One of the first things a company should do is to develop a mission statement.  People often confuse a mission statement with a vision statement.  A vision statement sets the future goals of a company, while the mission statement guides how these goals will be achieved – the strategic decision making.  The mission statement tells the company’s reason for existing. Your company’s mission statement should reflect your company’s values, attitudes and beliefs, which should reflect your personal values, attitudes and beliefs.  To help you develop your mission statement, you should answer the following questions What is our business? Why do we exist? What are we trying to accomplish? Having a mission statement will give your employees (and people that you deal with outside the organization) common goals.  It will help guide employees in how to perform their jobs, how to treat customer and how to represent the company.  Without a mission statement, you may find that your employees will begin to operate by their own personal attitudes and beliefs, which may not be the same as yours.  Whether we realize it or not, we all have our own personal mission statements. The length of the mission statement will vary from […]

Cabbage Moth Syndrome Have you or do you know of someone who has been afflicted by the “CABBAGE MOTH SYNDROME”? This lesson was taught to me by my oldest grandson a few years ago. One Easter Sunday my daughter planned an Easter Egg Hunt for my grandson. She placed tiny miniature marshmallows into a dozen or so brightly colored plastic Easter eggs and placed them in the yard in plain sight and in a row. She then pointed them out to my grandson who immediately went to the nearest one and opened it. He was excited to see the miniature marshmallows inside and promptly ate them. He then went to the next nearest egg and opened it, thrilled to find more marshmallows. All the time this was going on my daughter was recording him on her iPhone. She was planning to share video with friends and family on Facebook. Everything was going great until this Cabbage Moth showed up. This tiny white moth flew in front of my grandson, distracted him and led him off into another direction. Obviously this frustrated my daughter who was busy filming. She became noticeably agitated with the boy. I suggested she be patient and wait a few minutes. My grandson, who was easily distracted, knew where the […]

Employment-At-Will Status “A verbal contract isn’t worth the paper it’s written on.” -Samuel Goldwyn An “Employment-At-Will” statement helps your employees and anyone outside of your organization understand that employment with your company is voluntarily entered into by both the employee and the company. Employees are free to resign at any time and the company may terminate any employee at any time, with or without cause. That does not pertain if your company has a union contract and you are operating under that contract. It is important to establish this understanding within your organization’s employee handbook. Some organizations will use the term “employee handbook” and others will will use the term “employee manual.” I prefer the term “employee handbook” because in some instances the courts have tried to argue the term “manual” relates to having a contract. It will be important for your employees to understand that policies found within your company’s employee handbook are not intended to create a contract. Ensure they understand by beginning your employee handbook with your Employment-At-Will statement and by putting in writing that policies found within the employee handbook are not to be construed as a contractual obligation of any kind or to create a […]