I am a dentist. I felt strongly that half my staff was against me (4 of 7 employees). So I fired them. I inherited them when I bought my business a few years ago. I am very ethical but I do care about gross revenue (as any owner should). They never fully embraced caring about revenue production or understanding that bonus pay is tied to profitability. Nonetheless, I feel it is a failing on my part as a leader that they as a group were not on my team. What can I do as a small business owner to display better leadership and engender better office morale. I should mention that I pay above market wages, have better benefits than market competitors, work with my employees to satisfy the number of hours they need and I run a schedule that is very predictable 8-5 with a lunch and we do not deviate. Further, we take great care of our patients and the staff never has to worry about patient satisfaction or quality of care. Thank you for your input.
Like it or not, it’s always going to be a dead end job for your staff. So, start with understanding that people already don’t want to be there and that no one is going to care about your revenue or production more than you or as much as you because they don’t reap as much of the rewards. Try being as upfront as possible about expectations from the very beginning of hiring new people and try being as empathetic as possible toward your staff.
Speaking of rewards, try to disperse as much of any revenue/production increases to the staff as possible.
Don’t require 100% when 80% will suffice. Enable staff to have as much input in their own work as possible and allow as much “democratic” input as possible when making decisions. Don’t make changes for change’s sake. If something is working, leave it alone. Too many small business owners are unnecessarily rigid, which just makes working there even less desirable than it already is.