Give Quantitative, Monetary Values to Employee Benefits or Risk Attrition

Not surprisingly, small business owners, human resources experts and benefits professionals are familiar with the value of their employees’ benefits, including everything from take-home pay and time off, to insurance and commuter-assistance, and everything in between. While employees themselves know the worth of their pay checks, they might not be aware of the value of their other benefits - even if they’re taking advantage of them.

Making sure your workforce understands the value of everything you’re offering could be a critical step in ensuring that your employees don’t jump ship because they think they’re being shorted on the benefits front. According to the 2013 Aflac WorkForces Report, 59 percent of employees indicated they would take a job with slightly lower pay if it came with more robust benefits.

Reduce the Risk of Attrition

Remember, you risk talent going elsewhere because they think they’ll be getting better benefits, when in reality, it’s possible they’ll only be getting better-communicated benefits.

Wise entrepreneurs are using the open enrollment period to switch employees’ focus from a narrow view of health care benefits to a broader perspective that looks at “total benefits” or “total rewards.” Encouraging workers to take a look at the bigger picture, which oftentimes is brighter than the health benefits snapshot alone, is a strategy to help prevent attrition.

So, what are total rewards?

They’re the entire range of benefits provided to workers, from health care coverage and retirement benefits to career-development opportunities and work-life balance. In a nutshell, total rewards are all the things that help a company attract, motivate and retain employees, communicated to workers in one tidy package.

Turn the Conversation to Total Benefit Rewards

During the recession, many workers made conscious decisions to remain in their current jobs until the financial skies began to clear. With the economy ticking upward, though, many are looking for new opportunities.

A recent Right Management survey revealed that 86 percent of employees plan to actively look for new jobs in 2013. Furthermore, 55 percent of workers are at least somewhat likely to look for other work if their employers stop offering comprehensive benefits or send them to health insurance marketplaces.

Given that superior benefits are an attractive enticement to job seekers, small businesses that want to retain their valued workers and bring in top new talent should communicate about total benefits at open enrollment (now!) and continuously throughout the year.

When communicating about total rewards, or the total value of employment, the conversation should expand to encompass not only wages and salaries, but also:

• Employer-paid taxes
• Workers’ compensation insurance; employee assistance programs
• Wellness initiatives
• Company-sponsored health
• Life and disability insurance
• Access to voluntary insurance
• Health-care spending accounts
• Dependent-care spending accounts
• Commuter-assistance programs
• Training
• Vacation time
• Sick days
• Pension funds
• 401(k) matches
• Any other perks that have an innate monetary value

When companies do talk about compensation other than salaries, the communication is often muddled by acronyms, jargon and charts that only HR representatives understand. Even companies that comprehend the importance of clear, straightforward benefits communications sometimes drop the ball with respect to timing.

Benefits communications should be delivered year round and in small doses to ensure they’re read, understood and absorbed.

Key times to spread the benefits message include open enrollment, during recruiting and on-boarding and when a worker is promoted or transferred to another department. The message can also be timed to life events, such as marriage or the birth of a child. Other opportune moments are work anniversaries and significant age milestones.

Start Spreading the News

With workers nervous and unsure about how health care reform will affect their benefits packages, small businesses should launch total rewards discussions or even provide employees with annual total rewards report cards outlining the true monetary value of their benefits as soon as possible. Many employees who view the improving economy as a chance to seek jobs with better benefits have skewed impressions of just what constitutes a “better benefits package.”

By reminding workers to consider their full range of benefits, from salary to health care to paid time off and more, many entrepreneurs will help workers realize that the green grass on the other side of the fence - is actually artificial turf.

Quit Photo via Shutterstock

10 Mindsets of Successful Entrepreneurs

Entrepreneurs are all different. They all have a different entrepreneur mindset that contributes to their success. Their entrepreneur mindset might have to do with their personality or even the field in which they have chosen to work.

When figuring out your own approach to the challenges of entrepreneurship, it can help to learn from the experiences of others.

We’ve selected the experiences and entrepreneur mindset of 10 well-known entrepreneurs from a variety of different fields. It is our hope that you will find something in each of their stories that will help you in your own entrepreneurial adventures.

1. Reach Out to Customers First

[Image: Stevens Institute]

Though it may seem to many like product development should come first, master bootstrapper Greg Gianforte insists that’s the wrong approach. After moving to Montana with his wife and children after selling a previous company, Gianforte grew restless and decided to start again.

He focused on the tech sector where his experience was strongest. But instead of starting with a prototype for a product or service and then seeking funding, he started by getting on the phone with potential customers. That led to conversations about what kind of product they would buy.

