Hi Bruce,

Poor thing! We bosses dream of the day the pendulum will swing. A recent Roy Morgan poll pointed out that four out of five Australians who work full or part time say their job is safe. Most people (72% of workers) say they could find a new job quickly if unemployed. This gives them tremendous power. And most of them are also confident that unemployment will not rise in the next 12 months.

In fact the latest trend in recruitment is for people to post their resumes on job boards whether they want a job or not - just in case!

Many employers are watching nervously as the pendulum swings too far the other way towards the employee. But politics aside, and to more important things Bruce - your problem is a common one. If you run an authoritarian, hierarchical workplace, your Gen-Y staff will leave. That does not mean you don't deserve respect.

Gen-Ys have been beamed down from another planet (that's not all bad). They believe we are all equal. Next time one of them oversteps the line, just pull them aside and explain your feelings are hurt. (They all grew up in counseling.) This will quickly elicit an apology and will ensure it doesn't happen next time.

Your culture sounds terrific, but in this case it does sound like you have hit a mosquito with a sledgehammer. It's hard for an older generation to let go and allow the Gen-Ys to dictate culture. But the benefits are creativity, fast pace and fun... and staff retention.

Hope that helps,

Your Aunty B

Dear Josh,

Now calm down. You are in danger of throwing out the baby with the bathwater. Your approach to family flexibility is not backfiring. In fact you say you have a great reputation for offering this flexibility, so I am sure your approach has benefits for your staff and your company.

Unfortunately Ms HR is taking you for a ride. But that should not change your approach to all staff. Deal with her individually. Can she nominate several days a week when she can work later? Does she understand clearly the nature of the job and the work it entails? Did you spell out to her when you recruited her that it was a top management role in the company and you expect her to be very committed? Does she have a very clear job description in writing?

I would be careful about legal issues, so keep meetings documented and ask for advice if things don't work out and you have to move her on.

As for what do other companies offer... Most good companies try to offer a flexible workplace and bosses are happy to be even more flexible to keep skilled, valuable employees.

A recent study by Sensis that looked at the views, experience and performance of 1800 small and medium businesses (with up to 200 employees) shows that flexible start and finish times were offered by 73% of the SMEs, and 30% of businesses let staff work from home.

There were some concerns that flexible provisions resulted in the loss of productive time and increased costs. While 42% felt there were no drawbacks, 23% felt they faced a major barrier (increased costs), 12% felt there was a loss of productive time, and 12% felt it was inconvenient on other staff. Only 4% felt that staff abused their conditions.

Of course it is easier for some businesses at different times to offer more benefits, but here is what the businesses in the Sensis report offered their employees (listed in order of the percentage that offered them):

• Phone for family reasons; 87%.
  
• Flexible annual leave; 83%.
  
• Flexible start and finish times; 73%.
  
• Part time work; 61%.
  
• Ability to bring children into work in an emergency; 60%.
  
• Unpaid emergency leave for casual employees; 51%.
  
• Carer's leave for caring for family (other than children); 47%.
  
• Unpaid parental leave; 44%.
  Ability to bring elders to work in an emergency; 44%.
  
• Carer's leave for caring for children; 42%.
  
• Job sharing; 40%.
  
• Ability to purchase additional leave; 31%.
  
• Working from home; 30%.
  
• Unpaid adoption leave; 22%.
  
• Paid parental leave; 19%.
  
• Onsite child care; 5%.
  
• Subsidy for child care; 5%.
  
• Subsidy for elderly care; 2%.

Good luck,

Your Aunty B

Dear Tracey,

I can tell you what you are doing. You are delaying making a very difficult decision.

You have already made a key mistake by giving her a high salary instead of starting her on a lower salary with KPIs and incentives.

Now you are left with difficult choices.

I am assuming you have sat down with her a number of times and explained the vision for the company and her role going forward. This would have included providing her with a very clear job description with targets that must be met. You must now follow her up weekly, checking that she understands her expanded role and all the boxes are being ticked. (Keep detailed notes of the meetings.)

