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By Anastasia Bennett, Two-Brain Mentor Why should you evaluate your staff? “The goal needs to be to get the team right, get them moving in the right direction, and get them to see where they are making mistakes and where they are succeeding.” ― Daniel Coyle, “The Culture Code: The Secrets of Highly Successful Groups” Regular evaluations during the year will help your staff have a clear understanding of how they measure up against their targets and standards. The purpose of evaluating your staff is to give them an opportunity to grow. Evaluation and constructive feedback is a gateway for improvement. Don’t wait until your staff do something wrong. Conduct your evaluations every three to six months, and schedule them in advance. We teach consistency, and staff evaluations should be done on a regular schedule. If you are consistent with your evaluations, there won’t be any surprises for your team. If you wait until they’ve done something wrong, that’s unfair to everyone. Be proactive, rather than reactive. Evaluation sessions are a great way to acknowledge performance achievements as well. It will help your staff to feel safe and secure, and it will build a stronger culture within your workplace. “Group performance depends on behavior that communicates one powerful overarching idea: We are safe and connected.” ― Daniel Coyle, “The Culture Code: The Secrets of Highly Successful Groups” It is very important to keep your feedback informative, positive and constructive. Coyle recommended using this line in your delivery: “I’m giving you these comments because I have very high expectations and I know that you can reach them.” Celebrate great performances in public: Praise a staff person in front of your team. Give them visible rewards and tangible experiences. Make sure everyone receives praise for their specific actions, instead of general “good job, team!” posts. Team posts are the bare minimum; individual praise for specific traits or actions is much more powerful. ...

Go ahead, give them a salary. Then type up the contract on your Electrolux typewriter, send them a turkey at Christmas, and flip your calendar ahead to 1983. 35 years from now, you’ll ask your staff what they like; find their strengths; and put them in a job that rewards them financially and emotionally. Or feel free to jump ahead to 2018 now. Pay your staff for the value they bring to your business. Start by breaking down every role in your business. Think of these as the “hats” that must be worn to run it. Now determine the replacement value for each role. What must a person know to be good at that role? What’s that level of education worth? (Don’t worry, there’s an example coming.) How much time is required every week to fulfill that role? How will you measure success? Now group the roles together to create jobs and careers (they’re different). Add up all the roles in your business. Does your total payroll (including taxes and benefits) equal 44.4% of your gross revenue or less? Perfect. Sign the contracts! If your payroll is more than 44% of your total revenue, panic.  Just kidding! Take action to either increase your revenue or decrease your payroll. After you make the free appointment, read “The Salary Cap“. If you have no idea what percentage of your gross revenue goes to payroll, Call a mentor. Now here’s the example: Let’s say a business in the Farmer phase has 14 different roles. These include bookkeeping, personal training, group fitness coaching, nutrition coaching, cleaning, Customer Service Manager, and a few others. We sit down with a staff member and ask a few questions (we teach the exact questions in the Incubator). The staff person says, “I really want to make this my career.” We say, “Fantastic! We’d love to have you. Here’s how we’re going to do it!” We pull out our ...