After a month of phone calls, Gianforte spent about 60 days coding the product his customers said they wanted. He claims his company, RightNow Technologies, was cash positive from the beginning.

The business makes cloud-based software for large consumer businesses and was sold to Oracle in 2011.

2. Find a New Market for an Existing Product

[Image: Wikipedia]

Sam Phillips, founder of Sun Records, did not invent Rock ‘n Roll, but his small Memphis label will forever be linked to its beginnings.

Phillips established his recording studio and eventually his record label as a way to capture the interaction of country and blues music he was already familiar with as a DJ. There was a wealth of talent he believed most of the country was unfamiliar with and had never heard. He created a relaxed studio environment with unique acoustics to capture and immortalize that talent.

Phillips would eventually discover stars like Elvis, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins and Johnny Cash and he became an icon and a wealthy entrepreneur as a result.

3. Use Networking to Build Your Business

[Image: DocStoc]

Many entrepreneurs talk about the importance of networking, but few are as specific about how and why networking is important as Jason Nazar, co-founder and CEO of Docstock.com.

In an interview on the MyTreat Blog, Nazar says he owes his success â€" particularly the founding and growth of his current company â€" to his networking efforts. He says he used networking to raise $4 million in startup funds. He says he also used it to locate a co-founder and build the majority of his organization.

Nazar gives some important advice to other entrepeneurs when using networking in business. First,  measure the return on investment you are getting from your networking efforts.

Second, make sure you give something of value first when making connections instead of beginning by asking for something.

4. Give Without Expecting a Return

[Image: SocialTriggers]

This may seem like a contradiction to our last point. But author, former hedge fund manager and tech entrepreneur James Altucher stands by the belief that great opportunities come your way when you offer something without looking for payback.

Altucher says he regularly sends out ideas to people with whom he would like to do business or those he admires and would like to meet and asks for nothing in return. Often he does not receive so much as a response, he says, but sometimes the results are magical.

In one instance, Altucher sent investment expert Jim Cramer, co-founder of TheStreet.com, a list of suggested article topics. As a result, Altucher received an invitation to become a contributing writer.

TheStreet.com would later invest in one of his websites, Stockpickr.com - then buy it from him.

5. Keep Control of Your Vision

[Image: Wikipedia]

Jack Ma, also known as Ma Yun, is the founder and guiding hand behind Alibaba, a giant Hong Kong-based wholesale eCommerce site. Despite its popularity and financial success, Alibaba’s road to acceptance outside China has not been easy.

Complaints about counterfeit or fake items sold on the site as name brands abound. And, of course, the problem is exacerbated as Alibaba attempts to position itself as a site other businesses use as a source of wholesale merchandise.

As Alibaba considers going public with an IPO, another challenge looms. Ma wants to keep tight control of his company and of the team of executives he already has in place. This can be hard to do once investors enter the picture. Many want to have a say in how the company is run after investing their hard earned money.

But Ma believes in his vision for his company and in the culture he has created to get the job done.

6. Understand the Power of Brand

[Image: Wikipedia]

When the first series of Star Wars movies was released in the late 70′s and early 80′s, most people saw only a pop culture phenomenon. The string of successful films created a whole new market for science fiction and fantasy.

But creator and filmmaker George Lucas saw so much more. To him, the first trilogy of films and the three additional movies that followed became a powerful brand. That brand became a spring board to lucrative licensing deals for everything from toys, to video games, to memorabilia and live attractions.

In 2012, Lucas sold Lucasfilm and the Star Wars franchise that went with it to Disney for $4.05 billion.

In the meantime, Lucas clearly hasn’t lost his interest in powerful and profitable brands. He recently invested $10 million in the successful Starbucks cafe chain.

7. Focus Your Energy on What’s Good for Your Business

[Image: Wikipedia]

From best selling albums to a nightclub, a clothing line, a sports franchise and more, rapper Jay Z is known not just for his music but also for his business acumen.

His success is based in part on his focus. It includes a refusal to spend his time on anything that does not expand his entrepreneurial ventures. Forbes staff writer Zack O’Malley Greenburg says this focus caused Jay Z to decline involvement in a book Greenburg was writing about him.

Instead, Jay Z decided to put out his own book and profit directly from his own story and image.

While some might consider this outlook shortsighted, the question remains. How often have we allowed someone else to drag our focus and energy away from our businesses - and what has it cost us?

8. Always Maintain Quality Control

[Image: Wikipedia]

From the age of fourteen when he began his apprenticeship in his family bakery until his death in 2002, Lionel Puoilâne was obsessed. And that obsession was with the quality of bread that bore his family’s name.

