Company Standards for Job Description

The job descriptions you see on job boards and advertisements are not written to describe the job but rather written by HR employees impressed with their own MBA or at least trying to convince you they have an MBA. Often times it is difficult or impossible to figure out what the job being advertised actually is.  

When running a small business you need to be able to communicate clearly with your employees exactly what there job is, what they are expected to do, and how their work will be judged and rewarded.

There are two parts to preparing a job description Company Standards and Position Standards. In this article I will review the Company Standards.

Prepare a list of list of attributes you want all your employees to have. The list should be about ten items long and should communicate the core values you want your organization to have. It may include how to act with customers, how to dress or other standards you want to develop you company culture and image.

If you do not establish a culture and image your employees may do it for you and it will likely not be one you like.

Here is an example of company standards I wrote for our development business.

Company Standards:

True growth and success for Robinson Homes will only come through serving the needs of our customers. The following standards will assist us in recognizing and reaching this goal.

1.      Robinson Homes is a small company and is dependent on the skills and enthusiasm of all members of the team. The first duty of all employees is to support and assist each other in reaching the success we all deserve. A “not my job” attitude has no place in our workplace.

2.      All construction work shall be done in accordance with the Home Owners Manual which all employees shall keep close at hand during working hours.

3.      The customer may not always be right, but they are always the customer. They will be accorded the respect they deserve.

4.      Every employee is responsible for building comfort and predictability for the client into the building process.

5.      We will set realistic expectations in our customers mind.

6.      We will communicate with each other and the client often and effectively. Bad news or problems will be communicated immediately so the problem can be addressed and corrected.

7.      We will treat all fellow team members, employees, trade contractors, suppliers, and other vendors with respect at all time.

8.      We will dress and act professionally.

9.      We will be on time for appointments.

10.  We will approach all transactions with our clients and vendors as an opportunity to enhance Robinson Homes’ image.

11.  We will proudly deliver a valuable product.

All original content ©Thomas Robinson 2010

Job Description

Your employees need to know not only their title but also what their primary responsibilities are and on want basis they will be judges.

Here is an example of a Job description for an Administrative Assistant we used at Robinson Development.

POSITION TITLE:  Administrative Assistant

Reports to:   Purchasing Manager (primary); coordinates with Project Manager, Sales Manager, President, and Land Acquisition Manager.

Result statement:  To provide support services for all personnel

Work Listing:

1. Distribute daily incoming and outgoing mail
2. Order and maintain office supplies
3. Administer health insurance paperwork
4. Administer phone/internet service
5. Administer computer network service
6. Keep President’s and individual development files
7. Maintain Permit/Sales/Construction folders by lot
8. Order city permits
9. Distribute lot start order info to subcontractors
10. Distribute change orders to subcontractors
11. Set up closing dates with buyer, bank, and attorney
12. Prepare closing documents
13. Distribute and monitor service requests with buyer and subcontractors

Position Standards:

1. Maintain files daily
2. Process error-free, on-time closing documents/lot start order info/change orders
3. Complete service requests within 30 days of request
4. Process permits, start orders, and change orders within two business days of release.

The position lists the primary functions of the position. It also give specific standards that the employee will be expected to meet; daily, 30 days two business days.

Each position should be able to be broken down into ten to fifteen items. The more standards you can define in specific terms the better. It is important to have the employee under sand that line of authority, job description and company standards work together to describe their position.

All original content ©Thomas Robinson 2010

Look at Your Office or Store the Way Your Customers Do

Look at your store or office from the street. Is the sign inviting and easy to read?  Is the address visible so your customers can find you? How does the building look? Is it fresh and exciting or worn and old looking? Is the landscaping trimmed? Is there litter or other debris?  Make sure the building conveys the message you want it to. 

Walk in the front door. Is the door easy to open or is it heavy and sticks upon opening? Is it handicap accessible?  Is the door inviting? I was at a customer’s office and there was a sign on the door that said “No Concealed Weapons Allowed.” When I asked about the sign they laughed and said it was there when they bought the building. Is that the first thing you would want your customers to see?

If you have a retail store you may use the door to advertise a special or sale. If so make sure the information is up to date. Nothing is worse than having a customer ask about a special that has expired.

If you have a small lobby and sliding window make sure the customer side of the window is clean and presentable. Too often the wall is dusty and worn because no one in the company ever looks at it closely.

