Taking Care of Your Employees

BY HARRIET DIAMOND

hrough the ages, women have earned the label "nurturing." I am not a fan of stereotypes. Some of us are nurturing; some of us are not. None of us has the exact same perspective on what nurturing is.

Women in the workplace - whether on the assembly line or in the boardroom-raised the collective business consciousness: Personal needs matter. Manifestations are family leave, on-site daycare, and healthful living incentives - to name a few. According to Sharon Hadary, executive director of the Center for Women's Business Research, Washington, DC, women not only want attention to their whole-life needs, as employers, they give it.

What makes any valuable employee stay, give her all, and want to do it?

Flexibility Is Most Desired Benefit
For the past several decades, job satisfaction surveys showed that communication had replaced money as the critical employee retention vehicle. Today's number one satisfaction criterion is flexibility. Current studies show that employees value - even demand - attention to work/life balance or, as it is now called, "work/life effectiveness."

As part of Working Mother magazine's 18th annual survey, readers rated the top companies for which to work. A common denominator among the top 100 companies? Flextime.

A recent Center for Women's Business Research study entitled Retirement Trends in the Small Business Market: A Survey of Women and Men Owned Firms supports this concept. Results showed that 54 percent of women-owned firms with 10 or more employees offer flextime or job sharing, compared with 33 percent of men-owned firms.

"Women business owners emphasize different benefits for their employees than do men business owners [and] are more likely to offer such benefits as job sharing or flextime and profit sharing," the study reports.

Looking for Innovative Solutions
Lurita Doan, president and CEO of New Technology Management Inc. (NTMI) with corporate offices in Reston, VA, recognizes the value of flexibility. Her flexible leave structure (including birthdays off) helps her accommodate a diverse workforce whose visits home often involve travel to other countries.

To help meet her employees' needs, Lurita rolled her company's 16 personal days (10 vacation, five sick days, and one birthday) into an employee-friendly package that "can be cashed in at any time, accrued or rolled over from year to year," thus allowing lengthy visits to overseas homelands.

Susan Brenner, senior vice president of Watertown, MA-based Bright Horizons Family Solutions, the largest employer-sponsored child-care provider, says her employee focus groups demonstrate "time and again" that flexibility is the number one benefit that women want.

"Women have said that they had to call in sick because their babysitter or their child was sick," Brenner adds.

Bright Horizons' solution to meet this need? Pioneering the concept of "back-up care," a benefit that provides employees with a solution to sudden or extraordinary circumstances, such as a sick babysitter or schools closing for a teachers' convention or other non-business holiday. The innovative move has been a successful one for Bright Horizons, and more companies have joined in making back-up care an up-front benefit for employees.

Sandra Newman, founder and 30-year owner of Raritan Container, a box manufacturing and distributing company in New Brunswick, NJ, has an employee "must have" list that includes "an understanding that employees need to live." Newman takes this need into account in providing flexibility, explaining, "We're a small company. We can be reasonable."

Raritan Container's "must have" list for employees also includes the concepts of "fair compensation and benefits," topped by "recognition" and "praise."

Good Policies Benefit Everyone
Today, we want our employees to be healthy and centered, with free-flowing chi.

Does this desire have a business basis? You bet! You can see the results in better corporate health insurance rates, less employee absenteeism, and less interpersonal friction among workers. These "peace of mind" factors lead to greater productivity and job satisfaction, and employers are taking notice.

A U.S. Senate Resolution created October 2003 as the first "National Work and Family Month," proclaiming that "supporting a balance between work and personal life is in the best interest of national worker productivity" and resolving that "reducing the conflict between work and family life should be a national priority."

As the resolution's authors noted, "the more overworked employees feel, the more likely they are to report making mistakes, feel anger and resentment toward employers and coworkers, and look for a new job."

Like many women business owners, Lurita Doan was ahead of the wave in recognizing this: "In 1993, when I hired my first employees, I immediately bit the bullet on medical care," she says. "Since the very first day, NTMI has provided fully paid medical, dental and vision care to employees and their families, as well as life insurance, short-term disability, and prescription medicine cards. We still do so to this day!"

It's safe to say that, in this economy, that demonstrates great commitment.

In 1996, Doan began a 401K plan with corporate matching to encourage employee savings and active participation in retirement preparation.

In Diamond Associates' training program, "Gen Bender: Bridging the Generation Gaps," our facilitators elicit what motivates and "de-motivates" different generations and work to find the similarities, wherever they may exist.

For example, those individuals who are part of the "Gen X" and "Gen Y" groups have a healthy respect for "having a life." Yet, many older workers were conditioned to believe that longer hours equaled a stronger work ethic. But, quantity does not always equate with quality. As a result, life balance now has caught on, and savvy employers recognize the relationship between balance and productivity - and, of course, job satisfaction.

Doan's "take good care" list for her employees starts with the directive, "Provide an exciting and stimulating work environment that presents employees with sustained intellectual challenge." It also includes, "Provide opportunities for professional growth and upward mobility within the company."

Professional growth does not get lost when we care for our employees.

