^{This article is part of a series of interactive programs for firm management under the title "4 the Firm" copyright 2005 by Catalyst Group, Inc.}

Catalyst receives and honors many requests from professionals to do consulting with respect to structure, planning and organization. Over the past two years, we have been surprised, and again not so surprised, to find out the following:

The most common complaint we receive from professional owners is about employees. 
The most common solution request we are asked for from professional owners Is how to manage employees.

In responding to these complaints and the requests for a solution, we have found that the following are usually lacking in an organization:

• There is a lack of policies and procedures on employee behavior and expectations.
• The professional is afraid to intervene for fear they will "lose someone".
• The professional is so dependent upon an employee, he or she is being held hostage.
• The firm has employee negativity from both the lawyer and the employee.
• There is lack of sustained structure within the firm.
• There has been lack of training of the employee.
• The employee does not know the professional's expectations.
• The employee has not been given the tools to accomplish the job.
• The employee has no way to give feedback.
• The employee has no accountability.

In assessing professional practices, we have come up with ten categories, each costing 10 points, to determine if the practice has a serious problem with its employees. These categories are as follows:

1. Work is seldom praised or recognized and work performance is criticized
2. Job security is lacking
3. Conflicts exist between departments, teams or groups 
4. Poor supervision
   
5. There is no opportunity for growth or advancement 
6. Partners/Owners (management) are not trusted
7. Fear of change is high
8. Employees work in isolation from each other ("me" versus "us")
9. Ample resources are lacking
10. Working conditions are poor

Thus if you start with 100 points and lose 10 points per category, a good firm should end up with a 10% or less.

Negativity in the workplace affects the bottom line dollar!
Negativity in the workplace causes stress on everyone!
Negativity in the workplace harms your clients!

The U. S. Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that U. S. Companies lose about $3 billion dollars per year due to workplace negativity.

Negativity in the workplace within professional practice has serious consequences. As a result of workplace negativity the following occurs:

• Increased client complaints
• Decrease in work quality
• Increased employee turnover
• Increased absences and lateness
• Increased personality conflicts
• Loss of morale and motivation 
• Loss of loyalty to the firm 
• Loss of creativity and innovation 
• Increase in complaints to the licensing board for your professional.
• Risk that important matters are lost because of lack of trust; i.e.: statutes, etc.

CHANGING NEGATIVITY IN THE WORKPLACE IS 
ONE OF THE HARDEST THINGS FOR A PRACTICE TO DO 
AND IF YOU SUCCEED ONE OF THE MOST 
REWARDING THINGS THAT WILL HAPPEN TO YOUR FIRM

Managing employees is easy - 
Getting professionals to manage employees is hard!

Employees, from the minute they step into your practice, are looking you to give them leadership.

Leadership is not "telling people what to do". Leadership is providing the right tools to allow employees to grow and prosper within a practice so that the practice as a whole is better.

There are four things employees need:

1. They need to know your expectations
2. They need to be given the tools to meet those expectations 
3. They need a way to give feedback
4. They need to have accountability.

This is the cornerstone of employee management! 
EXPECTATIONS 
TOOLS 
FEEDBACK 
ACCOUNTABILITY

EXPECTATIONS

No employee can be an effective employee unless they know what your expectations are. Unless you are up front from the interviewing process through the hiring process and then into the training about what your expectations are, no employee can be a success for you and for your practice. Every employee has the right to know three things:

• What is the work culture within your practice
• What is the job that is expected to be done
• What is the beliefs or values of the professional owner

Work Culture is the working conditions under which you will expect your employees to conduct themselves. If you expect employees to treat each other respectfully, be client friendly (and you must define this), and such other things that create a culture or working environment you must spell it out. Simply put, don't assume employees think like you do.

