Tracking Employee Performance and Man Points

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

Untangling Your Fishing Line - Delegating in Your Business

My family and I went on our first family vacation this weekend.  By family vacation, I mean a work trip with some family time squeezed in there as well.  Since my two little men are now well on their way to the age of four, I knew it was time for them to start collecting some man points.  While I’m not sure how many man points I’ve accumulated over the years, I know I’m fairly certain I’m still in positive territory.  Since it’s never too early to start, I wanted to make sure that they had a solid bank of man points at an early age.  It’s a precautionary thing just in case they have a moment of weakness and drink pink cocktails or go clothes shopping with their girlfriends when they get a little older.

As part of their christening, I did what any proud father would do – took them to Fleet Farm to pick out their first fishing pole.  Now from my recollection of fishing with my dad, I remember having a knack for creating the most unimaginable rats’ nests ever.  Whether it was operator error or a problem with the reel, I’d like to place blame solely on the equipment.  With that in mind, I found every “cool” open faced reel I could locate.  It didn’t matter.  Hunter found a mini Star Wars kiddie combo, and Jack found the Spiderman equivalent, each with the dreaded closed face reel.  While my memory isn’t clear, I probably had nightmares that night about fishing line wrapped and tangled and knotted and looped and the worst possible rats’ nest you could imagine.

With the rods ready and our bags packed, we headed up to the resort to relax and catch some fish.  My boys have the attention span of, you guessed it, a couple of three year olds, so I wasn’t sure how long they’d last out on the boat.  When we got to our first spot, it wasn’t more than five minutes in that we had our first tangle.  Hunter’s pole was a mess, so I spent some time cleaning that up.  The next thing I know, Jack’s line was tangled around the back of the boat, and repeat the process.  I had my line in the water for a little bit, but not too long.  The fish weren’t biting there, so we packed up and moved to another spot.  After what seemed like milliseconds, I was already untangling some more lines.  I’m not sure why I thought I may actually get some fishing in.  I remember being a kid myself and wreaking havoc on my dad’s poles, leaving him no time to fish. 

If you’re a business owner, many of your days, weeks, and months are probably spent untangling the fishing lines in your business.  There are a lot of important things that can help you succeed and grow that you probably want to do, but somewhere in between the idea and actually following through another rats’ nest came your way to untangle.  Have you put off a long-term business model and set goals to work towards?  Did you plan on attending some of your industry’s top trade shows but instead had to put them off?  Maybe on the safety and risk management side you recognize the need to implement a culture of safety to reduce your workers compensation costs and boost morale.  Risk management sometimes can be the toughest thing to devote time to because your ROI may take a year or more to materialize, and with other coals on the fire it often gets pushed back.

One of the toughest things in business and personal life can be delegating some of these less important tasks to someone else.  Do you have someone in your business who may be equipped to untangle some of those lines you’ve been dealing with?  If you don’t, could you train them?  Correct me if I’m wrong, but I’m going to take a wild guess and assume that you didn’t hire someone you didn’t think you could trust.  If that’s the case, stop hesitating and start delegating.  You’ll appreciate your newfound time, and you’ll probably find yourself enjoying your time at work a lot more doing the things you want to be doing. 

We all know that no one can do certain things as well as we can.  Some things though can be done by someone else close to our perfection, and that’s usually okay.  The things that really need our expertise should get our undivided attention, but prioritizing is a good place to start.  By letting go a bit, putting your trust in your employees and delegating those less important tasks to them, you’ve now given your business another chance to succeed.

So think about your business and your personal life.  What types of rats’ nests are you dealing with that would be better off being handled by someone else?  If you were to hand off one or two of these time consuming, menial tasks to someone else today, think of the things you could accomplish.  If you don’t, you’re risking not reaching your full potential in the future, missing those opportunities to grow and improve your profitability.  You aren’t in business to fail, so stop running it that way.

In today’s day and age, you’re either growing or you’re dying.  Start focusing on what really matters, and don’t get caught up in the day to day.  If you haven’t already, today is looking like a great day to start delegating. 

 

A big thanks to the MSBOA for putting together a great conference this past weekend.  And by the way, Jack did manage to catch his first smallmouth bass and wanted me to put it on the wall.  I think that’s worth a few man points.

 

Andy Bertram CPCU, ARM-E

abertram@cobrown.com

651-800-6173

An Ode to the Fake ID: Identity Theft, Data Breach and Cyber Liability

I’ve lived in either Wisconsin or Minnesota my entire life.  However, during different periods in college I actually grew up in Oregon and South Dakota as well.  I couldn’t tell you the names of the towns in either state that I purportedly lived in now, but I sure knew them back then.  I also knew the liquor stores and bars that weren’t real careful when they checked IDs (with the exception of one fateful day when I had to give up my Oregon residency and take up South Dakota).

It seemed in college there was always a guy who could hook you up with a bad fake ID for the right price.  No one was ever hurt while we were out having a good time, and they served their purpose for a few years.  Was it illegal?  Absolutely, and it was also very dumb for a guy majoring in Criminal Justice with full intentions of becoming a peace officer.   I’m not going to talk right now about the importance of training your bouncers, checking IDs or liquor liability.  What I am going to scratch the surface on is the up and coming threat of data breach, identity theft and cyber liability.

