The New Normal, part 2: People Power

This is the second article in our New Normal series, and we’re taking a closer look at the way the past year has shifted the way businesses manage their people power, as well as offering a big recommendation for onboarding and managing a flexible workforce.

EMPLOYEE AUTONOMY

While the amount of flexibility employers offer their employees varies considerably by industry, the spectrum of employee autonomy seems to be growing even wider, with some businesses using technology to enforce employee productivity down to the minute, while others are operating in a more decentralized way, using technology to help remote employees manage their own time while working towards company goals.  

Where on the employee autonomy spectrum are you? Has that changed since the pandemic? How do you see it changing as things get back to “normal”? And perhaps most importantly, is the limitation on employee flexibility tied to the nature of the business or the nature of your management style?  

THE TIME TRAP

Shifting from fear-based to results-oriented people management is a big change for many businesses, but one that is essential in today’s jobs market. Very often, owners and managers fall into the “time trap,” falsely equating time spent with productivity. Even if they logically understand that someone can be clocked in and unproductive, and that an employee could be managing their own time and meet or even exceed goals, they often don’t have the KPI’s (key performance indicators), and planning in place to get out of the time trap mindset.  

Holding your management style to a higher standard will set the stage for employee productivity, on terms everyone can feel good about. The bonus is that less micro-managing means more time free for managing larger projects and keeping company goals on track.

GUSTO: Onboarding and Beyond 

Now that the economy is picking back up, your business may be hiring, and this is the perfect opportunity to make the onboarding process a whole lot better. Bringing new employees into the fold is more than making sure that payroll is set up and the required forms are in the file; it’s an employee’s first real impression of the company and a process that can be refreshingly simple (and even enjoyable) with the right systems in place.

And here’s my main recommendation: go with Gusto to handle all of your onboarding and payroll. Gusto’s onboarding tools can handle both the nitty gritty and the warm and fuzzy aspects of the task. Create an checklist within Gusto that helps you make sure that nothing gets missed, from setting up benefits to ordering welcome cupcakes. Employees immediately get invited to use Gusto, sign in and then fill out all necessary forms online, from anywhere.

Gusto’s payroll processing is seamless, and their website becomes your employee’s portal for copies of pay stubs, tax forms and other payroll details, saving you time that would have been spent fielding those inquiries. In short, it is a very robust, affordable tool that I recommend to all of my clients, regardless of size or where they fall on that spectrum of employee autonomy.

What are your people power goals, and what is standing between where you are now and where you’d like to see your business go? It might be a whole lot less than you think, and I can’t wait to see you get there.

Next up in the New Normal series: Getting in the [cash]flow.