182 lines
8.7 KiB
Markdown
182 lines
8.7 KiB
Markdown
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title = "A kind view of business"
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publishDate = 2024-01-25T00:00:00+01:00
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lastmod = 2024-09-28T00:30:42+02:00
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tags = ["mindset", "rant"]
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categories = ["business"]
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draft = false
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meta = true
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type = "list"
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[menu]
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[menu.posts]
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weight = 3002
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identifier = "a-kind-view-of-business"
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+++
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Scrolling LinkedIn today, I saw a post talking about the entitled attitude of
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business owners when hiring{{<sidenote>}}Sorry for not linking to it, I can't morally support that platform.{{</sidenote>}}.
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<!--more-->
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The post's point was that most businesses are not providing sufficient
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compensation for the skills and effort they are asking for when hiring.
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And... I can't help but agree. But I would also like to voice a bit of my
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thoughts about the matter, because I feel like it needs a little bit more
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context and explanation.
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A business has one goal: to make money.
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To maximize the amount of money a business or enterprise can bring in, a
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business has to... stay in business.
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What follows from that is that the business has to be structured in a way that's
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resilient to adversity, but also allows for increasing its potential in several
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ways:
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1. Sales/ Marketing
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2. Production/ Services
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3. Logistics/ Infrastructure
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4. HR/ Legal
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The important part about these is, they're all departments that are run by
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**humans**.
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Hiring an employee is no different from signing a service agreement. Your
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employee agrees to perform certain actions for a certain amount of compensation.
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It is an adverse relationship, because while the owner of the business wants to
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get the most out of the employee for the given price, the employee wants to get
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the most compensation for the least amount of work.
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And this is an important point. Fundamentally, an employer is on equal grounds
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with the employee at every point - the business can lay them off, and the
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employee can quit.
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But... the employer can _actually_ put themselves at a severe disadvantage, if
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they neglect the real value skilled people can bring to their business.
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1. Institutional knowledge{{<sidenote>}}I.e. all the things about your business that only they know, such as the way your systems interact with each-other, side-effects certain actions may have, etc.{{</sidenote>}}
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2. A practical understanding of the systems and processes in place{{<sidenote>}}The ability to rapidly solve issues as they appear, while keeping the big picture in mind, so as not to break anything.{{</sidenote>}}.
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3. The mood and culture in the company that facilitates teamwork and collaboration{{<sidenote>}}Seeing people leave makes their friends sad, and that decreases their trust and emotional investment in the workplace{{</sidenote>}}.
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If the business doesn't understand just how valuable these contributions are,
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and doesn't compensate employees for their real contributions... churn starts.
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Employees start realizing that their presence isn't appreciated, and that their
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contributions will be valued more highly elsewhere.
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In my experience, it's rare that an employee quits because of a specific event
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at work. In most cases, it's the culture, attitude and mindset enforced top-down
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by the business owner/ CEO/ management.
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And fundamentally, this is an incentives problem. People work better when they
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see that their efforts are being rewarded.
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> _"Why should I work hard, performing duties and tasks that would easily warrant
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> $40+/h,<br />
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> when I'm only being paid $12/h?"_
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So then when employees are leaving, or being fired for bringing up issues{{<sidenote>}}Yes, there is a juicy story there, and the company in question isn't in my resumé because of that.{{</sidenote>}}, this not only creates an exodus (because employees
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start questioning the value and stability of their employment), but also strips
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the businses of established, knowledgable, skilled talent.
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Which means new employees must be trained and brought up to speed. This is a
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significant expense to the business, often far outweighing the cost of
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compromising with existing employees, and giving them better working conditions.
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If you're a micro-small business owner, you don't have the leverage, the power
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to compensate talent that bigger businesses have. You're not in a position to
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ask for a laundry list of skills that would put your applicants in the top 10%.
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As an applicant{{<sidenote>}}I am actively searching for a job as of this writing.{{</sidenote>}}, when I see a
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laundry list of very in-demand and valued skills for a position, such
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as...{{<sidenote>}}This is pulled from the jobs page of a company I worked for.{{</sidenote>}}
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> - Be a top-rated CRM specialist
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> - Responsible for:
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> - managing customer data
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> - automating marketing campaigns
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> - creating effective sales funnels
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> - streamlining the CRM management process
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> - ensure seamless automations
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> - optimizing funnels
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> - designing engaging landing pages
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> - automating personalized email campaigns
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>
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> [Follows a list of very undescriptive and vague "benefits", such as
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> 'opportunities for rate increases', 'rates based on project requirements',
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> 'we're here to support you' and such.]
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Give me a guess... how much do you think this company is willing to pay for this
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kind of skill-set?
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For reference, Glassdoor gives a bracket of $59k to $100k. That translates to
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about $28/h.
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The real pay for this position is about $10-11/h, not accounting for the 'other
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duties as assigned' trick that American companies try to get away with.
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So this person may end up not only managing the CRM, but also working on
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documentation, unrelated automations, project management, and a number of other
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things that are outside of their skillset.
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Of course, the position is paid hourly under the pretense of the employee (by
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IRS standards) being a contractor. And so the business doesn't offer any
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insurance, worker's comp, PTO, or anything of the sort, because it's preying on
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international hires being 'invisible' in the system, and for whom these
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conditions are better than what they can get locally.
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Many of them are amazing people. Kind, skilled, enthusiastic and very willing to
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learn, because as it turns out - life is hard when you're broke, so you do what
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you have to do.
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And the same applies to American workers, too. Ironically, they have much fewer
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protections than the rest of the world has, and so they're getting exploited and
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manipulated by their condition to settle for less than their labor is truly
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worth.
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With the rising wave of awareness about these topics (as we see on Reddit, BlueSky,
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Mastodon), businesses that want to find a point of stability from which they can
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grow have to start accounting for the human element.
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Most of us are not happy with human-on-human violence, or violence in general.
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And violence isn't limited to fists, knives or guns. It's also the lack of
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respect for each-other as members of the same species.
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The work an employee performs is what's on sale. Trying to get a better price is
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okay in my mind, but there are limits one shouldn't cross, such as compensation
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not meeting the needs of the employee.
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Google can afford to take their employees all the way
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through <span class="underline">[the stages of Maslow's hierarchy of needs.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maslow%27s_hierarchy_of_needs#Stages)</span>
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Small businesses often can't, but they should still strive to, because not doing
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so automatically undermines workplace stability, and increases costs.
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It's not rare to see one skilled, established employee be let go, only to be
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replaced by two or three new hires, who not only cost more, but don't have the
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_institutional knowledge_ necessary for them to be effective and efficient at the
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job.
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So then, what can a small business do?
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Focus on maintaining few highly skilled employees who are _happy_ and _fulfilled_
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working for you. You can hire cheap and help newbies grow, but even then,
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compensation has to follow the market, if you want to keep them long-term.
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Because if you don't, all those skills and knowledge go to your competition.
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If you're a CEO/owner, and you're looking for help to get the daily stuff out of
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the way (communication, scheduling, task management, team coordination), get a
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good assistant. They're pricy, but you really get what you pay for.{{<sidenote>}}An
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assistant with some technical skills can often handle the entire back-end of your business on their own (fulfillment and deliverables excluded), and as your business grows, they'll be the perfect person to step into the COO position.{{</sidenote>}}
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TL;DR: Be kind, and think a little bit about what each of your employees _needs_.
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Creating internal tension in your business, between management and employees is
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the perfect way to ruin long-term prospects, both for the business, and the
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people it consists of.
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Thanks for reading my venty rant.
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<span class="underline">[Join the FSF!](https://www.fsf.org/)</span>
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