While our guy in college may not have been very sophisticated, today’s identity thieves are and have gotten very good at what they do.  It seems just about every week we hear about a large data breach – Target before Christmas and Ebay more recently.  What we don’t often hear about is some of the attacks on small or medium sized businesses.  78% of small and medium sized businesses experienced a data breach in the past two years.  Every year, cybercriminals steal $1 billion from these businesses in the U.S. and Europe.  And of those that suffer a major data loss, 72% shut down within 24 months.

Not all of these data losses were the result of a data breach.  Some were the result of poor backup procedures, but many of them were.  And unfortunately for you, their guy is a lot more sophisticated than our guy was in college.  With our world being more interconnected than ever, there are more and more ways where they can steal your information.  Point of sale computers.  Credit card machines.  Online databases.  Physical breach of confidential records in storage.  Employment records.  Hacking into your computer or mainframe.  Your smart phone.  Online payment systems.  The list goes on.

So how do you fare?  What are your true exposures?  For most people, when they hear data breach they only think of cyber liability.  Cyber liability is very important for many businesses, but it’s also important to understand what your coverage actually entails.  While many businesses may not have a true cyber liability exposure, they still face the possibility that confidential information could be compromised.  It could be by a current employee in good standing.  It could be someone breaking into your business.  Disgruntled employee.  Or it could be someone you know and trust and would never expect.  Regardless of who is a suspect, it is a very real threat to businesses today.

While the cyber liability may not apply in these situations, data breach does and could be used to cover a claim.  It’s important for you to know that coverage is available, it covers a huge exposure, and not all things are created equal.  Even if you do not have the online presence that many businesses do today, you still could fall victim to one of these very sophisticated, 21^st century criminals.  It’s important to know what your policy does and does not cover.

Identity theft is a much more lucrative business than selling fake IDs to college kids, and it’s here to stay.  The best thing you can do is take steps to prevent a breach, and in case it does happen, making sure you have the coverage you need to ensure your business’s survival.  Good luck!

Andy Bertram CPCU, ARM-E
abertram@cobrown.com
651-800-6173

"The Entitlement Generation" and Keeping Good Employees

The best defense is a good offense.  Most of us have heard that phrase used in one way or another.  It originally applied to military combat, but it’s become cliché in the sports world today.  It's simple - by staying actively engaged in pursuing your competition, you’ll spend less time defending yourself.

Your business isn’t in a combat zone, but this phrase can apply to one of the biggest risks facing it today – your employees. I have the same conversation with business owners like you just about every day.  Their business has a solid core of employees in their 40’s and 50’s, but they’re having a tough time attracting younger talent.  Those they do do find are often unreliable and do not have the work ethic of their more experienced employees.  Let’s dissect this a little further.

The millennial generation is a far cry from our baby boomers parents.  Our well-intentioned parents worked hard so we could be better off than they were growing up, but it has led to some unintended consequences.  We should almost be referred to as the “entitlement generation” because it seems many of our peers feel entitled to just about everything these days. 

In our parents’ quest to give us a better life, many in our generation did not learn the value of working hard because things they wanted were simply handed to them.  Whether it’s free healthcare or free tuition, they have become accustomed to getting something for nothing.  They've sadly become the quintessential basement dwellers of their parents’ homes, staying on their parents’ health plan until they turn 26 because they don't have a real job, and playing video games in all of their spare waking hours instead of trying to find a way to get out on their own.

For those of us millennials whose parents taught us the value of hard work, this is baffling.  Chances are if you’re reading this blog, you aren't living in your parents' basement.  While it presents additional opportunities for those of us willing to work hard, it also causes some issues when we get into positions of running a business and needing to hire reliable employees.  That brings me back to my original point – the best defense is a good offense.

All things considered, it usually costs a lot more to hire a new employee than it is to retain a good one.  Whether it’s money for job posting, training, and lost productivity while that new employee gets to the same level as the former employee (plus many others), it won’t be cheap.  Did I forget to mention that this person who you have just hired may fall into the “entitlement generation” category?  And if they do, guess what you’ll be doing in a few weeks or months… (see above).  Sometimes you have to hire because of growth or opportunity, but I’ll save that for another day.

If you haven't already, now's the time to go on the offensive to keep your employees happy.  What type of benefits are you currently offering?  Are there any incentive programs?  Wellness?  What other perks are available for your workers?  Are you doing more than your competitors?  When was the last time you offered a raise or a bonus for a job well done?  All things considered, wouldn’t it be less expensive to do one or two of these things a year than to try and replace your best workers?

You and I show up every day because we either love what we do, enjoy our work environment, or we are working hard for a greater cause.  Be it our family, ourselves or a future opportunity, we’re here because we want to be.  Put yourself in your employees' shoes – what gets them up in the morning and excited to come to work for you?  If you can’t answer that question honestly, then it’s time for a gut check. 


Go on the offensive to keep your employees happy, and save yourself the added headaches and expenses that comes with replacing them.  It's a worthy investment in the future of your business.


Andy Bertram
Risk Advisor
abertram@cobrown.com
651-800-6173