icture an ideal business scenario: your employees are excited to work, good at their jobs and motivated to perform well. When a problem occurs, it is usually handled by employees on the clock. In turn, your customers are more satisfied than ever, noticing that your employees go above and beyond.

The best part of this scenario is what you don’t have to do. You don’t have to receive phone calls for small daily problems, stress over an employee’s capabilities or attitude, or pick up the slack when someone doesn’t do their job. Instead, you have more time to think about your overall business strategy. You’re not working in your business; you’re working on your business.

However, building a business like this is, of course, easier said than done. So where do you start? In the following sections, we discuss how to create a more capable, independent and happy employee base.

Make the Most of Your Hiring Practice

A new employee’s perception of your business starts when filling out an application. Don’t wait until after they’ve been hired to make an impression. In your job posting, make sure to professionally and accurately describe what the position will require. This helps to ensure you only receive serious, qualified applications.

Even if you need to hire immediately, wait at least a day between steps in the application process. This sends a subconscious message to the applicant that your company won’t hire just anyone, but rather wants to find the right person for the job. This also gives the applicant time to get excited, and make sure they really want the job.

When you adopt these hiring practices, your new employees take the job seriously and have accurate expectations from the start.

Incentivize Cross-Training

Cross-training, or training employees in multiple departments, is a great business decision. For example, when a front desk employee is suddenly sick, someone in daycare can help out. This is a simple solution to what would have otherwise been a last-minute staffing problem. But how do you motivate employees to become cross-trained without forcing them?

A pay increase is an easy motivator. You can immediately increase pay by half the total envisioned increase when the employee decides to cross-train, and then raise the wage by the remaining half when they finish training. That way, they are immediately compensated for taking on more work, as well as motivated to finish the training.

This system rewards those who want to advance without pressuring everyone to take on more duties. In other words, if someone is perfectly happy in their current position, why risk that happiness? Because once you risk that employee’s happiness, you risk losing that employee.

Create a Smart Management Structure

The right management structure streamlines communication and gives employees a better support system, but too much management can be as harmful as too little. So what is the right amount?

We recommend one General Manager to oversee hiring, payroll and important customer inquiries. In addition, having one Assistant General Manager to help with these duties lessens the burden on the General Manager. We also suggest one shift lead per department. For example, one for daycare and one for the front of house. This way, the shift lead can immediately answer questions a less experienced employee may have and can model ideal behavior. As the team spokesperson, shift leads also simplify communication between employees and management.

Why not have two shift leads for each department? With more than one shift lead, it can quickly become “too many cooks in the kitchen.” As a result, employees may not know who to listen to, expectations could become unclear and communication with higher management can suffer.

An Open-Door Policy

We recommend having a policy that allows any employee to come forward to any level of management with a problem or idea. A good way to implement this is to quite literally have office doors open (which displays a welcoming attitude) and post higher-management contact information in easily visible locations.

Employees often have different insight into the business than upper management since they have personal experience in their department, so when employees feel comfortable mentioning ideas that could improve operations, management can actually implement those ideas and make a positive change.

In addition to improving the company, this policy also lifts morale. Employees feel like their opinion is valid and like they can make a difference that goes beyond their paycheck. In other words, they feel like they are a part of something greater.

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