Dealing with Counter Offers when Hiring Staff
March 9, 2010
By Kristy-Lee Johnston, Footprint Recruitment
So you have waded your way through the interviewing and selection process and BINGO! You have found the perfect person for your role! They have the skills and experience and above all you think they make a great with your team.
So you extend the offer, with what you feel is a fair market salary package for the position - and then they are counter offered.
A counter offer in its basic sense is when the applicant you have offered the position to is, usually upon resignation with their existing employer, offered more money or better benefits in an effort to keep them with that company.
There can be only three outcomes when an applicant is counter offered:
- They decline the counter offer and accept your offer
- They consider the counter offer and come to you to try and negotiate further
- They accept the counter offer and stay with the employer
Obviously the ideal is scenario one, and for most smart applicants this is what they would do, because ultimately research shows that the majority of candidates who accept a counter offer leave the employer within six months.
However, if you find yourself in the other two scenarios with a top class applicant, here are some tips which may help you manage the difficult process:
- Know your limits - This means knowing what the role is worth to your company and not going over this amount (unless you are convinced this person can add more value than anyone else could in the role).
- Consider the salary ranges of the other staff in the same or similar positions - Are you putting this new staff member above other great performing team members?
- Remind the applicant the reasons they were looking for a change to begin with - Having conducted a thorough interview you would have asked them their reasons for wanting to leave their existing employer, if their counter offer is purely financially based, likelihood is it won’t meet these needs, and they will still be unhappy.
- Think outside the square – You may not be able to offer the same or better money, but what else can you offer to keep them happy? Again go back to your interview notes on why they were looking to leave their current role and meet these needs. It may be flexible hours, the opportunity to work from home, a more social culture, different challenges or the opportunity to learn new skills.
- Above all don’t be pushed or rushed into decisions that you are not ready to make - You obviously don’t want to lose a great applicant, but by the same token you must make sure the decisions you make are well thought out and qualified as the right thing for the business and the role.
- Seek advice - Ask other business owners and industry contacts about the salary and benefit ranges for similar positions, make sure that you are not offering below market rates or you may never get the right person for the role.
Remember to do your research, know your limits and think outside the square, this should make the process a whole lot simpler.
Counter offers can be frustrating, disappointing and confronting, but in roles where great applicants with unique skills are in high demand they can be very common. Remember to do your research, know your limits and think outside the square, this should make the process a whole lot simpler.
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Kristy-Lee Johnston - Footprint Recruitment
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| Phone: | 02 4367 5500 |
| Email: | kristy@footprintrecruitment.com.au |
| Website: | www.footprintrecruitment.com.au |
| Twitter: | www.twitter.com/footprintcc |
| Facebook: | www.facebook.com/footprintrecruitment |
| LinkedIn: | au.linkedin.com/in/kristyleejohnston |
| Member Profile: | See Kristy’s Member Profile |
What’s Getting In The Way?
February 26, 2010
By Cat Matson, Alito
One of the questions I often ask my mentoring clients is:
“What’s getting in the way?”
By that I mean, what’s getting in the way of you making the progress you want, achieving the goals you’ve set for yourself, working on the things that are important as opposed to urgent? Generally the list tumbles out of their mouths – clients, customers, staff, kids, IT issues, emails, traffic, the government, change in policy … blah, blah, blah.
This list of barriers can often feel insurmountable – particularly when day after day feels like a never-ending list of issues and challenges instead of productive, satisfying work. So what gives?
Well, my first tip is to break the barriers down into three categories.
- Speed Bumps – these are the things that are slowing you down … they’re an annoyance but aren’t insurmountable. A speed bump I’ve experienced today has been intermittent and slow internet connectivity. Extraordinarily annoying for someone who practically lives online … but I know it’s temporary and I’ve been able to work around it.
- Bottle Necks – this is where the traffic-flow of your business is slowing down due to a constriction of flow. It often happens when a particular staff member needs to approve ‘things’ … so work piles up in their in-tray while team members ‘wait’ to move-on. In a micro-business, a bottle-neck can often be lack of effective email management systems – so highly valuable emails (like a new client enquiry) gets lost in the ‘mass’ and doesn’t get addressed until the client has lost interest.
- Road Blocks – just like at major road-works, a Road Block in your business is where you’ve hit a complete stop with a particular project or conversation. For me at the moment it’s a major client who just won’t return phone-calls or emails. I can see the writing on the wall … but I can’t get a response and therefore can’t take any action on the file.
By categorising the list of barriers in this way you are in a better position to problem-solve … and you no longer see an endless list of ‘complaints’, rather items that need attention and can be resolved. Pay attention to recurring speed-bumps and bottle-necks – they may point to systemic issues in your business management or business model which, once resolved, could make a huge difference to your business. Road Blocks hopefully are one-off events … but by articulating them as such you can often quickly figure out a resolution.