Shelley Hewson, founder and president of Hewson Enterprises in Plainfield, NJ, a full-service industrial and residential landscaping company, sandwiches a competitive salary between a good work environment that provides equipment and tools and a policy of being fair and flexible. In Hewson's business, teamwork is a "must have" for job success.

"When one member of the team does not pull his/her own weight, it severely affects morale," she says. "This team structure has to constantly be massaged to ensure productivity on the job site."

Practicing the Golden Rule
Not long ago, I asked my own employees the direct question, "What do you want from an employer?"

After all of our years together, a collective 40, I was pleased to confirm that we are still in sync. The resounding number one answer from my employees? Respect, followed closely by feedback and reinforcement.

Respect for one's employees is manifested in on-the-job behaviors, as well as in recognition of quality-of-life issues. Beyond the flextime, the benefit packages, and family care programs, taking care of one's workforce includes creating a positive, energetic work environment.

In fact, one of our roles as employers is "stewardship." That means taking care of your employees, looking out for them, and helping them become, in American military parlance, "all they can be."

As an employer, you want to prepare employees for a world of work beyond their present responsibilities and even beyond your organization. You also want them to be successful as individuals and as members of their families and communities. When they are successful in their own worlds, they will come to work fulfilled and motivated.

Feedback lets people know how well they are doing. Share expectations, and acknowledge whether or not those expectations have been met. Practice developmental feedback, which often is fast and focused: Be private; focus on work-related behavior; state clear, work-related consequences; and jointly determine corrective action.

What about the employee who is doing everything right and on time, even going the extra mile? The One-Minute Manager coined the phrase "one-minute praisings."

In today's fast-paced work environment, such moments are more important than ever. They regularly let employees know that you value them. If you wait for the appropriate time, the invaluable employee may be on to her next job.

Have you heard the line, "Why should I tell her I love her? I married her, didn't I?" The business parallel is, "I hired her to do a good job. I don't have to praise her."

Think again.

Just as all women have not been cut from the same cloth, neither have all employees. Sandra Newman points out that she has learned to pay attention, to listen, to her employees and what they want, and not just offer them the perks that she would want for herself.

"I don't assume that I know what is important to each of my employees," she explains. "I used to think that everyone wanted an opportunity to grow and have more responsibility. But, some people do want to do the same thing for 25 years. The thought of greater responsibility can be daunting."

"I don't assume that I know what is important to each of my employees," she explains. "I used to think that everyone wanted an opportunity to grow and have more responsibility. But, some people do want to do the same thing for 25 years. The thought of greater responsibility can be daunting."

W Clear, ongoing communication is the glue of any successful relationship; poor or intermittent communication is the downfall. Those individuals that are part of your company want to know what you expect, how you want it done, and when.

Most people leave their crystal balls at home; yet, they are called upon regularly to read minds. The powerful role that communication plays impacts job performance and employee satisfaction. A major error that many entrepreneurs, both fledgling and successful, make is assuming that everyone in their work environment has the same drivers and the same road maps.

Most of us - although speakers of English - don't always speak the same language. No one, whether employee or business owner, comes to work planning to make someone else's life miserable. Unclear expectations, poor (or no) communication, and sometimes just plain miscommunication in the heat of the day, can disturb the equilibrium in your work environment. Recognize it, fix it fast, and move on.

Pegeen Lanahan, RCDD, president of KO Communications of Whippany, NJ, states, "I've come to understand that taking care of employees is a huge part of my job: Make sure the right person is doing the right kind of work; make sure that the job description truly forwards the interests of the organization; and respond to negative or destructive behavior in the workplace immediately and with confidence. Employees love a good leader."

Nancy Barr, Diamond Associates' director of client relations, puts it this way: "When people feel well taken care of (compensated fairly, treated with dignity, and viewed as human beings with lives as important as their job performance), they begin to feel that their time at work is time well spent and not as if they were living out a prison sentence. Things are so good that they allow themselves to think about how they could be even better. Because they are being treated as whole people, they can afford to bring their whole being to work."

And, as Susan Brenner points out, the benefits of taking care of the whole employee extend far beyond the return on investment of decreased absenteeism - "it engenders loyalty," another priceless commodity.

Conclusion
So, where's the money?

Well, it's true: Money is a necessary motivator and a "take good care" vehicle. Most people work so they can achieve their goals and dreams. Work itself is not the goal. Money will always be a consideration, and employees' financial needs do, of course, matter.

However, if salary were everyone's top motivator, small businesses wouldn't stand a chance, and even large companies wouldn't be able to provide the increasingly essential workplace benefits. As the need for balance becomes the worker's mantra, compensation beyond the paycheck weighs in heavily.

More and more employers are "getting it." Work/life balance - or effectiveness - extends well beyond family and day care, as we increasingly put a priority on our own well-being and quality time.

Sometimes, in any aspect of life, "this one's for me" is the difference between being able to give your all to others - or not.

HARRIET DIAMOND, founder and president of Westfield, NJ-based Diamond Associates Multi-faceted Training and Consulting (www.diamondtraining.com), is the author of four writing books, consultant to two educational book series, and author of numerous business-related articles. She can be contacted at 908-232-2075 (e-mail: daedit@aol.com).