Before you Hire or Fire – Learn this Law

Business owners have many rules to follow and some “laws” that should govern their decisions.  Here is one law every small business owner must be aware of.  It’s called Parkinson’s Law and it was developed by C. Northcote Parkinson.  The law:

‘WORK EXPANDS SO AS TO FILL THE TIME AVAILABLE FOR ITS COMPLETION’

The corollary of the law is the saying, “If you want something done, ask a busy person.”  We all know people who are busy and well-organized and who get lots done.  If you ask them to do something else, they easily fit it into their schedule.  If people are not busy, it’s usually because they are (a) lazy, (b) disorganized, (c) uninterested, or all of the above.

How does Parkinson’s Law work for small businesses? Parkinson’s Law affects small businesses in one simple way:  If you have one person to do a job, that person will most likely get the job done.  If you hire a second person because the first person is “too busy,’ the second person will also become “too busy.”  Note that you haven’t added anything to the job description; you just found a way to pay two people to do the same work. Sot the work expands to fill the time of the people available to do it.  What happens is that people add to their work with little tasks because they are afraid if they don’t look and act busy they will get fired.

A personal example. I once ran a very small department which included a secretary.  She always looked very busy, making copies, planning meetings (sometimes 6 months ahead of time!) and doing all kinds of little tasks for the other staff people.  She complained about being too busy, so I told her to stop planning meetings so far ahead and doing the work of others.  Soon after, she left the department.  We put a part-time person in her place and the part-time person had a hard time finding enough to do.  See what I mean?

For hiring. If your employees tell you they are doing too much and they can’t possibly keep up with the demands of their jobs and they need you to hire more people, here is what I suggest: Have everyone stop and write down everything they are doing.  Make sure they leave nothing out.  I guarantee that you will find that much of what they do is either unnecessary or inefficient and that you could cut out a lot of what they are doing or have them do it in a more efficient manner.

Some examples of P’s Law in Action. Just a couple of simple examples:

• Your office manager makes a list each morning of the customers to be called that day.  Your office assistant makes up the same list.  Assign one person to make the list and share it with the other person.  Or have them figure out a way for your note-taking software to generate the list and send it to all three of you every day.
• The mail gets sorted by the office assistant.  She opens everything. Even the junk. And she tries to figure out who should get each piece of mail.  Create a checklist or priority list for her, showing her what to do with all correspondence, including junk mail.

For firing. If you are are having trouble meeting your payroll, and you have more than two employees, look around and see if you can cut at least one person. Or take someone to part-time.  Just watch how the same amount of work will be done by the people who remain. Be sure you re-evaluate the workload of the remaining people, using the process I described above, so each person isn’t overburdened.

I have seen Parkinson’s Law work over and over again, in many businesses.  If your business is struggling, look at the work your employees are doing and see if you can’t cut some of it down – or out.

Image: sxc.hu