Haymill's Steve Farrant speaks out

It's people who make companies. Your staff are your biggest asset.

This is a mantra every finance director in a construction company should have to chant for an hour every morning. Well five minutes at least. And by staff I mean ALL the staff - not just the accounts team in the next room - although they are fairly splendid.

As finance director it is your duty to keep proposing and reviewing bonus schemes and share schemes, where possible, so that you provide your employees with as many reasons as possible to want to give that extra 10% or 20% - as that turns a good team into a winning team. Our core values include a specific item "successful people" and another titled "continuous improvement". You don't get the latter without the first, and an integral part of it all hanging together is a good bonus set-up.

It means you will be outspoken at times and your belief will be tested when you put hundreds of thousands in the cash flow in July for bonuses but remember the mantra.

Bottom line

It is an act of faith initially, like empowerment. Yet when all the drivers of the business are lined up with the rewards for the staff then the bottom line will start to buzz.

I know that a bonus in itself is not the reason why an individual puts in more effort - but, although a low salary should never be propped up by a bonus, there is no denying the fact that bonuses do drive teams to higher achievements.

Good rewards, matched with the knowledge that you as a person are valued by your peers and managers should be an FD's goal, enshrined in their personal objectives.

Obviously any scheme will have a few problems and one of the hardest is how to cope with the situation whereby one group of staff has qualified for a bonus, and another has not. The second group are likely to have worked just as hard and maybe even as effectively, but luck can play a part in any scheme. This is never easy, but a consistently honest culture of open reporting and management will keep the majority of staff focused in a productive way.

Special circumstances

Sometimes it is just bad luck in such cases remember that they are your rules and sometimes special circumstances demand special rules. It's what you would expect of yourself and your staff.

The role of management is to get involved, to support, to help, to direct and chasten in a word they are there to manage which is why whenever a new system or process is introduced it must not rely on computers or file design to achieve compliance. Only effective management can reliably result in a high degree of compliance and thereafter, success. And for this you need good staff.

Your staff are your biggest asset. Your staff are your biggest asset...

Finance director speaks: Steve Farrant, Haymills