Accountability and recruiting the best possible staff are crucial for planning practices that are building a planning business, according to Strategic Consulting and Training managing director Jim Stackpool.
Speaking at the Resnik Communications Sales, Marketing and Practice Management conference on Friday, Stackpool said that if staff were not prepared to be accountable for their actions, it was unlikely they would achieve much.
He says beyond this the only issue is to decide which tasks staff and planners will take on and then ensure they will be accountable for the execution of them.
“To do this, practices need to move away from the traditional practice models to those which have a defined practice management structure,” Stackpools says.
“This should include the use of a board as well as some form of practice manager separate from the principal planners.”
Stackpool says a board should be made up of professionals and given the brief to challenge plans and enforce goals. However, given the role of the board, he says these people should not be drawn from people who are close to the principal.
“The board should not be friends and [would] preferably be made up of people you don’t love in any way because they will, as is their job, give any planner or principal a hard time,” Stackpool says.
He also says that while looking at company structures, planners should hire the best possible people, even if they can’t afford them.
“When starting, the business couldn’t really afford the principal either but that person was crucial in progressing the business,” Stackpool says.
“If a business waits until it can afford the right staff to grow, it will always be behind itself since the resources needed can never be watched in that manner.”
Rather, new staff should have their roles and authority defined as they are inducted into the business and management processes, Stackpool says.
“I would also avoid offering them equity in a business for at least two years in case there is cultural or business difference which should become evident over this time,” Stackpool says.
He says after this period, the objectives of the employee and the business should be aligned and the relationship can move into a more strategic role, including longer term career management and business succession.
