Inspired this past weekend by my boys, I decided that it was a good time to
restock my supply of man points. While no one significant event comes to mind, I’m sure I’ve done
enough things since getting married that would get me close to the break even mark. I had an 8 foot
diameter tree stump in the middle of my backyard, and it had been taunting me since I moved in last
summer. This stump had outstayed its welcome, and it was time for it to go.
Burning this stump into oblivion looked better on paper than in practice. My fire hardly turned the stump black. Dynamite would have worked well, but the city doesn’t appreciate that sort of fun. This tree was probably around when the Vikings landed here, so it’s taken on the worst nature could throw at it and was probably laughing at my feeble attempt to take it out. Enter plan b): it was time to man up and rent a stump grinder. I could have gone with the Cadillac of stump grinders, but instead fought the stump for eight hours with the more primitive, manual grinder. That’s right, eight hours of abuse to my body so I could earn some of those man points back.
That got me wondering. Did I earn a hundred man points? A thousand? Several thousand?
How do I track that, and how do I know where I stand? For something as important as this, it may be
necessary to keep some sort of tally so I don’t ever fall behind. Then I started thinking about those of you who are running a business. Hopefully you see your employees working hard every day. Maybe you see them taking an unexpected or extra break that was not approved, perhaps for a smoke. Was it a onetime deal, or does it happen quite frequently?
I’ve heard from many business owners that they are considering cracking down on these non-approved breaks for many different reasons. Well there’s a simple reason that sticks out in my head – money. If your employees are taking extra breaks throughout the day, you’re not getting what you paid for. Let’s say you pay an employee $20/hour, 40 hours/week. Instead of working the 40 hours you are paying the employee for, you are actually only getting 35 hours of service due to these extra breaks or other distractions from the job. At $20/hour, 52 weeks/year, you are losing $5,200 per year on just that one employee alone. And that doesn't even include what you are paying in benefits. When was the last time you saw those costs go down? I thought so.
My buddies seem to keep track of my man points, though sometimes I think they shortchange me a bit. Lucky for you, you can keep track of your employee performance to make sure you're getting your money's worth. How often do you do performance reviews? What does your review process look like? Are there incentives to improve performance such as bonuses, extra vacation days, you name it? I suppose if you were getting an extra $5,200 out of your employees that you didn't get last year, a $100 performance bonus gift card or extra day of vacation is probably a win-win situation.
Just like your financial planner will give you updates on your stocks, mutual funds, and other investments, it's time you do the same with your company's biggest investment - human capital.
Good luck!
Andy Bertram CPCU, ARM-E
C.O. Brown
651-800-6173
abertram@cobrown.com
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