March 29, 2024

You’re the Boss Blog: Getting the Message Across to Your Employees

She Owns It

Portraits of women entrepreneurs.

Alexandra MayzlerSara Krulwich/The New York TimesAlexandra Mayzler

How do you get your employees to think like you? During a recent meeting of our business group, Alexandra Mayzler raised that question as she weighs expanding her business, Thinking Caps Tutoring, into new markets. Thinking Caps currently has locations in New York City and Austin, Tex. Ms. Mayzler is considering opening a Houston outpost,but said she wants to be sure systems are in place before taking the plunge.

Over the summer, Ms. Mayzler worked with her staff to create a manual that provides a blueprint for opening and running a Thinking Caps location. The detailed manual offers guidance on everything from the proper way to save a document, to the script to use when first meeting with a student’s family. But, said Ms. Mayzler, “It’s really boring, and I think no one will want to read it.” She hopes to find a more dynamic and engaging way to present the information, and she would also like to improve the way the company trains its tutors, which she fears is too boring.

“We’ve written four operations manuals for the company at this point,” said group member Carissa Reiniger, who founded Silver Lining Limited in 2005. At first, all of the information was included in one document. But it was too much, said Ms. Reiniger. She has since broken it into components. For example, she said, Silver Lining’s manuals include a brand book and a “sales bible.”

“Did you sit down and write it one fine day?” asked Ms. Mayzler.

“I hired someone to sit me down and ask me questions,” said Ms. Reiniger. When she did the writing herself, she said, she found she spoke in a way that made sense to her but not necessarily to the intended audiences. Getting someone to translate her thoughts into a form that others could more readily absorb worked well, she said.

Still, Ms. Mayzler wondered about the boredom. She asked how Silver Lining, which offers an online tool that helps small businesses set and reach financial goals, presents the information. Ms. Reiniger uses Google Sites, an application that lets her create separate Web sites for the different categories of people in the company, including the staff and the certified experts who teach her Silver Lining Action Plan. The sites provide access to materials relevant to each group.

Like Ms. Mayzler, Jessica Johnson, another business group member, has spent the last few months working to standardize processes at her growing company, Johnson Security Bureau. Toward that end, she used a grant from the Economic Development Administration to hire a human resources consulting firm. Working with the consultants, Johnson Security created an intranet site to store material for the company’s guards, including their schedules and information on company policies.

The site is also easy to update. One day, after spotting an earring on a uniformed guard, a client called Ms. Johnson to ask if that was allowed. “No,” she said. Although the policy was stated in the company’s written manual, it was then added to the Web site — “for people who don’t like paper,” said Ms. Johnson.

Susan Parker, a group member who owns BariJay, a dress manufacturer, asked how the employees were notified of such additions. The site generates and sends e-mails, said Ms. Johnson.

Ms. Reiniger pointed out that, while it’s her responsibility to notify the staff of new policies, it is their responsibility to be aware of them. New employees sign a document to that effect. She added that her perspective on presenting company policies has changed. “I built this amazing manual, and no one ever read it,” she said. She now sees Silver Lining’s written polices more as risk management tools and less as “something I’m going to force everyone to read.”

“That’s exactly where I am,” Ms. Mayzler said. “Except we’re working with 13-year-olds, and their parents only care about the end result.” If a tutor doesn’t read her policies, it becomes Ms. Mayzler’s problem.

“I agree with that,” said Ms. Reiniger. “It’s all of our problems if our products don’t work.”

Ms. Mayzler agreed. She has a manual and her tutors seem to be reading it, she said, but based on some of their questions, she senses the material is not having an impact. “For all their good intentions, something’s not clicking in the way we’re communicating,” she said. “We’re teachers, so we should be able to figure this out.” Now, instead of thinking about how to teach math to a 13-year-old, Ms. Mayzler said she will continue to think about how to teach a 25-year-old.

You can follow Adriana Gardella on Twitter.

Article source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=721f740e289bb1315a696375981f4459