I am a dentist. I felt strongly that half my staff was against me (4 of 7 employees). So I fired them. I inherited them when I bought my business a few years ago. I am very ethical but I do care about gross revenue (as any owner should). They never fully embraced caring about revenue production or understanding that bonus pay is tied to profitability. Nonetheless, I feel it is a failing on my part as a leader that they as a group were not on my team. What can I do as a small business owner to display better leadership and engender better office morale. I should mention that I pay above market wages, have better benefits than market competitors, work with my employees to satisfy the number of hours they need and I run a schedule that is very predictable 8-5 with a lunch and we do not deviate. Further, we take great care of our patients and the staff never has to worry about patient satisfaction or quality of care. Thank you for your input.
We have our problems like any small business, but overall our team has a very strong work ethic and I feel represents the company positively. Here’s my best advice:
Cut out anyone who isn’t a team player. New employees will follow the example of the established work culture. Bad apples create bad apples. Don’t try to change behavior of bad employees, that has never worked in my experience, just get rid of them and try to mold the work culture you want, regardless of how small the team had to be, you can add from there.
Give regular, transparent numbers on how the profit of the business benefits them. Our team is on a split hourly/commission pay and every single week I give them a print out of every job they do and how much commission they make from each job. They take a lot of pride in their work as a result. You say bonuses are tied to revenue, which is probably a good thing, but they should see that. Don’t show them revenue necessarily, but show them something where they can directly see the rewards of their efforts.
Have regular meetings to cover policies and build a team mentality.