Fast Lane
Strength in numbers
How to put your people first
By Meredyth McKenzie
Smart Business Pittsburgh | May 2008
Page 1 of 1
Richard Hagerty
Founder and CEO, IMPAQT
Richard Hagerty says when
you give good employees
the opportunity to exceed your expectations, the results
can be amazing.
As CEO and founder of
IMPAQT, Hagerty creates opportunities for his 92 employees
by focusing on them as the core
strength of his business.
“You start with somebody
who has no strength, other
than they’re smart and passionate, and you keep adding and
adding to that with training,
experience and mentoring, and
at the end of the day, they
become somebody you can
lean on,” he says.
Focusing on people has
helped Hagerty grow the search
engine marketing firm from
2006 revenue of $9.8 million to
2007 revenue of $14 million.
Smart Business spoke with
Hagerty about how to maintain
your focus on employees.
Q. How do you determine
your core strengths?
It’s getting it down to that one
or two things you know are
going to make you successful.
In our case, it’s good people.
You can’t be all things, so just
be able to find those strengths
and refine them.
You don’t waste money and
time. You keep your people,
they become more experienced
in your business, and they’re
not spending time on something else.
Q. How do you motivate
and empower employees to
succeed?
Through training and mentoring. People want to see growth;
they don’t want to come in just for a job. They want to see a
path; they just don’t want to sit
here and do the same thing.
They want to see that they have
the possibilities to grow, not
only within the company but
their future work experience.
We make it clear that the job
they take in the beginning may
not be the same one they have
in six months. If they’re making progress, we move them
up and give them other
responsibilities.
Tell them the expectation of
where you’re going to be and
give them the ability to choose
how to get there. The expectation is that they know how to
get to the endgame and be successful at their job. Don’t look
over their shoulder but periodically measure how
they’re doing, look at the
end results and review,
and then it starts again
with the next job or task.
If you’ve provided good
training, you then have to
provide trust. Hire good
people, give them training, and then trust that
they’re going to be able
to do the jobs you’re
going to give them.
Q. How do you develop
training and mentoring
programs?
It has to be structured
and scheduled; just paying lip service to it does-n’t work. It has to be
organized, you have to plan for
every person, and it has to be
custom per person to do it
right.
Some people are further
along, some people already
know certain things, so it has
to be tailored for each individual person, and it has to be
organized and scheduled. Test and evaluate where they are in
the skill sets they would need
to be. Train them in the things
they need and are lacking.
Q. How do you build trusting
relationships with employees?
Communication, constant
evaluations and discussion. It’s
a constant review of a job and
discussion and both, ‘Hey, that
was great,’ or, ‘Hey, you might
have to try this next time.’ Just
constant evaluation.
Q. How do you create an
environment of open discussion and communication?
It starts with the leader.
They have to be able to communicate first, so the employee follows the leader’s example.
If the leader is a communicator, and they’re constantly
checking, asking how you’re
doing, giving feedback and
working with everybody they
can, the rest of the team and
staff see that’s how it’s done.
When new people come in, it
becomes the way to do it
because they see that’s already
in place.
Q. How do you make sure
you are setting the right example for your employees?
It’s back to that organization;
you have to schedule it. It’s
management by walking
around, making sure you’re
out and talking about it and
know what’s happening with
the staff, if they’re having any
concerns, if there’s something
going on in their lives.
It’s being in the know to be
able to go and say something
relevant to a staff member.
You have to be prepared to do
that, it just doesn’t happen naturally. I have conversations
with the managers and get
constant feedback on what’s
happening with the staff.
Then you go out and spread
the love a little bit.
Q. What are the benefits of
having trusting relationships
and open communication with
employees?
It’s a better business — there
are definitely a lot less headaches having that — and you
don’t have silos of information.
It’s being transparent. Everybody knows what’s going on at
all times.
HOW TO REACH: IMPAQT, (412) 733-7100 or www.impaqt.com