If you have a waiting room, sit in the chairs. Are they comfortable? Look around. If someone is waiting for you they are looking at the walls, ceiling and wall hangings. Is the room clean or is there a spider web in the corner? Do the wall hangings create a positive message such as company awards or helpful information on your product? I was once at a kitchen showroom and prominently on the wall was a plaque that said, “I started my company with nothing, and I still have most of it.” While the saying was humorous and may ring a bell with many small business owners it is likely not a message that should be conveyed to potential customers who would be asked to make substantial deposits on their new kitchen.

If you have a receptionist desk, is it cluttered? Can it be hidden behind a counter? Can you visitors see confidential documents?

Make a list of short term and long term things that can be done to improve the physical appearance of your business and set a date for starting and completing those changes.

All original content ©Thomas Robinson 2010

Lines of Authority

The first thing your employees need to know is who do they report to and who, if anyone, reports to them.  This may seem obvious but I had a friend who did consulting work. He was hired to work on the efficiency of a single department in a municipality. The department had thirty employees.  He was having trouble understanding the structure of the department so he handed each employee a two question questionnaire. Who do you report to and who reports to you.

He then tried to construct a box diagram of the authority lines in the department. He was unable to even begin because there was no clear path. He had several people who said they report to each other and many who said they report to individuals who did not list them on their list. He asked the head of the department to draw the box diagram and there was still no clear chain of command.

If you have a pool assistant who helps several people pick one of the individuals as the primary that can sort out conflicting or contradictory directions for the assistant. Then make sure that this person understands their position and accepts.

If you have everyone report directly to you it is likely you will never get the important things done.  I once had a client that owned an electrical utility installation company. He complained he always had to stay until eight or nine in the evening to finish his work. I spent a day with him. He carried a radio on his hip and in the morning every employee from the truck drivers to the operations manager would call in to tell the owner they had arrived.  During the day if they had a problem in the field they would call him. Nearly every time he referred the problem to the Operations Manager who dealt with the problem.
At the end of the day again every employee called in to tell the owner he was leaving.

I suggested he go without the radio. After two days he called me to tell me he not only got all his paper work done by closing but he also had time to begin a couple of long range projects that had been sitting on his desk.

Draw yourself a box diagram and then share it with everyone.

All original content ©Thomas Robinson 2010

Swinging the ax — how to fire someone - Business - Forbes.com - msnbc.com

Most of the articles in this blog are original but I will also add links to articles that I believe are help full. Note that this article is written for companies that have HR departments and are generally larger. If you have small company less than 15 employees it is likely the legal requirments are less. You may want to check with your attorney.

Swinging the ax — how to fire someone - Business - Forbes.com - msnbc.com

By Susan Adams

Most bosses who aren't Donald Trump say that laying people off is one of the toughest tasks they face. And they have to do it more frequently all the time. In hopes of helping both firer and the fired, we talked to pros in the employment and therapy fields to come up with some advice for those who must wield the ax.

First rule: When delivering bad news, get to the point quickly, clearly and concisely. Jeffrey Garber, founder of the career services website 360jobinterview.com, says he once fired a graphic designer who had trouble getting the message. "The employee said, 'I can change,' " he remembers. "She went on for half an hour, with me trying to tell her it was a final decision.

Cover what you need to cover but avoid using a script, advises David Noer, an executive coach and consultant in Greensboro, N.C., and author of "Healing the Wounds: Overcoming the Trauma of Layoffs and Revitalizing Downsized Organizations." Too often young managers try to cope with the stress of firing people by resorting to a checklist provided by the human resources department or an outplacement firm. "There's a danger in communicating facts in such a stilted way that you come off like Mr. Spock," Noer says.

Empathy is essential, advises Jane Praeger, a New York media coach. "It's not about you. It's about your audience," she says. "Think about what the other person needs." Be prepared, she adds, to "sit with silences and empathize without sugarcoating. Much of what people need to learn about speaking is actually about learning to listen."

Paul Browde, a Manhattan psychiatrist, agrees. "Part of being a boss is being able to accept people's rage," he says. "It's most helpful for the person being fired if you can take their rage in a calm, accepting, understanding way."

Browde, who has counseled both bosses and laid-off employees, notes that workers who get layoff news often have no qualms about telling the boss how devastated they are. The boss must learn to listen, without detaching. "It's a bit like being a doctor who is delivering bad news," Browde says. "You have to feel compassion, even if you don't express it."

What if the boss has to lay off a large number of people at once? Browde says it's important for the supervisor to regroup between meetings, so that he or she can focus on each individual empluee. Find someone outside the company to confide in. A quick call to a sympathetic friend or confidante can help a lot.