Puoilâne became world famous for artisan crafted bread baked in wood fired ovens.

As international demand for his bread grew, he still refused to mass produce his product. Instead, he insisted that each loaf still be hand crafted by a baker personally trained in his techniques.

Even as he experimented with more modern techniques and expanded his bakery operations, Puoilâne’s interest in maintaining quality control in his business never wavered.

His daughter, Apollonia, continues that tradition to this day.

9. Set Your Product Apart

[Image: Wikipedia]

The desire to create a product that stands alone is nothing new. Way back in 1783, the Primrose brothers (George and William) promised to produce crystal as fine as any in Europe - and the Waterford brand was born.

The brothers’ secret technique of combining glass and minerals to produce crystal that actually “sings” when tapped with the finger became renowned. The crystal is also known for the deep and ornate carvings created by skilled artisans that give it a distinctive appearance.

So beloved and valued was the Waterford brand that even when the factory closed in the 1850′s due to economic hard times, the unrivaled quality of Waterford Crystal was never forgotten.

Almost a century later, the Waterford Crystal tradition was revived, returning the crystal and the town in Ireland for which it was named, to their former glory.

10. Take Ownership

[Image: Wikipedia]

Oprah Winfrey had experienced plenty of success as a broadcaster and even in the entertainment industry before ever launching the Oprah Winfrey Show in 1986.

After some initial radio and TV jobs, she would host a successful chat show in Baltimore and later a show in Chicago that beat Phil Donahue in local ratings.

She would even star in a movie, “The Color Purple” with Whoopi Goldberg, directed by Steven Spielberg. But it wasn’t until after taking ownership of her syndicated talk show from ABC that Winfrey’s entrepreneurial skills began coming into focus. Her production company would eventually produce other TV and film projects.

Winfrey’s entrepreneur mindset eventually led her to launch a magazine and even her own TV network.

***Tell us, which entrepreneur mindset approach did you find most inspiring?

Hosting Company Media Temple Is Bought by GoDaddy

 

GoDaddy has made another acquisition - its sixth purchase in less than two years.  The company best known for domain names has bought Media Temple, a hosting company founded in 1998.

Media Temple, which also goes by the unusual designation (mt), has over 125,000 customers and hosts more than 1.5 million websites.

This is not specifically a small business play as some recent GoDaddy acquisitions have been.  However, small businesses and entrepreneurs know and use Media Temple.  But the company also hosts websites of some very large businesses, including Volkswagen and The Wall Street Journal.

Media Temple views its mission as serving the technical community of Web developers and designers.  GoDaddy CEO Blake Irving added in a prepared statement, ”The people at Media Temple ‘get’ Web pros and developers.”  He adds that as a result of the acquisition, GoDaddy will “reach a more technical audience” than it has historically.

The different market targets are obvious when you look at the two companies’ websites.  The GoDaddy website now appears less technical under Blake’s leadership, appealing to small business owners and marketing types.  The Media Temple website unapologetically speaks “geek” to a technical audience.

Media Temple to Operate Independently

Media Temple will be run as a separate company and not integrated into GoDaddy.  There are FAQs on the Media Temple blog indicating that hosting will continue out of the Media Temple data centers.  Discounts and coupons are not interchangeable â€" GoDaddy discounts cannot be used at Media Temple, nor vice versa.

One Media Temple co-founder, John Carey, will be leaving.  Co-founder Demian Sellfors will be “shifting his focus to other projects” although it’s  not clear precisely what that means.  His hand-picked successor, Russell P. Reeder, will remain as Media Temple’s President.

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

The Media Temple FAQs are unusual because they confront GoDaddy’s reputation in the tech community. The FAQs say, “GoDaddy has been transformed in recent months and is essentially a new company. If we did not like what we have seen, we would not have joined the GoDaddy family.”

And on Twitter, Media Temple founder Sellfors seems to be having to set the GoDaddy record straight for some who are unhappy with the news.  One response he made is, “I do not support their old advertising either, but this is not their direction anymore.”

Since 2011 GoDaddy has had new owners/investors. With the infusion of cash it has brought in a new management team and gone acquiring.

Virb Website Builder Not Included in Deal

Virb, a $10-per-month website builder acquired by Media Temple in 2012, is not included in the deal.  Virb will be sold back to its founder/investors, who are the two Media Temple founders along with Brad Smith, according to a statement on the Virb blog.  GoDaddy has its own website builder product. The statement says GoDaddy’s vision for the two products is different.

Media Temple, based in Los Angeles, has 225 employees.  GoDaddy, based in Scottsdale, Arizona serves 12 million customers and has 4,000 employees.

Image: Media Temple Twitter profile