Doing more with less to grow your business

It is important to recognise that mid sized business don’t have the resources that large companies have. Suzanne Mercier explains how through employee engagement your business can thrive. 

Look through any news article on business and the overwhelming likelihood is that it will be about entrepreneurs, small business or the big end of town.

Entrepreneurs and small business live in the existence and survival spaces of business development and around 80 per cent of them do not survive the first few years. While there are fewer of them, larger organisations carry a bigger stick. When they lay off a percentage of staff, there is an impact in our economy. When they throw their weight around, the powers that be listen.

But what about the forgotten middle? Those companies that employ 20-199 people, turn over $10 – $250 million p.a., which account for 1.4 per cent of all businesses, 34 per cent of business revenues, 23 per cent of full time and part-time employees and 19 per cent of borrowings and deposits. This sector of business contributes a collective $425 billion to the Australian economy. They certainly bat above their weight!

Because mid-sized businesses are quiet achievers, they don’t make the news much. They just get on with business. Yet, they have challenges too. The pattern of moving from survival to success and then to the big time where businesses really take off involves growth / consolidation / growth / consolidation in an ongoing cycle. And growth leads to higher overheads, many of them fixed.

You know all that.

What you may not realise is that there is an untapped form of leverage in your business that will allow you to do more with less.

I’m sure you’ve heard the term ‘employee engagement’ before now. Companies that can attract talented people, retain and engage them are more likely to create a sustainable competitive advantage.

All it takes is Purpose.  The big Why!  The contribution your business is making to the broader community. The legacy it will leave; the difference it will make beyond lining shareholders’ pockets with returns. It is the key to your employees finding meaning and fulfilment in their work which, in turn, is the key to engagement.

Purpose triggers an emotional connection with the business and invites the highest level of engagement. I say invite intentionally. We cannot command people to engage. All we can make them do is comply with their job description and do what they need to in order to keep their jobs.

Engagement is a privilege. It means that your staff are endorsing your company as a great place to work. It means they are likely to be telling others about how great it is to work there. They may even recommend friends to apply for job openings.

The gift that engaged employees give to their employer is their discretionary effort – the extra attention and energy they bring to their work. This translates to the following typical behaviours from embracing your Why as their own cause.

They may:

• help you develop more efficient systems to cut costs. They’re working with each other and with customers day-in and day out. They know the sticking points, the overlaps, the situations that create customer disengagement and they can help you fix them.
• deliver a higher level of customer service to both internal and external customers. Purpose unites disparate groups of people under one cause. When embraced, Purpose can remove the ‘them and us’ mentality that often exists in mid- to larger businesses. Staff are more likely to consider the way the business creates value for its customers and help develop more efficient & effective ways of delivering greater value.
• contribute more willingly and effectively to innovation. Innovation is the lifeblood of a business and while it certainly increases risk, the rewards are a much higher level of profitability. It’s also risky business for individuals – putting forward their ideas for ‘judgement’ by others. An engaging environment reduces that personal risk, encouraging people to both embrace and build on each other’s ideas.
• form part of and contribute to high performing teams. As you know, teams go through 4 stages of development: forming, storming, norming and performing. When they are engaged, they are more likely to be willing to be seen in the storming process – where all group members contribute who they are, what they bring, how they want to work, who leads and when, what each person will do to name a few of the issues that get ironed out in this stage. If the storming phase is short-changed because of a lack of trust (a natural outcome for disengagement), the performance of the group is severely compromised which, in turn, impacts the performance of the business where the group task is core to the business.

All these behaviours and engaged behaviours in general add to your bottom line.

Conversely, disengagement and the resulting emotional separation from their employer costs organisations $31.2 billion per annum in sick days, reduced productivity, low morale and lost opportunities.  Disengagement also drives up your costs and increases the risk your company is exposed to during its growth stage on the way to a higher level of success.

Suzanne Mercier is the founder and CEO of Purpose to Profit, a behavioural change consultancy. She draws on her background in fast moving consumer goods marketing, advertising, business consulting and human behaviour to help organisations become high performers and employers of choice. Read more about Suzanne at www.suzannemercier.com.au.  For an obligation free conversation about how your business can improve its performance, contact Suzanne on 0400 995 942 or suzanne@suzannemercier.com.au.