit. Talents are often best recognized by some level of familiarity with the person and small business owners in rural communities should always keep their eyes open for those who display talents. Sometimes the best way to recognize talent is to notice that special teammate on a sporting team who may not have had the been the best athlete, but who always gave 100% effort and tried to be a helpful contributor to the team. Talent can be found in that Boy/Girl Scout, 4H club member or Key Club member who took the initiative to develop a special project for the county fair. Maybe you will recognize talent in that special volunteer at the local picnic who was cleaning up long after most others left. If you are not familiar with a particular employee candidate, it's not hard to find someone who is in a small community.

Once you recognize talent, making your company the employer of choice is the next task. While larger employers often have access to more resources and better comprehensive benefit plans, the intangible benefits of working for an employer that cares will often attract the best employees. You may not be able to offer all of the benefits that they offer, but by creating more pleasant worker friendly atmosphere, offering flexible scheduling and more personalized training your company stands a good chance of attracting that talent. Of course, should you attract that talent, personal recognition for a job well done and offering opportunities for growth within your organization may be necessary to retain those talented individuals.

I can't emphasize enough the dividends that talented employees offer an organization. Another competitive advantage small employers often have is that they don't manage by just the numbers. There is a recognition of what I refer to as intangible productivity.

With the five businesses that my wife and I have owned, we have had the pleasure to have many very talented employees and the success of our businesses was greatly attributed to their efforts. Productivity is something that can be measured fairly easily. At our bagel stores or taco restaurant, we could measure production times for various kitchen duties or sales per labor hour for our cashiers like other large corporations do.

Yet, beyond those measures, there are many intangible levels of productivity. How do you quantify the value of that worker that is willing to go the extra mile to make a customer feel special? Hidden in the gross sales of your income statement may be the sales from that one customer who patronizes your business over and over again because they like that special employee. The financial statements can't accurately measure opportunity lost when a customer walks out of a store simply because they found the atmosphere cold and impersonal. Small businesses have the competitive advantage in paying attention to these details and in training their workers to utilize those talents to help grow the business.

Furthermore, there is a team dynamic that often can't be measured. I compliment my wife for her ability to recognize the strengths of her workers and adjust the roles within the organization to get the most out who she has available for a more productive day. Large companies make the employees do the task at hand and rarely flex the tasks that need to be done to build a base of loyal customers around the strengths of the employees available at a given time.

As with many of my posts, the onus is on the small business owner to take responsibility for the leadership of their own company. Building a team that gives tangible results from the intangible productivity takes effort to coordinate the talents available and give them a clear direction. As H. Jackson Brown, Jr. once said, “Talent without discipline is like an octopus on roller skates. There's plenty of movement, but you never know if it's going to be forward, backwards, or sideways.”

Move your company forward by finding the the best workers and giving them the guidance necessary to enhance the profitability of your business.