Personal problems

If you have ever been in a situation where family ties are drawn upon to secure employment for a relative, you will know that this is often a tricky state of affairs. Hiring employees based on family connections alone can be dangerous, as it will often lead to an employee who has no aptitude for or interest in your business, yet feels entitled by their personal relationship with you to get away with not putting in the time and effort given by non-family employees.

To help to combat such problems, a good Human Resources team can be your best weapon, especially if headed up by a non-family manager. A HR team can put a system in place which will outline entry and exit policies for all staff members, summarise duties and responsibilities for every role within the business, and handle rewards and disciplinary action for staff from an object standpoint, removing family connections and obligations from the situation.

It can also happen, when family staff members are not pulling their weight, that non-family employees become disgruntled, disheartened and disillusioned with their import within the business. This can then lead to a high turnover rate among non-family staff within family businesses, caused by a lack of communication and consideration.

Having a solid HR team in place can help with intra-office communications, especially in a situation where non-family employees have issues with family employees and feel that they cannot bring their complaints to family management. Giving employees an impartial manager to talk to about work issues will ultimately help to identify problem areas and employees so that they can be dealt with to avoid such problems from occurring in the future, making for a more productive and enjoyable working environment.