When letting go of a smaller number of employees, consider a novel idea from Manhattan career counselor Eileen Wolkstein: Use the layoff meeting as an opportunity to tell the employee about his or her strengths. "I've known people who've walked out of being fired and said thank you," Wolkstein says. In a situation where the layoff is purely the result of cost-cutting, and the employee has been a strong performer, you can communicate specific ways the employee did a great job. You can also offer to tap connections and recommend the employee for other positions.

What about legal considerations? Katharine Parker, a management-side employment attorney at the law firm Proskauer Rose, says the most important thing for a boss to keep in mind is the importance of having a legitimate business reason for the layoff. You don't need to articulate the reason at the time of the layoff, but you must be prepared to do so in case of a legal challenge. Federal law prohibits discrimination on the basis of age, race, gender, disability or religion. Legitimate reasons can range from unsatisfactory performance to cost-cutting to management restructuring.

We can all only hope there will be less need for this kind of advice soon.

© 2010 Forbes.com

Define Quality for Your Product

A Quality product is a product that meets the needs and expectations of your customers.

If you sell a $50,000 luxury car the needs and expectations of the customers is far different than if you sell an economy car designed to provide reliable transportation at the lowest possible price. It is important to define what your quality level will be and then manage the product and the expectations of the customer accordingly.

When we built homes we discovered that there was a huge variation in the expectations of the customers when it came to the finish on the painted drywall in our homes. We had customers who came to the final walk through with lights that they wanted to hold at right angles to the wall to make sure no seams were visible. They would also feel the wall for rough spots.

To produce the finish on a painted wall to match the finish on an automobile the cost would be so high we would never sell a house. The question is what is good enough to meet the needs of the customer and then set expectations to that level without either losing customers or pricing your product out of the market. We researched and found most specifications defined the thickness of the paint and quality in technical terms our consumer would never understand not to mention our painters.  After much work we found an industry standard. This standard was if no defect could be found from six feet under normal the wall was acceptable.

We added this standard to our home owner’s manual along with many other standards from scratches in wood floor to the performance of the furnace in extreme weather. By doing so we established a level of quality not only for our customers but from our trade contractors, vendors and employees.

Take a look at your product and define standard in terms meaningful to your customers that you can achieve 100% of the time. Then use this standard to sell and warrantee your product.

All original content ©Thomas Robinson 2010

The Basics of Small Business Balance Sheet

In this article we will discuss how to read a small business Balance Sheet including a discussion of assets, what you own; liabilities, what you owe; and equity which is the difference between the two.

Assets include the physical assets you own such as equipment, inventory, vehicles and buildings. These assets listed on your balance sheet may or may not reflect their true value. For example, if you purchase a factory building you will carry it on your balance sheet at cost and depreciate it over time. However, the value of the real estate may increase and worth more than the paper value. You will also carry inventory on the books at cost even if you assemble product - the item you sell - from raw materials. The product for sale will be carried on the books at cost which includes cost of raw materials and labor to assemble the product but not any markup or margin that will be gained when the product is sold. The SAP - standard accounting practice will vary slightly by industry. For example when we build a house for sale it is carried on the books at cost. If the home is pre-sold and being built to order we can carry it on the books including mark up. The difference is that for profit purposes you realize the profit on a prorate basis each month as the home is built. If you do not sell the home until it is complete you realize the profit when it is sold. Interest on the home is also capitalized which means it is carried on the books as an asset just like lumber or any other cost and becomes an expense only when the home is sold.

In a retail business you carry the items you buy at your purchase price - wholesale - as inventory. You may expense the shipping cost of bringing those items into the store at the time of delivery. Accounts receivable, what your customers owe you including pending credit card payments, is also an asset.

Assets may also include items that are far less intuitive. Pre paid taxes or insurance are not an expense but and asset. The expense is realized when the tax or insurance is due.

You may also have assets that have a subjective value such as customer lists, brand name, and good will. Good Will is the value of being an established business instead of a new start up. Often these are not shown on the books at all or carried at one dollar but these items can be of significant value when the business is valued for sale.

Liabilities are what you owe to banks or other lenders, accounts payable - what you owe vendors, - accrued payroll expenses such as taxes and benefits. Liabilities also include customer deposits on products or service you have not delivered.

Equity is invested capital and retained earnings. This is often referred to as book value. As discussed above it more often than not does not reflect the true value of the company.

Now you understand the basics of how to read a small business balance sheet. In future articles we will discuss ratios and what they mean to your business.

All original content ©Thomas Robinson 2010

Copyright Your Critical Documents

Do you have any critical documents that you use as part of your business that you have spent time and money on and that you do not want your competitors using? You customers, former employees, vendors and others with access to your paperwork are often more than willing to share your documents.

