For a business to thrive, not only in the current climate but through years to come, it must constantly assess where it is and where it wants to go.
This includes looking at both the external market and the goings-on in-house, and working towards constant improvement.
Prioritize Well Defined Goals
It’s easy to go off on a tangent about all the things you would like to accomplish, creating a flurry of things to focus on. It’s much more effective to choose one to five concrete goals to focus resources on.
Be sure they are measurable, achievable, and have a deadline.
Employ the Right People
Once you have these goals you will need to determine the types of employees you are looking for to help you achieve these objectives.
Define a model employee for the varying positions you need to fill and be sure to follow your own guidelines for these positions during the hiring process. Try to envision any candidates in these roles, or look inward to identify current employees whose strengths may be better served in other areas of the company.
Engage Employees
Once you get the right people on board, you want to keep them engaged so they feel passionate about the work they do, delivering their best performance and strengthening their commitment to the company and its improvement.
Make sure they have a full understanding of the company’s mission, its operations, and the customers it serves.
Touch base with them periodically to ensure the policies and procedures in place are working for them. Be open to suggestions when they are not.
Give Access to Knowledge
Changes or improvement to the knowledge an organization has is critical for progress and initiative. Identify areas where you are lacking in knowledge that will help move the company forward, and work to fill that gap, be it through employer-sponsored workshops and classes or other means.
Hire An Expert
Sometimes you are simply too entrenched in something to look at it clearly. Or, a situation is far too complicated and out of your immediate pool of talent and expertise.
In that case, you may want to look at hiring an outside firm to come in and analyze your company’s performance and policies. Groups like economic consulting firms are helpful, professionals who are dedicated to data collection and analysis, who can help predict market trends and evaluate strategies.
Check out the Competition
Having knowledge of your competitor’s policies and offerings will help keep you ahead of the curve and can help inform what you might like to do. This will be very effective when it comes to the candidate hiring process.
Monitor Activity and Results
In terms of progress, keep tabs on what is being done and what the outcome of your efforts are. This can help you adjust as time moves on.
Check in frequently with employees directly about how they are feeling. Look at how new procedures and policies are affecting them, as well as the effects they are having on the business itself in terms of operation and profit.
