Weekly Tip: Help Your People to Be Money Smart

Ask these questions to your employees:

1. How do we make money?
2. What is our biggest cost that we control in our service or product?
3. How do you help make us profitable?

If your employees in your company can answer these questions to your satisfaction, stop. You are doing everything you need to do and you should just keep doing it.

However, if not, then go to work.

Make it clear – You are not trying to teach an MBA level course. You are seeking clarity of what the 2-3 big levers are that make the key difference.

Connect the dots – Help every person to see what his or her contribution is to those few levers. Be specific. By getting people to see how their efforts change the numbers, you can reward behaviors that fit and correct behaviors that don’t.  A trucking company I know explained to their drivers what the ratio of idling time was to fuel cost. Simple change, shut off trucks on deliveries that are two floors above the first floor, or unloading over more than one palette.

Monitor and reward – Behavior modification 101- what gets measured and reinforced gets done.