10 Workforce Management Tips for Small Business Owners and Managers

Understanding how to manage your workforce and make sure your company is running efficiently is an essential skill that all business owners and people managers need to develop. Thankfully, like any skill, your workforce management abilities will grow with time and practice. Here are 10 helpful workforce management tips to ensure that you are managing your employees properly and effectively.

10 workforce management tips

1. Put all company policies and bylaws in writing

Rules are necessary for the functioning of any business or organization. However, if policies aren’t written down and codified, it may be difficult to maintain order and employees could claim they were treated unfairly or even discriminated against.

To avoid these issues, it’s crucial that you clearly put all your policies and bylaws in writing. This will ensure there aren’t any misunderstandings within your team, and new employees will immediately know what they’re getting themselves into.

Perhaps most important, codifying your company policies can protect you against legal action if employees feel that some of your actions were unfair or discriminatory. If you have consequences clearly set in writing with little room for discretion by managers, then employees won't have grounds to take you to court.

2. Offer remote work options and flexible scheduling

It’s no secret that the business world has been shifting towards remote work at a startling pace. Although Covid served as a catalyst for this transition, remote work was already becoming popular before the pandemic hit.

Now that the world has had a taste of remote work, many employees don’t want to go back to in-office settings, with 68% of Americans preferring remote work over going back in the office. This means that employers need to offer remote work options if they want to keep their employees.

Of course, remote work isn’t an option for every job or industry, but even in sectors where it’s not possible, managers can offer more flexible scheduling that helps with work-life balance.

3. Make sure you understand state and federal workforce laws

Few things can sink a fledgling business as fast as a serious legal violation. If you’re starting a new business, it’s your responsibility to ensure you completely understand all relevant workforce laws at the local, state, and federal levels.

If you’re not a lawyer, doing this can be difficult, so it’s best to establish a relationship with a good attorney with whom you can easily ask questions and get advice when potentially sticky situations arise. During your first few years in business, your relationship with your attorney can prove invaluable as you learn to navigate the ropes of hiring, firing, and maintaining employees.

4. Invest in a good scheduling software

Technology has changed every aspect of small business management, from marketing to payroll to sales and beyond. Scheduling is no exception.

Although you might be used to old-fashioned paper-and-pencil or spreadsheet scheduling, modern employee scheduling software can save you time, and ultimately money, in your day-to-day operations. These tools allow managers to create schedules with intuitive drag-and-drop interfaces, send push notifications to employees, and update schedules in real time. Overall, it creates a more pleasant experience for managers and employees alike, which keeps morale high and work moving smoothly.

5. Choose a quality payroll software

When you hire employees, you need to pay them. Handling payroll can be somewhat complex and time-consuming, but thankfully there are software options available that can make things easier.

Payroll software will not only reduce the time you spend managing payroll, but it can also ensure your payments are accurate, which will reduce the likelihood of conflicts, or even legal action from underpaid employees.

More articles from AllBusiness.com:

6. Put together a competitive benefits package

For full-time employees, their salary is only part of their total compensation. The rest is what’s referred to as the benefits package, which typically includes health insurance, paid time off, and sometimes retirement or college investment options.

If you want to attract top talent and retain your employees, it’s important to put together a benefits package that will bring candidates to your business over your competitors. In fact, it’s so important that a Benefits Trends Survey reported that more than two-thirds of employers surveyed (69%) “plan to differentiate and customize their benefit programs over the next two years.”

Ultimately, you can think of your benefits package as a long-term investment. By offering more competitive benefits, you’ll be able to hire more skilled employees and improve the quality and profitability of your business.

7. Assign tasks based on skill and fit

It may seem like common sense to assign projects based on an employee's skillset, yet many managers don't take the time to get to know their team members well enough so that they can actually do so.

You should, therefore, get to know your employees and where they excel, and then assign tasks based on their skills and competencies. In this way, you can improve your business’s overall efficiency while also ensuring you are outputting quality work.

8. Trust your employees to do their jobs

One of the biggest traps managers can fall into is micromanaging their team members. While in some ways it may seem effective, micromanagement hurts workplace morale and increases negative feelings towards management.

To avoid this, it’s important to keep in mind that you hired your employees for a reason—you believed they could excel at the positions they were hired for. Whenever you feel the need to micromanage an employee, one useful workforce management tip is to stop and remember why you hired them, and then them let them do their jobs. Try not to intervene unless it’s truly necessary. Your employees will appreciate your hands-off approach, and your business will run more smoothly as a result.

9. Understand that your employees won’t care as much as you do

If you’re a small business owner, then your company is likely a dream come true—you may have worked for years to get your business off the ground, it may be the culmination of a childhood fantasy turned to reality, or it may be your escape from the nine-to-five.

While that’s all well and good, it’s important to remember that for your employees, your dream is just a job—and that’s fine. It's unrealistic to expect your employees to be as passionate as you are, and if you antagonize them for not living up to your expectations, you’ll only create more problems for yourself.

10. Treat your employees with respect

No matter whom you’re dealing with, you should always treat people with respect. Life is hard enough as it is without people actively going out of their way to be disrespectful. However, as a small business owner, you have the added responsibility of creating a pleasant work environment for your employees who depend on you for their livelihood.

Almost everyone has had the experience of dealing with a toxic boss, so make sure you don’t end up becoming that person. Treat your employees with respect and kindness, and they’ll reward you by doing good work and providing a better experience to your customers.

Become a better manager and watch your company grow

Learning to manage your workforce is one of the key skills you will need to learn as you grow your business. With these workforce management tips in hand, you’ll be well on your way to building a strong and fruitful relationship with your employees.