Set a deadline. Unless she has shown substantial improvement, it is time for decisions. You could restructure and ask her to reapply for a new position at the market rate that suits her core role. Or simply move her on.

Entrepreneurs tell us that moving staff on is one of the most difficult decisions they have to make.

Unfortunately it is made harder when it is a key staff member who, while doing a good job, is not capable of taking the company to the next stage. But remember Tracey, your key staff member may well be feeling out of their depth and in the long term, be relieved to move on to a job that better reflects and highlights their talents.

You are also providing someone new with a great leadership opportunity.

Good luck,

Your Aunty B.

Hi Mark,

You are right - about the column - and what you are proposing. Handing employees a slice of the business is complicated and very few small and medium businesses use employee share schemes.

Think of it like this. You want to offer staff a slice of the business; that is to give staff equity in the business. But it is far easier to put incentive schemes around revenue than equity.

There are a number of reasons for this. Many privately run businesses want to stay that way. They don't want to seek shareholder approval every time they sneeze. Privately, many entrepreneurs say they regret giving staff equity because the staff still operate with an employee mentality and can make decisions based in their best interests and not in the best interests of the company.

Many business owners also don't want employees to have a free rein in the books and to know all the ins and outs of the business.

By giving staff equity you are also handing to your employees everything you have already built up, so they are sharing in the past success (which includes all assets such as the vehicles and general expenses etc) - a success to which they may not have made a contribution.

You ask what it means when an employee leaves. In that situation the shares are usually redeemed (that is written into the agreement). But that too causes problems. As the shares are not listed, there is no ready market tool to value the shares, so you have to seek independent valuations. Then of course someone must buy those shares and entrepreneurs also tell me that can be annoying because they had their capital tied up elsewhere at the time a staff member left and wanted to sell.

There is one other problem. To get the tax benefits you need to make the share scheme widely available to your staff. Again this has drawbacks. You will want to retain key staff but there will be some staff that you will not want included in the agreement.

Some companies do offer equity to their staff, often through offering share options linked to incentives. But they are usually quite sophisticated companies working on a float down the track.

Many business owners also offer employees a slice of the business when they are doing succession planning and want the business to go to key staff. But it is not generally used to retain key staff.

The simple solution you are missing is, in my opinion, profit share. Set some incentives and when they are met, share profit with key employees. Use bonuses and non-financial benefits such as surprise holidays etc to delight your staff. And remind them of the vision, and the challenge.

Good luck,

Your Aunty B

Hello Debbie,

Of course she is annoyed. It is very pleasant to take a long break from work every hour, turn off, go for a walk, have a chat and smoke a cigarette.

Very pleasant. And how dare you point it out!

Debbie, as you point out, you have become too friendly. But worse, you have become emotionally involved. The fact that your staff member feels it is appropriate to weep and sulk when addressed about a performance management issue means she knows which buttons to push.

In all small businesses, you get to know the staff. You want to help them get the mortgage money, celebrate the babies and be flexible and understanding when they need time off. But there is a line that the entrepreneur should not cross; you are ultimately not responsible for their lives. Nor are you a friend.

This is a big problem for some female entrepreneurs. Recently we did a survey and asked a large group of successful female entrepreneurs about one negative difference in the way women lead businesses when compared to men.

Some women objected to the "sexist question" and others replied that there were many positives in women being more empathetic, sympathetic and better communicators. But many replied that a major, and negative, difference in the way women lead is that they are too emotional, too friendly and staff take advantage of that.

Here are some of their comments:

• Women tend to get more emotionally involved in things than men.
  
• Too emotional especially when dealing with staff.
  
• Too tolerant of staff.
  
• Relationships matter too much. Not good on the tough stuff.
  
• Don't go for the throat as much as they should. Staff take advantage of their softer style of management.
  
• More people-focused than profit-focused.
  
• Women must learn to separate their emotional energies from their business energies.
  
