One Hundred and One HR Best Practices for Small Business
Every business exists to meet the needs of their shareholders, whether they be the owners of the business or investors in the business. It’s a fundamental objective.
And business owners know that they can only meet the needs of their shareholders by first meeting the needs of their customers. They need to truly understand what their customers want and need, what levels of quality they expect, when they need the product or service to be delivered and how much their customers are willing to pay for the product or service. Customer needs drive business decisions because we know that if our business can’t meet those needs, another business will.
But there is a third piece to the puzzle – the needs of employees. If we want to meet the needs of customers and ultimately shareholders, we first have to meet the needs of current and potential employees.
Think of this as sales and marketing. In the same way that you have to market and sell your products to a customer, along with specifications and features and benefits, you also have to market and sell your employment opportunities to the labour market, providing key information on what you have to offer as an employer.
Employee needs must also drive business decisions. And similar to selling to customers, if our business cannot meet the needs of employees, another business will.