By categorising the list of barriers in this way, you are in a better position to problem-solve
So next time you feel like you’ve hit a brick wall in your productivity, ask yourself
‘What’s getting in my way?’ and
‘Are these Speed Bumps, Bottle Necks or Road Blocks?’
When you do, you’ll find yourself on the freeway again in no time.
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Cat Matson - Alito
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| Phone: | 07 3289 7055 |
| Email: | cat@alito.com.au |
| Website: | www.alito.com.au |
| Twitter: | www.twitter.com/catmatson |
| Facebook: | www.facebook.com/AlitoFusion |
| LinkedIn: | www.linkedin.com/in/CatMatson |
| Blog: | www.alito.com.au/blog |
| Member Profile: | See Cat’s Member Profile |
What You Should Look For In A Bookkeeper – It’s Not Just About Skill Set!
February 5, 2010
By Alycia Edgar, Coastal Accounting Services
Have you resolved to improve the management of your business this year? Perhaps you’ve realised that you can’t be responsible for everything? Bookkeeping is often one of the first tasks that business owners outsource. Unless you’re a bookkeeper, it’s most probably something that nags at the back of your head all the time, stopping you from focusing on what you do best. However, outsourcing your bookkeeping can be a scary idea. Handing over your finances to someone else requires trust: trust in the individual and their processes.
Ultimately a bookkeeper should be part of your team, someone who can do your bookwork but also understand your business enough so that what they do has an impact on the growth of the business as a whole. Obviously bookkeepers require certain qualifications and skills, but what are the personality traits that you should look for when hiring a bookkeeper? For me this is the most important question. Anyone can do most of the work at a basic level, after all you completed it yourself at some stage, but who can do it really well? Sure, the skill set is a must but what differentiates a basic bookkeeper from a bookkeeper that is an integral member of your team?
Ideal traits of a brilliant bookkeeper
- Perfectionism
- Attention to detail
- Tidiness
- Willingness to follow up
- Caring nature
- Ability to prioritise
These traits ensure that:
- Statements are checked
- Stray invoices are investigated
- Files are kept in an orderly manner
- Payments are chased up
- Items are allocated to the correct accounts
- Unusual items are queried
- Paper is organised regularly
- Your bookwork is treated as if it was their own
- When cashflow management is required they can manage this for you
Why is this important? It can save you both time and money. If your bookkeeper can maintain your bookwork to the standards above, not only will you save time on chasing up queries but also money on your accounting fees. If they can manage your bookwork efficiently and methodically, your accountant will have a clearer picture of your business when completing your tax. And you’re not paying your accountant high hourly rates to do bookwork that your bookkeeper can manage.
So when choosing your bookkeeper, rather than just relying on skill set, determine whether you would prefer to have a team member that is an integral part of your business. Make sure to find out if they have the above personality traits. You could even talk to existing and past clients of theirs and get a feel for whether they would be the right fit for you. Once you’ve found a great bookkeeper, you’ll never look back!
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Alycia Edgar - Coastal Accounting Services
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| Phone: | 0403 983 529 |
| Email: | alycia@coastalaccounting.com.au |
| Twitter: | www.twitter.com/alyciaedgar |
| Blog: | www.numbersarelife.com |
| Member Profile: | See Alycia’s Member Profile |
It’s Your Money, Collect it!
February 1, 2010
by Julie Wise, The SilverOwl
Recently, I had a client tell me
‘your invoices are well laid out – especially your payment terms. Can you improve mine?’
Getting paid. Isn’t that the ultimate goal from each and every sale? It had better be, or you are in the wrong business!
Although there are no absolute guarantee, there are things you can do to reduce the incidence of non-paying clients. Don’t ignore creating and enforcing a sound payment policy.
In itself, a strong payment policy will not loose you good business. Good customers aren’t frightened off as they understand that as long as they pay on time the terms do not apply. So, don’t fall into the trap of believing that you need to offer relaxed payment options otherwise your customer will go elsewhere. The only thing you risk losing are clients that are not paying.
Some of your options may be limited because of your service or product but no business is prohibited from collecting their money in a reasonable time frame. The following list will help you formulate your company’s sound payment policy:
- Do you clearly explain payment terms to your customers before you start to work for them?
- Does your business lend itself to offering a discount for upfront payment vs. invoice in arrears billing?
- Does your business also lend itself to offering bonuses or discounts for purchase of prepaid credits?
- Do your customers sign a contract for your services?
- Does your contract clearly state payment terms, - including interest rate, late penalties and collection fees?
- Does your invoice clearly re-state these payment terms?
