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I am the owner of a small business company that has between ten and fifteen people.

There are some crucial employee-related roles, such as morale building, employee welfare, bonus setting, and other jobs that require specific skills and that are crucial to my company's growth and survival. These roles, if performed correctly, will make sure my team is performing at the most optimum level.

So, the question is, is there a specific position that do all these things?

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The ultimate person responsible in my opinion for morale building is the top honcho. YOU! However you can delegate this down the chain to ensure it is being addressed to those you think might fit the bill and have a more on the ground feel for how things are going in the team. However you set the standard (expectations) and those assigned specific tasks then try to implement and see them through.

For other tasks it can depend on your relationship with your employees and their job allocations. Sometimes I've seen the person responsible for dealing with the bills, office tasks etc take on the role of employee welfare. For bonus setting it might be a senior manager/person who leads the gathering of this information and all the donkey work but gets any final sign-off by yourself

Although these roles can be done by one person I would think your company size is big enough (but not so big for a full time HR) that it may be split between individuals concerned with you still having the ultimate say if and as required.

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    Totally agreed - morale building, team building, etc. is the sole responsibility of the top of the food chain; building morale and community isn't something that can be outsourced (to an "HR and Marketing" person or the like) You may have someone else organize (which might be a good idea, too) - but you need to participate in a very visible manner so everyone else sees it as something that is both "okay" and "encouraged". It's hard for leaders to build culture and teamwork, but an errant glance or phrase can totally destroy both. Dec 4, 2012 at 14:50
  • Agree completely - also, in a small company or team, I've seen that the person who's good at it is often the person who does it - when it comes to the organization and suggestion of ideas to improve morale. There are just some people in any group who are more tuned in this way. It's often unofficial, but important to have a personality that acts as glue pulling everone together. If it isn't the owner, there needs to be a strong repore between this person and the owner where the two agree on the key elements of culture. Dec 4, 2012 at 15:18
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In most cases that would be your HR person. However my company and yours is roughly the same size and I do not have a full time HR person. So in my case my project manager take on the roles that you speak of. If there is a issue with me or the other project managers I usually pay a lawyer to act as a 3rd party in such a event if things can not be resolved.

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Ultimately, it is the management that sets the professional tone of an organisation, especially in key (linked) areas like morale and employee welfare.

You've indicated that you are the owner, but you haven't highlighted what specific role(s) you fill in the organisation, and which you have already delegated to someone else.

If you key role is "outwards facing" - business development, strategy and so on - then it can be difficult to maintain this and an excellent level of "internal" focus required to keep the operation running happily and smoothly.

There is also a question of aptitude; only you (or perhaps your staff) can honestly identify if you are the right person to coach, mentor, manage and grow all of your people.

My former manager was highly strategic and focussed on business development; he could also get very stressed from time to time. When we set up our business unit, I was initially his only direct report, and ran the team operationally to give him the space he needed from the team when he required it.

When he left, and I took over his position, I restructured our group to retain the "team mentor" side of things, which I enjoy, delegating other components of his role to keep things balanced.

It took some time to grow the skills in the other team members, but ultimately it worked well.

In short, I'd suggest that you can choose whether to take these things on yourself, or to create a position to run them for you. The most important element of this choice is how much you enjoy performing these tasks, and how much time you can afford to invest in them yourself.

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The manager is responsible for building his/her team's morale. Naturally (s)he can use some tools&advice provided by someone designated to do HR-related stuff but finally morale is his/her task. The same is for bonus setting - this goes according to the rules defined by the company leader. I assume that you're the only manager in your company because 12-16 people is usually cited as max. size of the team that can be effectively managed. There's however one important thing to emphasize. In case of bonus, welafare/benefits etc. you as a manager are responsible for the decisions but administration of the process can be delegated (or even outsourced, like in case of some welfare aspects).

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Yes, its the responsibility of the team leaders to look after the team members and their performances. Employees need to be recognized every time.So, employee recognition is not only important for the employees only but also this will result into the growth and development of the organization.So, on the whole, its the responsibility of the team leaders to build and maintain a team building spirit among the team members.

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    I see that your point is that it's the team leader's job, which is fair, but I think this answer could use some revision. It doesn't give much information on why you see team leaders as the people who are in the best position to do this. Dec 4, 2012 at 15:25

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