How To Improve Morale In Your Family Business

Thank you for your insightful discussion. Late last month my business had an important meeting with the Production Manager and Production Supervisor. Brother and sister (me) owners are G2, Production Manager G3. Our business model is a core of direct employees with additional temporary employees. We had one more core direct employee than needed and wanted to discuss the financial impact of that. We presented our sales with expenses in a percentage format to The Production Manager and Production Supervisor. Breakeven was 100% and each month’s sales were percentages of that breakeven. In the nine months illustrated we had five months of below expectations and four months above expections. The difference between average dollar per hour for a core direct employee including all benefits and a temporary employee was also presented. They determined the skill set of what a core direct vs. a temporary could give. The two men could see that the value of core direct employee and temporary were almost on par and the core direct employee was not providing sufficient difference in skill over the temporary. The two men quickly determined a temporary would fulfill the skills needed and the company would save money. This is the beginning of bottom up in decision making. Baby steps for sure and will soon follow with more opportunities such as this to bring in the Production Manager and Production Supervisor solid decision making.