Job Descriptions are critical to a new employee. There is no gray area when it comes to what you want them to do and what the position offers. A good job description should contain the following:

• A title for the job description; i.e.: Secretary, Legal Assistant, Nursing Assistant, whatever are the positions within your practice.
• A description of the qualifications for the job (allows everyone to see what others do within the firm)
• A description of what the employee is responsible for
• An authority level (what this person is allowed to do without higher authority)
• What the professional expects from the employee; i.e.: Accountability
• Who is the employee supervised by or accountable to

Beliefs and values by which the professional owner conducts his personal and professional life is the third part of expectations. Far too many professionals set out a work culture and job description requires but it does not meet the true value and belief system of the practioner. For example, if you say "all our clients will be treated with respect and courtesy" and then the professional owner does not do this, the staff will not do it. It is the philosophy Practice What you Preach!"

If you believe that arriving on time is a character trait than you say so. If you believe that you will not tolerate unkindness or negative be up front about it. Never, ever leave a gray area when it comes to what you believe and will accept as your character traits and by rights those of the people you hire. If you do hire someone who is in conflict with your beliefs they will never last and frankly they will destroy your organization.

Expectations should be outlined in a practice policy manual with specific job descriptions for each person hired. This is the basis for the management of your practice.

We caution you. Once implemented you must do it and back the policies of the practice. Without strong accountability (see below) as well as a professional owner practicing what he or she preaches it simply does not work.

TOOLS

If an employee, regardless of job description, is not furnished the means within which to accomplish the goal, the employee will fail! Simply put, you can't ask someone to do something and then not give them what they need to handle the job. Tools can easily be visualized as:

• Proper work area including desk, chair, work space, proper lighting, free from distractions
• Working equipment; i.e.: computers, telephones, copier, etc. 
• Procedures defined as to their area; i.e.: How do you do a process?
• Training and education
• Access to supplies necessary to support the work
• Financial resources to accomplish certain tasks (budgeted items)
• Up-to-date technology (don't give your staff the slowest machine and expect them to perform the most work)

FEEDBACK

Feedback is a two way street. You, as the owner, must provide feedback to the employee that lets them know if they are accomplishing their job, both positive and negative. You can't complain about an employee's performance unless you have told them what is wrong. You can't expect an employee to be a high producer for you if you don't tell them they are doing a good job.

Employees want to know when they are not meeting your expectations. Many, many times employees tell us that they have been astonished to find out that the way they were handling a certain function was not what the owner wanted and didn't know until he exploded about another matter and mentioned it in the same context.

BE UPFRONT!

Why beat around the bush? Never, ever do you tell someone to change his or her behavior when you are angry. Simple things:

• Write down on a piece of paper what the problem is
• Write down why this is a problem?
• Write down your solution
• Ask the employee when is a good time to meet (don't blindside them)
• Tell the employee what the problem is?
• Ask them what the solution is?
• Tell them what your solution is? 
• Make sure they understand what is expected of them in the future 
• Ask the employee if there is anything that don't understand or can't live with? 
• Let the employee know what is going to happen if it doesn't change. 
  Now everyone knows where everyone stands! 
  And if the problem persists then follow through with what was going to happen if the problem did not resolve.

Annual evaluations are one of the smartest forms of feedback anyone can provide an employee. NEVER, EVER TIE IT TO A RAISE. It is the time you will sit down with the employee, review the progress from the previous year, set new goals for the forthcoming year, and review expectations. Our experience has been that employees value these yearly meetings. We always give a blank copy of the evaluation form to the employee and ask them to rate themselves. Then a very interactive meeting is held where everyone talks about everything.

Keep an open door policy for suggestions and solutions. Feedback is a two way street. By keeping a free and open atmosphere for discussion many changes for growth, which leads to successful employee, interaction occurs.

Do not allow a situation to deteriorate. If there is a problem it should be handled no later than 24 hours from the date you got knowledge of it. Most of the time it should be immediate. When you ignore a problem it gets worse. The employee would rather resolve any issues and you need to do it for your own piece of mind.