It's Your Money, Collect It! | Julie Wise
Do you order a credit report on new customers - especially those with large orders? You should! This is not difficult to do, can be done quickly and has saved many businesses. The reasons why are a blog topic by themselves. So we’ll do that another day.
The cost of using a solicitor, who writes plain english terms and conditions, to review your contracts and invoices will be recovered the first time you are faced with forcing a customer to pay.
Another big problem is that most businesses wait too long before attempting to collect their money. Two main reasons for this. Firstly, this is because most don’t have payment reports being produced daily. As a business owner its your obligation to know who has and who has not paid -bso ask your bookkeeper to setup a daily payment report of payments due that day and all overdue payments. It is not unreasonable to call your customer immediately they miss a promised payment. Or to even ring repeat offenders the morning a payment is due to remind them.
The second reason why we wait too long is because invariably the SME owner gets involved in the effort to collect funds from delinquent accounts. It is a role that most people find uncomfortable and unless you are trained in collections its unlikely that you are any good at it.
Unfortunately, waiting just makes it harder to collect. So once you have determined that you cannot collect your money, engage a professional debt collection agency to handle the debt and move on with running your business. Spend your time wisely!
Even if you have to pay 25% of the money to the collection agency, you are better off than holding onto the debt. An easy way to calculate whether the cost of a professional debt collector will be worthwhile is to use the following example and formula:
Example: - Your customer owes you $2000
- You hold on to a delinquent account hoping your customer will pay:
- You collect nothing,
- You pay nothing,
- 100% of nothing = $0.00
- You turn the debt over to a collection agency after making several calls and sending letters :
- The agency collects $2000.00,
- You pay 25%,
- 75% of $1000 = $1500.00
Obviously, you are better off with $1500 rather than nothing and financial worries.
Assuming that you have provided your services or product as agreed, your customer should have no qualms in paying you promptly under the terms of the sale. So clearly stated terms and careful credit analysis will be large factors in your ability to keep your business on a sound financial footing.
Don’t be afraid to collect when payments are due - it’s your money!
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Julie Wise - The SilverOwl
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Your bank balance is NO clue to how your business is doing
November 25, 2009
When you’re growing a business, the state of your bank balance is really not sufficient evidence of how your business is doing. This strategy may work when you’re starting out but as you grow you need more sophisticated measures of your finances.
Unfortunately most businesses fail to improve their systems as they grow and so are not in a position to have a clear picture of their profitability and progress. (I’m no longer surprised by how many businesses do not know what it costs to ‘open the doors’ or whether they are turning a profit.)
Many of us start businesses with little financial education and training. Those that do well in the long run DO have a sense of what it takes to make a business successful financially.
Your business can be different. You can be empowered to be well informed, with some straight-forward methods for managing your finances. Personally, figures are still not my strength. But I have studied and put in place systems (and people) to ensure that I am on top of things.
On today’s Business Growth webinar we’ll look at just how it is that you can know exactly how your business is performing financially.
Expert presenter and trusted advisor, Bruce Whiting, is one of today’s presenters on the Effective Growth Management strategies webinar during which we’ll look at how to:
- Ensure your ‘accounting room’ is operating correctly
- Know you’re getting the right financial results - measuring the right indicators
- Get accurate monthly reporting
- Develop links with financiers
And if you’re ready for the accountability that a board can give any business, you’ll also get tips on how to work towards getting your own board in place.
WEBINAR DETAILS
Date: Wednesday, 25 November 2009
Time: 10.15am for 10.30am - 12.00noon AEDST
Venue: Webinar
Price: Growth Members — No Charge, StartUp Members — $39, Non-Members — $59
I hope you’ll join me at 10.30am today.
Sincerely,
Suzi Dafnis — Community Director
P.S. The second part of the presentation deals with how to manage your human resources as you grow. If you’re growing… you’re going to have to strategies your team (whether they be salaried, contractors, virtual or inhouse). We’ll look at how to make the best decisions to suit your business vision.
P.P.S. Members - remember to login to get your discounted rates.
A little planning goes a long way. What’s your simple Business Strategy?
August 12, 2009
Like many small businesses I started my first business ‘on a wing and a prayer’, i.e. with no real strategy. In fact, I don’t think I did a business plan until I was a few years into business. That probably explains why the first couple of businesses were less like doing business and more like, um, chaos.
Today I tend to plan - a lot. I’ve learned that if I work on the big picture - the vision and strategy, before I embark on the tactics, I get better results.
Not surprisingly, things tend to come together far more easily when I have the strategy in place.
A little planning goes a long way. What's your simple Business Strategy?
Whether you’re just starting out in business, or are an experienced businesswoman, a good strategy is essential to your business success.
In an article titled: The ABCs of Business Performance (published in June 2009) Susan Wareham McGrath outlined the keys to figuring out where you want to go and getting there…
She had us ask:
Where are you now?
