A shortage of good staff?

For many small-to-medium sized enterprises (SMEs) in New Zealand, the lack of reliable, skilled staff and the costs of running a business mean long working hours for the owner(s) and little opportunity to get away.

• Is your business able to run independently of the owner/manager?
• Does everyone in the business have a clear understanding of its goals and the challenges faced?
• Do you have clearly documented procedures to cover all aspects of the business?
• Are staff motivated and working to their full potential?
• Do staff know how to act on major decisions, such as authorising emergency repairs when senior staff are not available?

Edutech has 11 years experience in delivering performance improvement that is tailored to the needs and budgets of our clients. We will work with you, share our experience and knowledge, and implement improvements, processes and training where it counts. How? By focussing on the people and processes you already have, and talking to you about where you would like to be.

You are the experts in your field

We are not experts in retail, or in running a financial organisation; we do not need to be. The principles behind supporting staff in any successful business are the same everywhere. Edutech's expertise is in understanding how adults learn and how to set up and support the processes that will enable your staff to optimise their efficiency.

We have worked with a number of SMEs - from software developers to retail outlets - and the key issues are often the same.

Out-of-the-ordinary procedures are often the ones where businesses come unstuck. They do not have emergency procedures because they never expect an emergency to happen. While a business may not lose much actual cash or goods, hours can be lost figuring out the transactions that happened during a power cut or an unusual event like a flood. And that costs too!

Just like industry and manufacturing businesses, service and retail businesses can make use of a 'troubleshooting database' where procedures for handling unusual happenings are stored. If you host them on an external server, your procedures are stored safely away from any untoward event and you can quickly get back to business.

Administration

Most businesses are very good at:

• Paying staff
• Paying the tax man
• Ordering and shipping goods

What they may trip up on is the 'people stuff' such as:

• Holding on to good staff and bringing new staff up to speed quickly
• Working to staff strengths and improving performance in areas of weakness

Having well planned training systems that are backed-up up by good policies and procedures (and that are easily accessed by staff) is a great start to improving how the business operates in relation to these two staffing issues. Invest in a thorough needs analysis to ensure these two areas are developed to complement each other.

Take the first step now towards a better understanding of the needs of your business. Call or email us to arrange a free consultation.

Servicing customers

Do your staff all know and act on a customer's six basic needs?

1. Friendliness
2. Understanding and empathy
3. Fairness
4. Feeling in control of the transaction
5. Options and alternatives
6. Information

Test their customer focus by asking a couple of your friends to pose as 'secret shoppers'. Give your friends a few key things that you expect all staff to do and ask them to report back. If your staff do not measure up, do not blame them. Review how you manage their training.

Edutech KM Ltd

PO Box 25-241, Victoria Street, Christchurch;
phone: 64-3-337-0234
fax: 64-3-337-0235
info@edutechkm.com
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