Workers: Our Most Valuable Resource

By Dale Christensen

Employees can be entrepreneurs' biggest challenge -- and their greatest asset.

Valued employees will be there for you when you need them. They can perform in your presence and cover for you in your absence. Sure, you may be taken advantage of on occasion. But my experience suggests that will be the exception rather than the rule.

This is why the wise entrepreneur will learn quickly to take care of his or her people. Treat employees well, and most of the time they will treat you well by coming through for you. They will help you accomplish things you couldn't accomplish without them. Whereas owners are like the tip of the iceberg that rises above the water line to brave the cold wind or bask in the warm sunshine, employees represent the unseen mass that keeps their heads above water.

Similarly, employers can be important in the lives of their employees.

Just as we all remember outstanding teachers in our lives who gave us the tools, skills and opportunities to excel and then pushed us to do our best, most of us can also remember employers who played the same role in our lives. In a very real way, the employer-employee relationship is symbiotic and can be vitally important to the happiness and success of both parties.

Employee Service

This is why I would suggest to entrepreneurs that employee service should come ahead of customer service. Indeed, employees are our most valuable customers. Good employers cultivate and develop employees just as they cultivate and develop valued contributors. It should be viewed as a compliment if employees go on to bigger and better things.

Employee turnover can be fatal and is one of the biggest costs in doing business. Some companies with high turnover seem to have an attitude of "turn and burn." They burn through employees, who finally get fed up with mistreatment -- real or perceived -- and go elsewhere. Other successful companies lower employee turnover and its commensurate costs by providing fair salaries, benefits and training.

"Fair salaries" are especially important in this equation. To get the best, you have to pay the best. Those who pay minimum wages can only expect minimum results. Many shortsighted employers also keep employees at part-time so they don't have to provide full-time benefits.

Mike Nichols of MNI said, "It seems unethical to be getting rich while the troops are making minimum wage and remain unprotected." Hyrum Smith of Franklin Covey believed that the most valuable employee was the one who the outside world speaks to first. This doesn't negate the profit incentive; it's simply a matter of balance and doing what's right.

Nor should the older and more mature employees be overlooked. Someone with more age, experience and gray hair may be more stable and valuable to your company, especially through the start-up years. Look around -- even McDonald's now has older employees who want to be useful and who know how to treat customers right.

A wise man said, "We parents are only trustees of our children. They are ours for a short time while they are with us. Hopefully, they will become our friends." It's that way with our employees, too. We need to stay focused on what's important for them while we have them. If they know we believe in them and have faith in them, they will respond accordingly.

Employees are our first and best resource. Take care of them, and they will take care of you.

Mr. Christensen is associated with the BYU Center for Entrepreneurship. He can be reached via e-mail at cfe@byu.edu.