Where do you want to be?
How are you going to get there?
Simple, no? But most of us take the ‘Aim, ready, shoot’ approach to business.
Time to step back and put some strategy in place.
On 19 August Susan Wareham McGrath will take us through the essential steps to plan, build and measure the success of your business strategy at the Get Strategic webinar, sponsored by GoToMeeting Corporate.
I hope you’ll join us.
Suzi
What makes your business perform at its best?
May 25, 2009
Many of us have been lucky enough (or have had enough experience) to know that the implementation of a process of system that makes some part of our business turn-key, saves time, money and resources.
Sometimes it’s the ‘boring bits’ that make a big difference to our business performance - the things that we know that, if we do them, improve our business performance.
For instance, while planning marketing may come easily to me - doing budgets is no thrill BUT it gives me a solid plan against which to measure my business performance. So, I do them.
I’m currently compiling the next issue of our newsletter [which is about the Boring Bits that Make a Difference] and would like to include YOUR answers to the question: .
What business processes/systems you have introduced to improve the performance of your business?
Tell us here.
Stimulate your business with Kevin Rudd’s help
April 24, 2009
Do you have your Australian Federal Government Stimulus payment yet? If not, I’m sure it will be in your hot little hands really soon.
Now… before you spend it I’d like you to have a think about this…
You’ve got a nice some of cash that you don’t need to pay tax on. How do you get the most out of it?
Idea —> Use it to STIMULATE your BUSINESS.
Yes, you could use it to buy a new pair of shoes or to pay off your credit card, and I thought of doing the very same thing!
But then I spoke to my business advisor and, ‘Duh’. There is an opportunity that I’d totally neglected.
You can give your Stimulus check to your business.
And, here’s why it makes good sense (and why I adore my business advisor!)…
- When you then spend the payment on legitimate business expenses (such as those we’ve suggested below) you can claim these expenses as tax deductions
- Your improved skills and knowledge will help you make a better return on investment, potentially multiplying the value of what you have received
Here are some useful ways to use your Stimulus cheque to grow your business:
- Register for a training program that will improve your business skills
- Get a mentor and get sound advice from an experienced business owner
- Access resources that make business easier and more rewarding
- Join a business network
I’ve decided to use my payment to pay for a Podcasting seminar — because that’s an area of education that will help me in my business.
At the Australian Businesswomen’s Network we are big supporters of education as a vehicle to creating strong, sustainable businesses.
And, I have no problem suggesting that perhaps a good investment for YOUR stimulus is the ABN’s MentorNet Mentoring program.
I’ve seen more than 200 people go through this program and get a HUGE return on their investment of time and money.
MentorNet is a six-month small business training program that teams you up with a Mentor while you:
- Develop a business plan
- Discover your Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats
- Create a customer profile so that you can target your messages
- Design a marketing plan using innovative marketing vehicles
- Explore finances and budgets so that you know where you stand financially
- Learn how to induct and motivate staff to produce results
- Implement new media and technology to help grow your business
- Collaborate with other business owners and find new business opportunities
- Put in place ways to measure your business performance
Regardless if this program is right for you or not, I invite you to consider spending in a way that will grow your business and help create the future you’re looking for.
Suzi
How will you grow your business in 2009?
January 16, 2009
Seems like growth is high on the agenda right now of most businesswomen I speak to. But how will you do it? For me, growth came as a result of three things:
- Education - a commitment to daily study of the subjects that would make the most difference. For me that was primarily marketing, much learned from books and seminars. I’m still a learning junkie - knowledge is one of my main values and I truly believe that knowledge opens up unlimited doors. That’s why the educational programs that I help provide through the Australian Businesswomen’s Network are a big part of what we offer members.
- Networking - expanding my reach of people that I could exchange ideas and products and services with. Although I can be quite shy when meeting new people I had to learn to ignore silly networking tips and find ways to build solid relationships. Networking does not come naturally to everyone so I like to take a structured approach with people new in the network and guide them to network without even needing to leave home if that is what suits them best. (If you haven’t taken a look at it, here’s our latest Networking newsletter.)
- Mentors - who could guide me and share their experience with me.
So, what about you? How will you grow?
What if you had a one-stop-shop that (for just $1 a day) would help you to:
- expand your network of valuable contacts - network without the hype and falseness you find at most events
- improve your business skills and access business experts who have answers to your questions
- surround yourself with inspiring, forward-moving people who want to help you achieve your goals
- promote your business and raise your profile
- feel more confident in yourself and raise your self-esteem?
What’s the deal?
The Australian Businesswomen’s Network (ABN) has helped thousands of women over the last 20 years and now it can help you take control of your business and its success. Until 31 January you can join for just $1 (save $94).
Then it’s less than $1 day for membership.
