The correct employees, properly motivated, properly trained, are the most powerful asset that a business can have. The effective use of this asset really determines how well the non-human assets can be used. The best plant will not be productive unless the people in it are. This is especially critical for small businesses. Small businesses simply cannot afford to have the wrong people, meaning anyone other than the right people, working for them. As a small business or department within a larger organization, you can't afford to absorb the inefficiency of one or two wrong employees. The cost here is not only their own non-productivity, but also the more insidious cost of their counter-productivity. These "wrong" workers negatively affect the efficiency of your other employees and your own productivity as owner or manager.

There is a simple cure for most personnel problems - make sure that you have the right employees properly trained and motivated. Simple as this cure is to state, it is not so simple in application.

The seven-step process shows how you can avoid most of the commonly observed people problems. People are a critical asset, a critical resource within your business. Make sure that this resource is used to its maximum advantage. The process that is described is one that you can implement in your own business to achieve this objective.