April 27 is "Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day"
How happy are you with your promotions?

There is an old story of small business; The good news is that revenue is increasing. The bad news is that we have to find additional staff. There is even a current day commercial for an online employment site that plays to this same issue.

This month's article has a couple of ideas of how you can find the new help your business needs.

Just this morning we were visiting with Mark Ryski, the guest on the April e-retailer conversation. We were discussing foot traffic counting and conversion rates for a brick and mortar business. While a frequent measurement for a business is "sales per employee", we discussed "personal productivity ratio" which is comparing your staff to the profit they produce. Want to know more of how to calculate this? Follow the link below.

Here is a key question during a job interview that can pay dividends with those you hire. "If you had a day off to do anything you wanted, what would you do"?

Listen carefully to the answer. There is a good chance their answer is something that you can provide for them. The next time you are creating an incentive for your employees, consider creating individualized rewards instead of a one prize that the owner gets. By this I mean, the prize is different for each employee.

The employee has already told you what they want. They will definitely enjoy something they know they want more than something we might dream up for them.

And for existing employees, it is as simple as asking that initial question during a conversation. Just be sure to listen carefully and note the answer in their employee file.

We want to recognize A Carrot A Day by Adrian Gostick and Chester Elton, whose book provides the basis for each month's incentive idea.