Most business owner knows that the strength of their team can make or break long-term success, yet day-to-day staff issues can leave you feeling overwhelmed and irritated.
What should you focus on first? How can you create a workplace where your people thrive?
At Munro’s, our seasoned business advisory team in Perth understand that your people are your greatest asset. They take a holistic approach to staff improvement, blending clear, practical strategies with ongoing support to help ensure your team not only meets short-term targets, but, also builds a sustainable, positive culture for the future.
When you’re ready to talk about what we could do for you, please book a meeting or send an enquiry.
People often have a lot of discretion in the way they work and the effort they exert. If their role in achieving your strategy isn’t crystal clear, they aren’t adequately motivated (by more than monetary incentives) and they aren’t held accountable, then business performance can suffer.
Solution
Get structuring right with higher employee standards.
Outcome
Improved staff performance due to clear goals, roles and accountabilities.
video key points
Presented by: Drew Pflaum
video transcript
Why don’t staff “perform”?
It’s not likely because they don’t want to, consciously at least.
It’s more likely because:
It’s probably a combination of these.
So, what are you to do about this?
You need to set out in clear terms how their role contributes to achieving the goals of your strategy.
But, to do this, you need to be crystal clear on what your strategy is.
You should then follow what reputable science shows as two of the key levers for sustained success:
Achieving this will be difficult. By that we mean it’ll require conscious effort and continuous implementation. But the actual building blocks don’t need to get too complicated.
We say keep things as simple as possible, to enable everyone to remain focused and working together to resolve issues for the long-term.
As we’ve mentioned in various places of our website, your people are the source of your competitive advantage. Don’t under-appreciate how influential their discretionary efforts play within the overall success of your business. Rather, commit as all great leaders do, to uplifting your teams understanding, capability and motivation.
Get in touch with us if you want to explore how we can help you, or join the free tier of the Munro’s Business Academy to assist your learning of what can be done.
In that video you just watched, we mentioned some research.
If you’d like the references, simply head on in to the Munro’s Business Academy and you can find them on the Reference page.
Turnover is a particularly expensive problem as many jobs require organisation-specific skills that can take years to cultivate. Scientific evidence shows that both high trust and high purpose increase productivity, reduce job turnover, improve job satisfaction, and make people happier and healthier.
Solution
Develop a high-trust, high purpose culture.
Outcome
Reduced recruitment hassles and costs (average total recruitment costs for professional positions can be nearly one year annual salary).
video key points
Presented by: Drew Pflaum
video transcript
Losing staff has to be one of the biggest costs to many businesses.
We’ve seen reports estimating the average total recruitment costs for professional positions at nearly one year’s annual salary.
The costs of staff turnover aren’t just the advertising, recruiter fee and interview costs. There’s the waste from lost output, both directly from reduced employee counts (at least temporarily) and indirectly due to the hours leaders and managers have to commit to recruitment. Plus there is the additional training costs for the new recruit.
It’s inevitable staff will leave, but how do you extend the productive tenure of staff?
You don’t follow some unsubstantiated “high-performance” framework. Rather, you take advantage of what science has investigated and found to work.
The critical scientific research we’ve read tells us it comes down to building a thriving high trust, high purpose culture.
High trust cultures are motivated to get to the best decisions and have thriving, safe conflicts (or in other words, debates). Furthermore, they have team members who truly work as a team and trust one another to get the requisite work done.
High purpose cultures have team members positively motivated to achieve the big audacious mission – the “purpose” of your business. To help whoever it is your customers are, with whatever painful problem it is your business is driven to resolve for them.
Building a high trust, high purpose culture demands leadership who have set out a clear, motivating strategy. Who live by winning values. Who continuously communicate consistent messaging and overcome the false dichotomy of high standards and being good to people.
So, what is your gut telling you right now? Do you have a thriving high trust, high purpose culture or do these insights perhaps make you feel a bit guilty for falling short?
Don’t feel shame about this. A great many of us have been there. That’s just the journey of business. To learn what is best and continue to get better.
If you want to increase productivity, reduce staff turnover and generally have a happier workforce, don’t feel shame for not being your best now, actually do something about it.
In that video you just watched, we mentioned some research.
If you’d like the references, simply head on in to the Munro’s Business Academy and you can find them on the Reference page.
From time to time employees attend training workshops and seminars to improve business performance. However, besides a training booklet and some scribbled notes, nothing much ever changes, wasting a lot of time and energy.
Solution
Design training to succeed.
Outcome
Training with a positive return on investment and over time a positive force driving your sustainable competitive advantage.
video key points
Presented by: Drew Pflaum
References page.
video transcript
Transcript available on the Improve Programme – Upskilling for Small-Medium Business Owners, Leaders & Rising Stars page.
It’s not uncommon for people to be promoted into management positions without any management training. Some cope, but many take a while to learn things the hard way, whilst some others who were once star performers may never be their best again. Even when there is some management training, it may be sporadic and ineffective.
