INTERVIEW: Small Business Leaders Can Create a Unique Connection with Employees

Four out of five small businesses believe they offer a unique opportunity for their employees to have direct connection to upper management; something you might not find in large corporations with thousands of employees. In this interview, SkillPath CEO Michele Markey talks about whether she finds this to be true, and how small businesses can encourage employee retention.

This interview has been edited for clarity

Do you agree small businesses offer a unique connection to their employees?

I do. I view it the same way others might view the difference between a large and small university. At first I went to a large university, and I hated it. You’d find yourself in a class with literally 500 other people, and the professor was inaccessible. If you had a question, you had to make an appointment, and you would only get to talk to the TA. So I ended up transferring to a smaller university and I loved it. I could always talk with my professors, and if I had questions, I could get them answered.

My first job out of school, I worked for a large company that had about 20,000 people locally, and I really felt like a cog in a machine. I really never felt that I could make much difference there, so I ended up leaving and spending most of the rest of my career in smaller organizations.

I’ve found that in a small business, I can know who I’m working with and know the leadership. I really feel that, when it comes to problem solving or new ideas, I can have a direct impact; I can be heard and make a difference. From my perspective as CEO now, you get to have a relationship with people and think of them as colleagues.

All of that being said, just because you’re in a small business doesn't mean there’s a willingness to have those kinds of personal connections. That willingness has to come from management to adopt a collaborative leadership style. If you’re a small business leader, you have to instill that mindset.

So as CEO, how do you go about instilling that mindset in your VPs, and ensuring that it trickles down to their managers? How do you try to let even entry-level employees know that they can come to you with a question?

I think you have to model it and it has to be genuine, not just words. You can't just say, “I've got an open door policy” and then not really adhere to that. Not everybody wants to share a ton of personal stuff, and I'm not suggesting we should, but you can't fake it. And I think that comes through caring about people as humans versus just employees. It shows through the things that you choose to do day in and day out so that people realize you're being genuine.

I think you can get that in a larger company with a smaller teams, but I just I think the ability to really make an impact is more difficult.

Do you think there's something that small businesses could be doing to be a little more creative in terms of employee retention and maybe not just use access to upper management as a crutch?

I think people oftentimes will stay at an organization where they feel valued. So what we do is try and host some different events. So for example, we're getting ready to do a “Cookies with Santa” event where we encourage people to bring their families in. Individually we reinstated the service awards for major work anniversaries. I don't think any of these things individually are game changers, but I think collectively having something that is giving back to the employees on a regular basis is helpful.

We're really careful about looking at our benefits and hearing what employees are asking for. And we’re working with an independent organization that takes a look at our benefits and says where we fall in the spectrum compared to other small businesses. So it's maybe a combination of these kinds of things to just share that we care about people and we care about the work they do. We care about what they have to say. And hopefully people feel included and part of the solution. They can come into work and have a sense of belonging.

Talking about small businesses, even 100 employees is not a small number. So do you have any advice for other small business leaders about how they can maintain that feeling of access and being noticed by upper management?

Yes, and this goes back to what we talked about of having regular meetings with my executive team. Because employees aren’t going to e-mail me with life updates; I hear about it from my VPs. Regular communication with your team helps you really stay connected to people. When I'm in the building, I usually get up and walk around and talk with people that are here so I can stay engaged.

I do think sometimes that other CEOs may have to work hard to budget time to have these regular meetings, but I feel that it’s critical to know more than what a spreadsheet will tell me or what a ledger will tell me. Those are all good and fine, but that's not really running your business. Running your business is working with people and making sure that you're creating a culture where everybody not only feels included, but feels important and that they have a voice. And I just think that that's something you can't quantify on a spreadsheet.

My biggest objective is to make sure that everybody that works at SkillPath feels safe and comfortable. I've worked at places where I'm constantly looking over my shoulder, and just thinking to myself, “when is the other shoe going to drop?” I don't want people to feel that way. I feel that communicating on a regular basis, whether it's quarterly with the whole company, or going to see teams when they're in the building, or doing the one-on-ones, is to weave together the narrative that lets everybody know what's going on and what we're doing is important.

I think that's kind of the core of what a small company can create. These meetings aren’t just a priority, you have to really enjoy it. Enjoy knowing the people you work with, and acknowledge that, while we have different things we do in our jobs, they're all equally important to the functioning of our company.
 

Michele Markey is the CEO of SkillPath. A leader in the learning and development industry since 1989, SkillPath delivers more than 16,000 training sessions each year and has enriched the professional and personal lives of more than 10 million individuals worldwide. Connect with Michele Markey on LinkedIn.

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