Rating Your Employees

It makes sense when you think about it: A business is only as good as the people working in it. But a major challenge most small businesses face is that the owner doesn’t understand how to recruit, hire or train good people. They take the first warm body that comes through the door and then have no way of following through with training or performance evaluation. Worst of all, they don’t let go of poor employees until it’s too late. That’s no way to create a successful business. If this is your predicament, here are some guidelines to help you evaluate and work with your employees.

Divide and Conquer

To begin, you must have a way of sizing up your team so you know what types of employees you have. We’ll keep it simple and divide them into three levels: “A”, “B” and “C” players.

“A” players are the folks in your organization who, if you point them to the results you’re trying to achieve, will get it done without much direction from you. They’ll even invent the systems to make it happen. At most, 10-15% of your company will be “A” players, but you’re always striving to hire more of them.

“B” players are the troops. They are the ones who get the work done, but they need good direction. They will be leveraged by systems and training because you have to help them get the job done. About 75% of your organization will be these players.

“C” players are either resisting getting the job done, can’t figure it out, or don’t want to do it. They can be very likable people, but they just don’t perform.

How to Work With Your People

Once you understand these levels, your challenge is improving your recruiting, hiring and training processes so you can attract “A” players and “B” players while excluding the “C” players. I usually recommend my clients create some kind of “onboarding process” to get new hires properly trained and acclimated to the company culture.

This is important because if you don’t bring employees into the business correctly, things deteriorate. A “B” player can get disheartened and become a “C” player. “A” players may leave quickly and go to a place where they can excel. You get left with more and more “C” players.

You finally get to the point where, like many small businesses, you’re trying to be successful with 30-40% “C” players on your payroll. But it’s impossible. That’s like the New England Patriots trying to win a Super Bowl by having only their “C” players on the field. They’d fail because they wouldn’t be able to beat the teams who are fielding all “A” and “B” players. If you want your business to win, to be World Class, you have to play like you’re taking your team to the Super Bowl. Which means…

Hire Slow, Fire Fast

Most businesses hire in desperation, then aren’t willing to make the necessary cuts. But in a performance situation, we need to separate from our “C” Players. I know how hard it can be to do that. In my first years of managing, I loved growing my staff. I believed you could fix people and unfortunately that’s just not true. If a person is a “C” player in the job, you may still see tremendous potential and want to bring out that potential, but you really can’t unless the person wants to change. And usually they won’t. In 95% of cases, you will need to separate from the person and the quicker the better.

If you have “C” Players and you don’t separate from them, several things happen:

1. You’re not serving your customers. They’re getting treated at a C level.
2. You may not be producing a quality product because the “C” person isn’t capable or doesn’t care.
3. The staff will respect you less because you tolerate and keep “C” players on the team.
4. You’re hurting the “C” players themselves.

Pay close attention to that #4. Firings or layoffs are painful, but by helping the “C” player get out of the company earlier, they have a much better chance of getting into a proper position for themselves. How many times have you seen a person fired, but a month later they’re in a job they love?

Stay Vigilant

Even if you are able to clean up all of your “C” players, you must remain ever vigilant. “A’s” will occasionally degenerate into “B’s”, because something in their life changed. “B’s” will sometimes degenerate into “C’s”. Typically even a well-managed staff will, over time, still degenerate into 10-15% A’s, 75% B’s and 10% C’s. Your job as manager is to consistently provide the motivation to take care of your “A’s” and keep them as “A’s”, and keep your “B’s” as “B’s”. If someone does degenerate, you might provide some coaching to help turn them back into an “A” or “B” but if it doesn’t work, be willing to cut the ties.

And it’s okay to do that. A football team’s roster changes every year. You’re always going to be making these changes too, but this ongoing focus is what will help your business be successful.

David Hilton, CEO USA, FREEDOM Business Coaching

© 2009 FREEDOM Business Coaching Ltd

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To get the best use out of this article, my recommended action points are:

1. Write down the names of your employees and grade them into A,B,C.
2. Develop a plan to move C players in to B players; if this is difficult let them go when you can.
3. Develop a recruitment strategy and system that will ensure you only hire the best.

If you want some help in creating a recruitment system that works give us a call, we have the knowledge and skills to help coach you through the process, it’s as simple as ABC.

David Hilton Your Business Coach