A workman’s worth
How do you value your employees? How do you value yourself as an employee? or an employer? Are you paying out what you are worth or what your employees are worth? How do you determine the value of someone who does work for you?
Whether you are in the service industry, behind a counter or doing physical labor, or sitting behind a desk, your time is valuable. However, if you don’t value your employees they will go elsewhere. Even the Bible has stated a workman is worth his due. In other words, if you have an employee that you value, you need to pay them accordingly.
This is an area where we fall short. Sometimes, you do pay an employee accordingly but you miss out on the opportunity to praise them for their work. Or you praise them for their work, but you don’t show it via their pay. Finding a balance can be hard. If you are a small company or self-employed, you may think “I can’t afford to pay someone more”. Maybe you don’t even have any employees, but you aren’t treating yourself accordingly. You are working yourself too hard and not rewarding yourself by taking some downtime. You feel like you have to press forward to keep in front of the bills, etc.
The problem with this system of ‘burning your candle at both ends of the stick’ is that you will eventually burn out and not be good to anyone. Finding balance in your life by rewarding yourself for a job well done is both important and beneficial. Making time for your loved ones, for your pets, for your friends also helps you keep your stress levels down. Sure you may worry even while you are out having fun. However, it will be greatly over-shadowed and sometimes you may find yourself relaxed enough for creativity to strike giving you ideas on how to farther grow your business.
If you have grown your business to a point where you have hired others to help you, make sure that you are paying them what they are worth. If you have an employee who isn’t doing much then they shouldn’t be receiving much. However, if you have an employee who is going beyond what you are asking then you need to find ways to reward them or face the possibility that they will become disgruntled and either not do as much or find a job that does value them. Words are great. Praise is appreciated. Making sure that they know you appreciate what they are doing is important. However, if they continue to go beyond you need to look at what you are paying them and if you can give them a raise; before they ask. Which puts you both in an awkward position. Or at the very least a bonus with an “I would like to pay you more but right now we can’t afford it, as soon as we can, I plan on giving you a raise.” Or perhaps you can give a time frame that you will be able to pay them more.
If you have one employee who is doing the work of two and one employees who isn’t doing anything. Perhaps it is time to get rid of the dead weight and pay the one who is working hard more money. In our current day and age, with the cost of living going up all the time, not appreciating your employees and giving them there due is a good way to help them move one step closer to the door. Don’t be surprised, if you are under-paying someone, when they walk out and find a job somewhere else with more room for growth and fiscal soundness.