In home building we had construction plans and specifications. We made sure we owned the copyright and not the architect who we hired to prepare them. We also had a Homeowners Manual that we spent a lot of time and money preparing. Other documents can be sales documents, contracts, marketing material, advertising, maintenance instructions, catalogs, pricing sheet or any other original document you would not like copied.

Establishing a copyright can be as easy as adding the symbol © and the owner of the copyright and date.  This gives you the rights but they may be difficult to defend. To give you more protection on documents, consider registering them with the US Copyright office http://www.copyright.gov/.

Make a list of original documents you use. Add your copyright to the documents and consider registering the most critical ones.

All original content ©Thomas Robinson 2010

Collect all Your Insurance Policies

Collect all your insurance policies and keep them in one place. If you are like most small business you have quite a few: General Liability, Workman’s Compensation, employee health insurance, disability insurance, key man life insurance, errors and omission,  auto insurance or others.  Read through the insurance policy at least once a year to make sure you knew what is covered and more important what is not.

Insurance is one of those things we all need and we all at the same time we all avoid thinking about as much as we can. It is an overhead expense that does not make us money. It will only cost us money.   We are betting that something will go wrong and then hoping it doesn’t.

Insurance is complicated, boring and a moving target. I have always had a trusted insurance man. Together we do an annual review of all our policies.

Combining policies might help you save you a few dollars and loyalty to a company might earn you return loyalty in bad market… but maybe not.  I was with the same insurance company for over ten years while many of my friends in the industry were shopping the rates every year to save a few dollars.. When an insurance crisis hit the housing industry and all my competitors were facing triple the insurance rates if they could get insurance at all my rates did not change. It was a problem I heard about but did not experience. It helps that I never had a claim. It was not great planning it was a combination good practices and a lot of luck.

Get good advice on just how much insurance you need based on your volume and industry.  There are other ways to limit your liability.  Talk to your insurance professional about best practices to reduce exposure and to your lawyer holding some assets outside the company. Too little insurance can put you at risk. Too much can make you a target.

All original content ©Thomas Robinson 2010

Company Policy

Policy: a plan of action adopted by an individual or social group

Every company has policies for dealing with common and not so common occurrences; pay day is Wednesday, warrantee requests will be complete in 5 days, vacations must be requested 30 days in advance. Most of these policies develop over time to match the needs of the stakeholders. If you are a plumber taking five days to respond to a service request on a leaking toilet is likely to cast you referrals.

When we were building homes our warrantee clearly stated that if there was an emergency we would respond immediately. To non-emergency we would respond in the normal course of business. Then we defined a typical emergency. For example if a home buyer lost the water service to their house it was an emergency. If only one sink or toilet was out of service it was not an emergency and our plumber would respond the next normal work day.  

I this case the policy was written and could be understood by our employees and our customers.

Some policies develop over time and become ingrained in the company culture to the point you may believe they do not need to be written.  It was our habit – not policy - that paychecks would be distributed every other Friday for the work performed the previous two weeks.  Over time the bookkeeper developed the habit of distributing the pay checks on Wednesday two days early because they were completed and handing them out early got them off her desk. 

There came a time when we got particularly busy and the bookkeeper was unable to distribute the checks until the normal day. I received several complaints from newer employees about “late” paychecks.  The policy had been clear to me and the bookkeeper but not to our employees. 

Looking at the definition of policy you want to make sure the policies are created by an individual - you - and not the social group – your employees. Lacking a clear written policy your employees with create their own based on observation, 

The point here is if it is not in writing and not available to the stakeholders then it is not a policy and lacking a documented company policy the employee will create their own based on their perceptions.

All original content ©Thomas Robinson 2010

Who Owns the Customer Part 1?

There are two issues here.

First is where and how is the data stored. Do you and other employees have access to the records?  The Second is if you rely on a salesperson to manage the relationship with the customer the customer may perceive the salesperson is the company.  Are the customers buying from the company or from the salesman?

In this article we will look how you store lead and prospect data.  

Do you control the prospect lists? Do you have records of sales contacts with those prospects; face to face meetings and phone calls?

These lists can be anything from index cards kept in a cardboard box to sophisticated computer programs that not only store the customer and lead info but also keep track of each contact, the status of the sale or the account and a wealth of other information.

The downside of the paper systems is if they are lost or damaged they can be impossible to replace. Computer programs can be backed up and even duplicated and shared. If your sales person keeps the paper files then how do you get access particularly for outside sales people? The downside of the more sophisticated programs is they can take a lot of time and energy to manage.

Look at how you keep track of the lists and contacts. Is it appropriate for you business now and can you grow it as the company grows.  Is the system uniform or do different sales people keep their own records their own way? A standardized system will help you fill in for an employee during vacation or illness. It will also help you recover from a resignation or termination.

