Staff shortage?

When business owners talk to each other, it is an open door that they have concerns of their staff. "I wish you lots of staff" is an often used, though sarcastically intended, dedication. "But you can't live without them," is then soon the response. It surprises me greatly that entrepreneurs have so much trouble with their HR management. The latter is already the question, whether they realize that they are Human Resources. Resources, in other words, who take care of achieving your entrepreneurial goals. Who think along and help solve problems, who fulfill your often unclearly formulated goals.

Because the entrepreneur likes to see himself as infallible, the smartest in the company. He makes that assessment himself, based on the absence of criticism from his subordinates. The story went of an entrepreneur who, while visiting his branches, entered through the front door and exited through the back door, only to fire three staff members in the intervening distance. While beating his chest, he got into his very luxurious company car, on his way to the next branch where they were already shivering. HR management thus.

Strategy is the key
Every day our consultants see examples of bad employment and therefore bad entrepreneurship. A good entrepreneur knows his strategic goals and clearly shares them with the company's stakeholders, first and foremost with his employees. But these are the exceptions. Too pompous, according to the small business entrepreneur. They apparently prefer to put energy into constantly hiring and firing people and complaining about their staff than into setting up a solid HR building.

At the time of writing it is 23 degrees and Monday afternoon. I would bet €100 that the terraces are overcrowded with healthy people, who could contribute greatly to solving the staff shortage. Yet those people get more satisfaction from endlessly looking at each other and drinking coffee than from working in a professional environment. The idea that financial consequences are the determining factor in this has been abandoned. Could it be the pressure we put on people that only the strongest can survive? And that those then have so much on their plate that they too eventually succumb?

My appeal to entrepreneurs is that they reflect on their strategy so they know where they want to move. That's where the need for professional support begins; you can't do that with a brother-in-law, a glass of wine and a cigar. Once you set the course, it all becomes easy. You can then, again with professional help, flesh out your marketing strategy (which is partly focused on the job market) and set up your HR building, among other things. Then suddenly entrepreneurship becomes super fun and your employees become partners in achieving the set goals. Then they no longer need to sit on the terrace so much as to run away from their professional workplace.

Employee participation
We are currently doing a lot with employee participation. That's one dimension further. Really nice to see what happens after a participation, though. People emerge as entrepreneurs, start thinking in terms of results much more than before. Private equity demands employee participations for key employees. After all, they provide the financial resources; they need to make sure that the key human resources are permanently attached to the company. I do still have a problem with the financial reward attached to a participation. Often it is based on EBITDA, while that actually encourages short-term trading. One successful entrepreneur told me that ultimately everything translates into EBITDA, which is also true.

In short, we promote employee participation as an outcome of a strategic process to reposition your company optimally in the market. Your competitors are at it too!