ACCOUNTABILITY

Professionals are afraid to make employees accountable more than any other segment of owners of businesses. Yet without accountability there is no truly successful employee management. If there is any truth in anything we have learned is that employees know if you will follow through with all of the above.

The truth of the matter is:

• Employees want boundaries 
• Employees want rules
• Employees want to know what happens if they overstep boundaries

This is because if an employee knows where he or she stands it removes: 

• Fear of loss of job (after all they control it because they stay within the boundaries)
• Fear of displeasing someone (they stay within boundaries everyone is happy)
• Fairness (everyone has the rules and follows them)
• Accountability requires that the lawyers are accountable q For making employees accountable.
• Don't set a bottom line rule you can't follow q Pick and choose your battles wisely
• It is possible to win the battle and lose the war
• Be fair to everyone - don't get the totem pole effect 
  (The Totem Pole being when employees perceive that other employees are higher up on the totem pole and get special treatment)

There are two forms of accountability situations. The first is one that must be resolved immediately. It will be a situation that needs correction or counseling. An example would be someone who comes in consistently late. You hit it head on, you make an entry into the employee's file, and you continue to monitor to see if there is an improvement in performance. If not, there is a written warning and then the employee is terminated if the behavior is not corrected.

The second form of accountability is one where it is cumulative. In other words, the employee over-all is not performing to your expectations. Annual evaluations we believe provides accountability report over-all. It gives good feedback (see above) and it also lets the employee know if there are any general problems and if his or her performance must improve.

Generally speaking we recommend the following graduated accountability for employees:

• New employees are evaluated every 30 days to make sure they understand and are performing at the level required for the job and the practice.
• Every six months for the first two years
• Every year thereafter

You absolutely must believe that it is better to have someone great for six months than someone mediocre for ten years. You learn to weed out those that are not performing at the top of the group. Don't put off the inevitable. You suffer, your practice suffers, other employees suffer, and most importantly your clients suffer.

We know one professional who grades his employees A, B, or C. His company policy is that C employees need to know they are not growing with the organization and would be better served somewhere else, B employees are encouraged to be A employees, and A employees are the leaders of the practice.

Jack Welch, CEO of General Electric simply got rid of 10% of his employees each year. A little harsh but he believed the bottom 10% jeopardized the growth of the firm.

We believe in setting goals for all employees. We believe you monitor their progress and the change you requested. If they do not perform than they are put back into training, counseled and if they still can't meet the goals then they are discharged.

CONCLUSION

We can't stress enough - Expectations, Tools, Feedback, Accountability!!!

Don't understand your employees. They know what works. Once you implement these four simple rules they will implement their own to fall within these four rules. Insist your management team follow this and you will have fewer problems with happier employees. We will also tell you that we don't care if you have one employee or one hundred employees. These four simple rules work.

Many, many books have been written about employee management for all sorts of companies, for all sorts of people, and yet there is an underlying theme to all - what works best is what makes the company or firm successful. Employees who know where they stand make the best employees.

Employers as a general rule want happy employees but have failed to realize that their job is not to make people happy but rather to create and foster an environment that allows the firm to be successful.

Consistency coupled with fairness wins every time.

It takes hard work to manage employees whether it is two employees or twenty employees. It is easier to start when you are small.

Most professionals in general enjoy close relationships with their staff and it is hard to separate the boundary line between being personally close to an employee and yet holding at arms length the demands for good work performance.

This translates into a good practice that is profitable and generates money for you. Good employees breed good employees. One bad apple will spoil the batch.

Everyone wants to know the bottom line. We can tell you our combined experience of management of employees in all different settings have demonstrated that when implementing the four rules you will have employees with a positive attitude, a sense of humor, a strong work ethic, and extreme loyalty to you, as the employer.

We can only tell you that if you ever work where your employees have a positive attitude, a sense of humor, a hard work ethic, and a sense of fairness you will have truly achieved a practice that will grow on its own.