Insurance
Front and center
How to become more involved with your employees
By Erik Cassano
Smart Business Cincinnati | July 2008
Page 1 of 2
John Cacaro
Founder and CEO, Employers Choice Plus
John Cacaro describes his
leadership style as laid-back, saying he prefers to
observe and let a situation
develop before he reacts to it.
But don’t mistake that for the
mark of a passive, noninvolved
leader. While he gives his
employees room to operate, the
founder, president and CEO of
Employers Choice Plus — an
employer services provider that
posted 2007 revenue of approximately $38 million — is proactive when it comes to engaging his team and getting people
involved in moving the company forward.
Cacaro says that any CEO
who wants to grow a company
needs buy-in from the people
who do the work. If your
employees are not on the same
page with you — and, more
important, your vision — you
likely will find it much more difficult to lead and to grow your
company effectively.
Smart Business spoke with
Cacaro about how he makes
everyone at Employers Choice
Plus feel like they count.
Personalize communication. You
have to have that one on one.
It gives you an opportunity to
make that person feel comfortable. A lot of times,
they’ll tell you more face to
face than they would through
an e-mail or a memo.
We’re kind of a small office,
so here I think it’s important
to touch base with everybody on a daily basis so that
if there is something they
need, we can obtain it for
them. A lot of times, people
won’t bring up an issue, but
if I walk by or go to their
office, they’ll be more willing
to bring it up.
You need to make it clear
what you are asking for. You
have to make it perfectly
clear what it is you are asking
to do, otherwise, you are not
going to get the right results. I
probably analyze it to death,
but the best way to put something into words is so that
people know what I am saying is without having to make
it a lengthy process. You want
your communication to be
right to the point, short and
sweet. It’s an attention matter.
The more you put into a
message, the more you risk
losing your team’s attention. If
you break it down into smaller
sections, it’s easier for them to
get a clearer picture.
Delegate responsibility. By delegating responsibility, you are
empowering employees and
giving your company more of
an opportunity to grow.
The more responsibility an
individual can handle as you
grow, the more they can
cross-train across different
disciplines and the more flexible the company can be. That
will ultimately help with labor
costs by reducing overhead.
When it comes to cross-training, we look at the individuals, how much work they
have, then look at the needs
of the company. Then we’ll
start cross-training in different areas. However, you have
to make sure the workload
isn’t excessive. We try to take
a look at their current workload and adjust it.
Maybe it’s smaller pieces at
first. If they’re just crossing
over, maybe starting out with
just one account or one other
service we provide, we’ll have
that person start training on it,
and as they get quicker and
faster, add more workload to it.
A person’s workload capacity can be tough to accurately gauge at first. You have to
wait and see what kind of
work habits they have and
develop them a little bit
before you start pushing it
and really see how much
they can handle.