• Too inclusive; women inherently want to please everyone.
  
• Lack of assertiveness in certain situations.
  
• Often difficult to strike the right balance between being sympathetic to staff needs and tough on poor performance.
  
• The sensitivity of women can often lead to being subjective rather than objective about situations that require an analytical, less compassionate approach than may be offered by a man.
  
• Women often tend to avoid confrontation even when it is necessary.

Just remember, being a boss is not a popularity contest.

Stay tough.

Your Aunty B.

Dear Chris,

Why be soft because it's Christmas? I am sure your employee gets his fair share of holidays at other times.

Look, Chris, you might be a bastard boss with ridiculous expectations on staff performance. But let's say for arguments sake that you are not - that you are a near-perfect boss who came back refreshed from a holiday break and determined to stick to your many new year's resolutions, which impressively is not to make more money and retire to the Bahamas but is to spread good cheer and make life more pleasant for staff.

Let's also say that the employee has a clear brief, knows what he is doing, can do the job, does not suffer from lack of confidence or has a personal drama that is distracting him.

In that case you have a late deliverer on your hands and you have a right to be grumpy.

What you have to do is monitor his performance. You need to set very clear deadlines and confirm by email. Make sure you are very specific about the time the task must be completed. Specify that the project must be finished at, say, 11am on Friday and that you will meet with him at 11.15am to discuss the project and work on the next stage.

You should also let the employee know that if these steps are not met, a more formal performance management system will be implemented.

Remember the words of management guru Peter Drucker: "It does not matter whether the worker wants responsibility or not. The enterprise must demand it of him."

Good luck!

Dear Suzi,

Are you nuts? Of course you are a control freak. You probably started your business because you are good at what you do and thought you could do it better than your boss - or anyone else. And that obviously is still the case.

You are too busy doing routine jobs that your staff can handle. You are doing this I guess for three reasons.

1. You can do it faster and better than others.

2. You can't afford more resources.

3. You love doing it and find other tasks more difficult - like finding new

customers or managing the cash cycle better.

Let's deal with number one. Been on a holiday lately? Did your staff handle things perfectly while you were away... thought so. Suzi, you are utterly dispensable.

Can't afford more resources? What if you were a consultant? What is your time worth? $150 an hour? $250 an hour? What would you pay an extra member of staff? Not nearly that much.

As for loving what you do; well, don't we all. But you are running a business. So carve out a small and regular role for yourself that keeps your hand in - and do it from your office.

If all this creates a sense of insecurity, it means one thing. Your management skills are not up to scratch. You do not have enough processes in place to incentivise staff and measure outcomes.

So Suzi, off to the office where you can spend some time managing the business and working on strategy. And congratulate yourself. I would love a 2iC like that.

Dear Fed Up,

First mistake: you should have sacked the troublemaker four years ago - or better still, never have hired him.

Second mistake: how on earth have you let things get so bad? This has gone on for four years! No wonder you sound so angry and cross, you poor thing.

Even if you sack the ringleaders you might find yourself in a similar position because you have not addressed an underlying problem which is this: you, my friend, have basic leadership issues.

Sacking a third of your workforce seems drastic, an overreaction and how about the cost! I don't know how many workers you have but I would only sack the ringleaders and give the groupies warnings.

Introduce time clocks and software monitoring systems if you haven't already got them. Increase the penalties for those coming in late or dismiss them. As for those who do the right thing, now is the time for good rewards.

Increase bonuses and other rewards and regularly check in with these key people to ensure they are on board and helping you set the culture.

Now for your leadership skills. First you need to look at your hiring practices. Applicants need better background checks and attitude checks. Recruitment needs to be outsourced to experts as it is certainly not one of your key skills.

You also sound like you need some morale boost. How about joining an entrepreneurs' association such as The Executive Connection or Entrepreneurs Organisation? This would develop your leadership skills and give you a sense that you are not alone. It would also give you the confidence to act early on problems so they don't become malignant and force you into drastic action.

So keep a cool head and good luck!