To Share or Not to Share with your employees. That is the question.

Hi Judith,

Thank you for sharing your time with me at the webinar.

I love your question,
How do you know what from your head is the most important to impart to your employees?

I was at a dinner last Saturday night.
One of my oldest friends was musing.
He said, "I wish I could go back and know what I know now."

I waited to listen to everyone on that musing.
Most, if not all, were thinking the same thing.
If only I could go back.

I gave my two cents.
I would not want to go back in time with my knowledge of today.

I made many mistakes. I made some real doozies with work and life.

But I would not want to go back with my knowledge of today.
There is an excitement of not knowing something and doing it anyway—the guessing and figuring out. 
That naivety was there for me not to know what I was doing and doing them anyway.

It is not about the good or bad things (hopefully, when all is said and done, I did more good).
I would not want to take that adrenaline and feeling away.

 

Starting out running and growing a business was one of those life-changing ventures. It would be one of those "If only I knew what I know" thoughts. I would still not want to know.

You do not know what you do not know. You only see what you know at that time. I would move forward with what I knew at the time. And as quickly as possible, as I uncovered new information, I added what was new at that time. (It always did).

This brings me back to the question. "what do I share/what do I not share" with the company?

I went through the same dilemma back in the day.

I remember beginning to learn what it takes to be a better company.
The consultants, the books, and the conferences were all there to "help" me.
I came back from a Landscape/Snow Conference.
One lecturer said that we need more transparency in the company.
OK, that makes sense. Let's run this bad boy up the flag pole of hell back at the company.

I came back to the company armed with this enlightenment.
I asked my consultant Frank. What do we share with our employees?
(If only I could go back and stop this train wreck, lol.) See below for this F-up.

Judilet'set's get to the question.
How do I, the owner, know what to share?
And, what should I not want to share?

It is implied what does the employee want to know?
And, what should the employee not want to know?

Let me dump a bit of my mind as an owner:

I want to:
   Make more money, more profit.
   Know who my clients are.
   Know how to treat them.
   Know what kind of services we offer.
   Understand how we do the services.
   Do things consistently.
   Employees to know how to act as I do.
   Know what to do in each area of the business.

I want employees to care about the company.

 

What would I want to know from the employee's perspective?

I would want to know.
How to become better professionally?
How to make more money?
What is the owner doing with all the profits?
How to get benefits?
What am I doing?
Whadon'ton't know, I want to learn it.

How do I know what to share?

It is a two-way street.
What the owner knows and wants to share.
What the employee wants to know and needs to know.
There is a fine line between what and who should know.

 

Judith, the answer comes from many years of experience. (Isn't that the rub?)
Some of the experiences were good, some not so good.
A few areas to consider sharing and how to do it.
A few areas not to consider.
Here are some suggestions.

 

What to share.

Share with the employee how the company runs.

- the systems that they need to run.
- the templates that they need to work with.
- the way the company does its work for the client.

How I would help share this is by creating an operational manual.
(Click for the System Playbook)
I put all the tasks I do to run the company into simple steps.
As an owner, I know how everything runs.
But most times, how I run the tasks are in my head.
The employees sadon'ton't have mind-reading powers.
Plus, I was a micro-manager to the employees.
The employees, sadly, will learn not to think on their own.

What to share.

Please share with the employee who the clients are and how to service them.

How I would share who the clients are is with a client profile.
Everything about the client, what services, the client's contracts information
All the information is in the client profile.
Out of my head onto a profile.
If the employee needs to know something about a client, they can read it.

What to share.

Please share with the employee what they are responsible for and how to do it.

- what they are responsible for in the company.
- whom they work with within my department and the other departments.
- what they do and how I work with them.

How I would share this is by creating Positions Agreements.
It can help the employee knows who does what.
The position knows who is responsible for what.
The positions clearly state the tasks and the results of each person.
The employee knows what they do/do not do.

What to share.

Share with the employee where the company is going and why.

- where I fit in
- what opportunities I may have in the future.
- how to act in the company and to clients

The how to share it with them is with a Strategic Objective.
The company's who, what, when, where, and why.

I would also share an Organizational Chart and the positions in the Chart. The organizational charts are charts that are created from this Strategic plan.
The positions are clearly stated in the Org Charts.
Now, I am sharing with them what opportunities are available.

The Value Statement that the way I act and believe in
It would guide them with the culture and the way to act/not act.

 

What not to share?

My mind immediately went to one area not to share: criticizing my employees.

I do not want to share things another team member did incorrectly with employees.

I learned that if I wanted to teach and mentor the values, criticizing them in front of the company was something that I did not want to happen,

Our culture was one of learning.
The better the teacher, the better the student's chances to learn better.
I want them to be safe from the wrath and emotions of an owner and an issue.
I want the employee to come to me.
If I criticize them or criticize them in front of people, they will not be safe.

Another cultural value was to be a team and use systems.
I may use the issue and create an educational class.
So, I wanted the student(employee) to come to explain everything that happened.
I could use this to help others without making the employee feel that this was an issue and reflects them.

What not to share?

Wages of each person in the company.

The wages would be spelled out on an Organizational Chart in the positions range.
Each position would have a range from low to high.
A range would help an employee to know so that when they strive and are hired for that position.
They know what they can make financially but not what a particular employee makes.

 

What not to share?

Some of the Profit and Loss Statements and especially the Balance Sheets.

Some areas of the business make more trouble than it is worth.
I have had a horrible experience with this.
My consultant told my partner and me to show them everything. I didn't want to, but what do we know about big business?

(If only I knew what I know today. LOL)

They saw the Gross Sales, OMG, they would say.
They needed to understand that Sales minus expenses are the profit you make. Not Gross Sales was the profit you make. 
They only saw and thought about how much the company (the owners) made without thinking about what it meant.
Even the most educated employees could not understand this concept.

The employees felt that the owners were making all this money, and they were not. How can the owners do this to us? They felt used.

Then they would look at the salary distributions and, again, at all the money the owners made!

This nightmare didn't go away soon enough. WTF with this advice? 

 

What not to share?

With contracts and proposals, what production sees and what accounting sees.

Production/Service needs hours, descriptions, materials, etc.
Accounting needs dollars, a description of the services, etc.
Sales departments need to know both.
Give them what they need, not information they do not need.

I do not believe, for example, the employees in the production or service departments need to know the dollars charged to the client.
They do need to know all the information to do the job.

The accounting department may not need the hours, materials, and equipment, but they need to know dollars and cents when the services are done.

Love to know if this helped or if you have more questions. Please email me