When looking to contract with an outside company, it’s important to do your homework. You shouldn’t just evaluate the product or service they are offering, but also evaluate the company itself. Just like you try to run a good business that attracts great employees and retains them, your vendors and service providers should be doing the same. Essentially, the quality and continuity of service you receive is directly related to their employees, and their turnover is very likely to affect you.

I can recall working with a software vendor and having three different project managers in less than a 12-month period. Very frustrating. I had to re-explain my company, and our scenario, over and over. So, what are some additional things to consider when choosing to contract with an outside company? 

• Turnover: Check on LinkedIn for current and former employees. What sort of tenure do they have?
• Testimonials: Do they have any publicly posted feedback? Are they willing to refer you to current clients?
• Recruiting – are they attractive? Go online and check out how it would look if you were a prospective job seeker. Would you want to work there?
• Community Buzz: Has the company won awards? Do they participate in the local community? What sort of hits do you get when you google them?

There are certainly big companies that are very well run and could meet your needs, so this is in no way a dismissal of them, but I am a big proponent of supporting small businesses when choosing vendors and service providers. Not only are you supporting the business community to which you belong (if you are a small business), but you may not need all of the features and add-ons that come along with big company products and services. If you do your homework and choose the right small company, you are likely to have a mutually beneficial relationship, and a lot more flexibility in getting the attention and customization that you want.

I joined my former company when they were in startup mode. Having worked for several of the federal contracting mega-giants in my prior jobs, I was genuinely excited to be on the ground floor of what I believed was a great opportunity. I was working for people that I admired and respected, and we had a shared enthusiasm that made it exciting to go to work every day.

When I began recruiting people to join our company, a standard question that I asked every candidate was “What attracted you to our company?” Almost without fail, each person answered that it was the ability to be a part of something where their voice mattered, and where they weren’t just a number.

As our company grew, we worked hard to make sure that our employees’ voices were heard and we enjoyed growth and profitability while maintaining a fun, employee-centric culture. As in any growing company, though, there were times when tough issues forced us to make unpopular decisions, and we learned what you probably already know – the larger a company becomes, the less likely it is that the decisions you make will please everyone.

So, what is most important when making decisions that may seem to favor the needs of the business over the wants of your employees? Transparency, and honesty. Simple, but I believe it really is true. Decisions need to be thoughtful, they need to be communicated properly, and company leaders need to be able to explain the “why.”    

What people really want is to be treated fairly. They want to believe that you are telling them the truth, and that you have thought through each decision carefully. The way company leaders handle difficult decisions and explain them to their employees can make a huge difference between acceptance and discontentment, which could lead to attrition. Unpopular decisions can be tough to communicate, but being transparent and honest is your best bet. Your employees may not like it, but they will respect you for it.    

The traditional process of managing employee performance does not always deliver on its intentions. The purpose is to motivate and reward employees, but motivation is intrinsic. External factors either foster or squelch motivation. So many managers are squelchers without even realizing it, and many times, it is not entirely their fault. Companies often impose rules so intensive and processes so complicated they can make an educated person feel completely inadequate, and they fail to capitalize on doing the small but valuable things that could motivate employees.

You would probably agree that performance management is often viewed as the “necessary evil” in your organization. It is the non-subjective way of figuring out who ends up at the top of the heap for increases and bonuses at the end of the year. It can be an arduous and dreaded process that yields the same end result that you might have achieved if you simply lined up your people and subjectively decided who should get what, and when not carried out correctly, it can be a lose-lose for the manager and the employee. I'm not suggesting that you go wild and dump your review process. It has merit, and documenting performance is important for legal reasons, particularly in the event that you ever need historical data to deal with an employee issue. I’m simply suggesting that companies should empower managers to get to know their employees beyond the formality of a process if they really want to motivate them. 

So, what if performance management began on day #1 with a focus that was less about a person’s skills, knowledge and abilities, and more about what motivates them? You spend 40 hours a week with your co-workers - often more time than you spend with your own family - yet how many managers know much at all about what motivates their employees and what would make them feel excited about coming to work each day? The way in which you are attempting to motivate your employees might be squelching their motivation instead. 

Finding out some very small but important things about the people in your organization should be the first step in the manager-employee relationship building process. This doesn’t need to be complicated. A simple survey can be incorporated into the new hire process to gather the data, and the results can be shared with the hiring manager. Here is a sampling of just a few questions that every manager should be able to answer about their employees.

• How do they like to be rewarded? Is it a simple thank you? Public recognition? Money? An employee who does not enjoy public attention is not likely to feel motivated after being called out in front of your entire company, even when it is in recognition for a job well done.
  
• What are their favorite places (coffee shops, restaurants, online shopping sites)? This may seem trivial, but if you give a non-coffee drinker a gift card to Starbucks as a gift or a reward, you probably won’t be labeled the most thoughtful manager around, even if you didn’t know better.
  
• What is something that they would never buy for themselves? Imagine being able to reward your employee by surprising them with that very thing, perhaps for an "above and beyond" achievement or a significant milestone in their career.
  
• What is most important to them at work? Is it money? Flexibility? Opportunity? You might be surprised to learn that some employees would gladly forego a bonus or a pay increase in exchange for increased flexibility in their work schedule to accommodate family needs or other commitments.

Organizations need to be intentional about creating cultures for grown-ups. Your employees are adults, and they will appreciate being treated that way. If you provide your managers with the insight, budget and flexibility to reward employees in meaningful ways that will motivate them, you will in turn create engagement and boost retention.