MARINE TECHNICIAN TODAY
|
WINTER 2014
By Joe DeMarco
Employee
Relations 101
I
n my last article, I shared many tips on How to Value your Technician. This
issue I would like to concentrate on the entire team that works at your facility.
Whether you are a two-man shop, or you operate a large boat yard with many
employees, your employees are the life blood of your business. Without a dedicated
team your business cannot reach its maximum potential or profitability. Yes, a
business can be profitable, and it can be considered successful without a dedicated
team, but a team that really has the best interests of the business at heart and works
together can bring the success of the business to a higher level.
Successful employee relations are critical to any business. Unfortunatelymost small
companies don’t understand the importance of having good employee relations, or
just don’t have the time or resources to address them. Large corporations dedicate
full time staff to manage employee relations. Why? Because they understand the
value of a dedicated team.
Many owners and managers fail to focus on the interpersonal relationships with
their employees. Often employees that are promoted to management positions
don’t have the interpersonal management skills to fully understand the value
of this important relationship. Without the skills, valuable employees may be
under-utilized or lost and productivity will suffer. Creating a positive work
environment allows your employees to succeed. With their success comes the
success of the business.
Developing clear goals and expectations:
Successful businesses know the value of communicating with their employees.
To create a successful interpersonal relationship with an employee, they must
understand and acknowledge the needs of the business. Good managers provide
clear cut goals and performance expectations for their employees. Think of a goal as
big picture item, such as reducing technician comebacks. Performance expectations
would include things to achieve the goal. The above goal, reducing technician
comebacks, could include the performance expectation of water testing every boat.
The job of setting the goals and expectations needs to not only include management
but the employees that will be involved. If we examine the above example it is easy
to see how management would be interested in reducing technician comebacks by
water testing every boat, but the opinion of the technicians performing the actual
work may be very different. They could offer that only certain engine problems
warrant water testing. This would save time and money for the business.
Now that clear goals and expectations have been set, performance measures must
be created. Employees need to know how they will be evaluated on the job they
are doing. Once employees understand what is expected of them and how they
will be measured they will be a more effective, efficient employee. Employees are
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MANAGEMENT TIPS
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