Many small businesses are struggling through the current uncertain, tough economy. Perhaps you’ve had to lay off employees, cut perks and reduce spending, making your remaining staff’s jobs more difficult.

Times like these force everyone to step up; you may be seeing a welcome side effect of the downturn in more focused and dedicated employees. Take advantage of this situation and hone your leadership skills. With tough decisions to face and stress to handle, it may seem impossible to be a great leader; but now is not the time to become self-absorbed and forget that your employees still need your guidance.

A recent article in Family Business Magazine offers these tips:

1. Meet with your staff often.  Clear, frequent communication is vitally important.  People are smart; they know what’s going on in the world around them; they know what your customers are up to. Be honest about the economic slowdown and stay ahead of the gossip curve before things spiral out of control.

Great leaders learn from staff and customers every day.

2. Acknowledge your shared fears.  Recognize the real fears and concerns that exist at all levels of business and society. Again, communicate with your employees. Listen to their concerns and put yourself in their place. Just allowing them to vent is often a big help.

A leader listens first, and then speaks.

3. Put things in perspective. If your company has weathered tough times before, it will do so again. Let your employees know this: they may have no idea what your company has been through—and no idea how strong it really is. 

Leaders keep an eye on the past when planning for the future.

4. Invite your employees to participate in finding solutions. Ask for their creativity, and reward them for great ideas.  Some companies pay bonuses for cost-cutting suggestions; others hold brainstorming pizza parties to work on strategic planning together.

Leaders help their employees feel like part of the solution, not part of the problem.

5. Be an optimist!  A negative attitude is viral.  Instead, spread the positive. Remind your team about previous wins.  Talk about the positive results that came from other difficult times. Focus your staff on ways they can repeat those efforts that once proved successful. 

Leaders always focus on the positive, and teach others to do the same.

Watch your actions; measure your words; remember that your staff is looking to you for guidance through a difficult time. The way you carry yourself—for better or worse—will be long remembered.  Do whatever you must to ensure that your staff’s memories of this economic downturn are as positive as possible.

When you’re hiring again, pre employment screening checks will help you attract and retain the best employees to help you through your company’s growth and prosperity.

Hiring employees is a lot like dating.  If you know yourself well, you know exactly what you’re looking for in a partner—and why those blind dates your Aunt Jane sets up are often disastrous. You know when there’s a good fit, even if you can’t quite explain why. 

It’s like that with companies, too. Every organization has an expected culture—law firms are generally very polished, while garden centers may have a more relaxed feel.  High-tech start-ups are high-energy and filled with workaholics; retirement homes are necessarily less stressful. 

Identifying your company’s culture can go a long way toward recruiting and hiring the best employees.  Take a good look around—what do you see?  Are people relaxed and smiling, or anxious and stressed out?  Is the environment neatly organized with everything in its place—or does it always need tidying up?  What do you hear? Is there a certain lingo in the conversations taking place? What type of music is playing? Or, is there no music—ever? Who’s allowed inside? Are there public and private spaces, or is the entire business open to everyone?

What about your company’s public face? Is your advertising formal or fun? How do employees communicate—in person or through memos and email? How do they address your customers? How do they address each other, and management?

All of these factors make up the invisible, but very real, culture of your company. When recruiting and hiring employees, keep the culture in mind and remember that you cannot force a good fit. Square pegs generally fit best into square holes. If your culture is formal and polished, an applicant wearing a t-shirt and jeans is not likely to work out well. And if your staff is all about fun and funky, a tightly-wound, stressed out type would not make for happy co-workers.

Think about the types of people who succeed in your organization—and those who fail. Determine their strengths and limitations, and look for these in potential applicants.  Then, think about the core values you want to promote in your company, and make sure you hire with them in mind. If customer service is the basis of your company’s culture, you should only hire applicants who demonstrate high levels of service. A wrong hiring decision can set your company back several steps. If product excellence is most important in your company’s culture, be sure your potential employees are likewise committed to delivering the highest quality product each and every day. 

Understanding your company culture can make it easier to hire and retain employees—just make sure your Aunt Jane isn’t setting up the interviews!

As an employer, your insurance agent and attorney have likely advised you to have various kinds of insurance to protect your company. You may even have insurance that pays in the event your company is sued for negligent hiring practices.

It’s important to know, however, that insurance is unlikely to cover all the financial costs of negligent hiring activities. Equally important are all the non-financial costs if you hire an employee who later commits murder, assault, rape, or armed robbery against a customer or another employee! Negligent hiring lawsuits are just one more great reason you should do thorough employee screening and background checks prior to hiring.