Solution
Coaching and just-in-time learning.
Outcome
Better leaders.
video key points
Presented By: Drew Pflaum
With Thanks To: Ayman Al-Abdullah
References page.
video transcript
Transcript available on the Business Improvement Workshops, Sprints & Programmes page.
First Session is FREE (incl. GST)
Upskilling Event for Business LeadersClaims of being a ‘Top 2% ranked Australian Accounting Firm‘ (and similar claims) are based on two separate assessments conducted by Munro’s on 9-10 August 2023 and 1 December 2023. The ranking is derived from a comparison of the total of each accounting firm’s overall star rating multiplied by each firm’s quantity of reviews as shown on Google Maps. A total of 4,235 Australian accounting firms listed on Google Maps were identified for the earlier assessment, and a total of 4,301 for the latter assessment, which may not represent a complete list of Australian accounting firms. Munro’s claims are based on Munro’s best estimation and represent a snapshot collected at the time of each assessment. If the assessment was to be conducted today, then it is likely that Munro’s ranking would have changed – Munro’s may or may not be in the Top 2% today. Also, the methodology does not account for other potentially relevant factors such as quality of service, expertise, or client satisfaction beyond Google Maps reviews.
video key points
Presented by: Drew Pflaum
video transcript
In December 2023, we conducted a review of Australian accounting firms on Google Maps, based on star rating and quantity of reviews.
Out of the 4,301 Australian accounting firms we identified on Google, Munro’s ranked number 44, placing us in the Top 2% of Australian Accounting Firms. We’re thrilled to share this fact with you and share those reviews on our website. We’d also like to thank all our clients who left us those wonderful reviews.
Thank you.
From the small technical stuff to the sage big picture advice, Simon and team Munro’s have been patiently guiding and safeguarding our family’s financial journey for decades. THANKS !! Here’s to the next 50 years!
Exceptional Professionalism and Genuine Support
I can’t thank Drew enough for the incredible support he offered during an incredibly stressful and emotional time. His communication was efficient, clear, and refreshingly straightforward—qualities that are hard to come by when dealing with complex financial and legal matters.
Although Munros were ultimately unable to take on my case due to an internal conflict, Drew still gave generously of his time and expertise without charge. He treated the complex situation with empathy and integrity, when most professionals would have run a mile. His advice and clarity made a tangible difference to both my confidence and the steps I’m now taking to secure a better future for myself and my children.
It’s deeply regrettable that I can’t continue with Drew as our accountant long-term, because he would’ve been my first choice without question. I would highly recommend him to anyone needing not only expert accounting but also genuine human support.
Thank you again, Drew — you have been amazing.
— Emma Rocca
I have used Munros now for 3 years, and I find them excellent – can highly recommend them to anyone needing a fantastic Accountant!
Drew provided great tax advice tailored to our circumstances. His guidance was clear, easy to understand and is expected to save us thousands. Munro’s accountants are fantastic, highly recommend.
We have been looked after by accountant Mr Carl Hansen. We are very grateful for his help on our tax matters. He is very thorough, knowledgeable and easy to approach. Highly recommend!
I can highly recommend Tony and Michael at Munros – they have done my family affairs for several years now and couldn’t be more happier with the service I receive. The quality and professionalism of the work is second to none.
We followed Mike Beer when he joined Munros and have been with them ever since. Mike has been a huge help over many years. He is always available to answer even the most basic/ extraordinarily naive questions, and always with a generous and helpful attitude.
I highly recommend Drew and the team at Munros for their excellent accounting services, particularly with investment income as well as their crypto expertise. Thanks Drew.
Great Firm. Have been dealing with Christine for a few years and she is always there for advice and willing to help. Highly recommend.
Drew @ Munro’s was very professional and they did a great job!
Our Munro’s Experience began approximately 38/40 years ago. Steve’s parents were already customers of Munros, in particular Barry Virgo, and we followed suit.
For the first couple of years we had several changes of Accountants at Munro’s (we always got the newbies and had to ‘train them up’ to know how to get the best deal from the Tax Office for farmers. We became fed up of this system. Our last newbie was Simon Strawbridge. Well, we got him “trained up right proper” then they wanted to give us the next new one, but we stated we weren’t changing.
Today, Simon is still our go to man. Whilst we understand there have been many very efficient people working in the background on our business affairs, for which we thank them sincerely, we have always maintained our professional relationship with Simon.
We have been through some big business changes in our farming adventures over these past 40 odd years, and the advice, help and professional assistance has been 100%. At times we didn’t know who to trust to give us the best business advice and we were fortunate to be able to lean on Simon’s vast knowledge to help us make these decisions.
Our working partnership of having our taxation needs, investment portfolios, wills, etc. linked in with Munros and the great staff has been successful.
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