In our home building business we allowed our sales people to keep track of their contacts.  One project was in a new area so we decided to employ a local real estate agent with “local knowledge.”  We built a model home and spend a good deal of money on local advertising.

Sales were below projection so we ask for a list of prospects from the real estate agent. The agent informed us that the prospects where his property even though we had provided the model and advertising. After terminating this agreement we were careful to negotiate an arrangement where we received weekly prospect list with all information including source of the lead.

Original Content copyright 2010 Thomas Robinson

Call Your Bank

Most likely you have a line of credit and a relationship with a bank.  Call your loan officer. If you do not have a relationship with a loan officer who has significant pull with the bank get one. Sometimes if your loan is not a problem you get assigned to a junior loan officer. Even if you do not need any pull at the bank at the current time you want to make these relationships in good times so when you need them they are in place.

In home building we were always highly leveraged so we usually got one of the more senior loan officers.  Ours was excellent.

I called her one day when I didn’t need anything and asked her how we were doing. I could hear computer keys clicking in the background. I might have panicked her a little. She must have thought something was wrong that she missed because why else would I call. She assured me all loans were current.

I asked her to make a list of her top ten customers and let me know if we make the list. A few days later she called me back.  We had indeed made the list as number two.

“What criteria did you use to judge the customers?” I asked boldly.

She replied, “Timely payments, history of paying back loans on time, accurate and on time paperwork and financial records and most important her boss never asks about us because we do not show up on problem lists. “

We talked about what we did and was there anything we could do better. The discussion helped me understand how the bank evaluated us and we learned this at a time when there was no stress and we were not asking for anything.  The next time we did propose a new project I was better prepared to help meet her needs so she could meet ours.

Finally I asked what her number one had that we did not. She told me that company had a million dollar cash balance in a low interest money market.  I then assured her it was unlikely I would ever have such a large cash balance… in a low interest account.

Who Owns Your Emails?

Email is becoming a critical part of business communication and should be treated as business communication just like any other form of communication. You and your managers will need access to the communication now and in the future just like you access to letters and other paper documents in your files.

If your employees are using email while conducting your business you should own those email addresses.  If you allow your employees to set up their own emails on free services such a G-mail, Yahoo, Hot Mail or even on a service provider they use at home then they own the email and all the records associated with that address.

If the employee can change the password and block your access from any computer then you may lose critical correspondence if they become disgruntled or need to be terminated.

I am associated with a company that allowed an outside sales rep to use an email he set up on his home system. The email name did not use the name of the company but it did use the product name and implied that it was a company email. The employee was terminated for cause.  Many if not most of the email address he was using were stored not on the company computer but on the email program on the service providers server.  The addresses and communications were lost to the company and not available to his replacement.

 He kept the email, after all he owned it, and would answer emails sent to him from people who thought he was still with the company.  By the time the company discovered the problem a great deal of damage was done. It is likely the company will never know exactly how much. 

If your company uses email and if it does not now it likely will soon set it up on a server where you have access and control. It is a small investment to prevent a large problem.

© Thomas Robinson Sept 2010

Call Your Company.

Call Your Company.

How is your company’s phone answered? Does it convey the message to your customers and suppliers that you want?  If you have an auto-answering system is the message the same today as it was the day you bought the system? Is the massage out of date – Happy Holidays… in July? This is the first contact your customers and business partners have with you on a regular basis. It can create a positive or negative image. Make sure it is positive.  I know of a specialty retail store that has limited hours and is dependent on customers leaving messages on their phone system. The voice mail message was recorded by the phone system installer for whom English was a second language. The message is difficult to understand and is not inviting. The store never changed the message and has no idea what that massage is costing them.

If the phone is answered by a live person decide exactly how you want your phone answered. It can be a simple announcement of the company name or more personalized such as “Good Morning, XYZ Company Jenny speaking. If you like the way your receptionist does it now document it. Write it down and put it in your operations manual.

If you have an auto-answering system a slightly longer greeting may be appropriate. It may include an advertisement such as: thank you for calling Joe Builder - winner of the state Homebuilder’s Builder of the Year Award or Joe Builder developer of Sunny Acres.  If you put a seasonal greeting make sure you have a process to update it before it is out of date. Be careful not to make it too long. I have one associate who lists all his awards and certifications on his cell phone introduction. It is more infomercial than greeting.

“There is no right or wrong just make sure the message is positive and creates the image you want.

Once you arrive at a greeting that you like document it. Put it in writing and put it in your operations manual.   

©Thomas Robinson Sept 2010