Entrepreneurs who build a business and bring in a team often fear that they’ll spend more time babysitting than actually enjoying their freedom and doing higher level tasks.
Even with proper systems, if you don’t review your team’s work you’re asking for trouble. With regular review you’ll be able to ensure quality stays high and that the work delivered is still relevant, useful and timely. I can’t describe how wasteful it feels to be paying someone to complete a task which is useless to your business.
And even the best employees need you to review their work, give encouragement, make tweaks and have a chance to ask for feedback. So here are 4 ways to do an online business employee review:
Review Tasks
At the beginning of a relationship with a new team member, your review will revolve around tasks. When you give an assignment each task should have a clear deadline, process and outcome.
Poor communication includes assignments like “do the blog” or “update social media” which gives no clear direction. Instead give instructions like “update the SEO tags on blog posts from January through March” or “review Facebook and Twitter profiles to make sure the website, email and phone number are accurate by Friday.”
With newer team members you’ll need to review tasks regularly, especially as you are building trust. Eventually you’ll be able to move on to reviewing with your team on a project basis.
Reviewing tasks gives your employee the impression that you are paying attention, that they can’t just “skate by” with no attention to detail. Even the best employees won’t continue to put in their best effort when they know it won’t matter.
Review Projects
When individual tasks are completed regularly and correctly, you can move on to assigning projects which I define as a set of tasks to accomplish a goal. By knowing every step is included in the final product and everything has worked together, you remind your team member that the process is as important as the result.
For example, if you ask a VA to send a welcome email and packet to a new client and only get a “done” “not done” status then you might be surprised to find that the email wasn’t the template you provided or that the attachment for the first call was missing.
Systems are important here because you want to ensure that things are done the way you do them because you know what works, your team doesn’t yet. This doesn’t mean that you’re unwielding to change, just that you’ve tried a lot of ways of running your business, and now that you know what works you need it done consistently to continue getting those results.
This is important whether it’s the reminder for an upcoming call or checking all the links in your newsletter. If you can’t trust your team member with basic projects and following your instructions then it’s unlikely you’ll be able to let go and trust with larger projects.
Review Accomplishments
Your team members aren’t always going to screw up! When you hire the right person and they work to their potential you’ll be blown away with their accomplishments! If you have the tendency to ignore the good and focus on the bad then you’ll drive good team members away quickly.
So celebrate their wins, when things are done perfectly, when they ask the right questions, when a draft needs minimal tweaks. Also look for other things that aren’t easy to train. Be thankful for punctuality, a good attitude, resolving a problem quickly, flexibility, etc.
Don’t just share how great your team is to your team! Give a shout out on social media, tell your colleagues how great it is to have this support and most importantly, thank your team members personally and frequently.
It should go without saying but don’t bash your team publicly. Ever.
Review Contracts
If you set up your employment relationship correctly, you’ll have a contract in place before the work begins. Every 6 months or so it’s good practice to review the contract and ensure it’s still meeting your needs. This is also a good time to review the payment details of your relationship.
In some cases a team member has taken on significantly more responsibilities and deserves a raise. Trust me, a worker who is overworked and underpaid will leave and it’ll be your fault. Other times, a team member’s tasks have been stripped back to the most basic functions and a pay reduction may be in order. Of you realize that the tasks and projects are out of balance and need to be changed.
While we recommend this kind of comprehensive review twice a year for most employees, other times you’ll need to review and make changes sooner such as after launching a new big program, if you begin traveling more, make major software purchases or even hire/fire several people in a short time frame.
If you already have a team in place and want to stop babysitting employees then go over this list again and find out where you can step back and begin trusting more. However, if your team has been running on their own without your review it’s probably time to check in and begin implementing regular review.
How to Keep Your Team on Track
Creating Systems for Hiring