Delegation: The Successful Business’ Secret Weapon

• February 10, 2009
• by ServeNow.com Staff
• Business Tips

Utilize your employees to grow your business

In previous issues of The Serve Report, we have discussed when you should hire and how to hire, but what do you do with new employees once you have them? To make the best use of your new employees, you must learn how to effectively delegate tasks to them.

Delegation is the secret of most successful businesses. Delegation at its simplest refers to the talent of redistributing some of your tasks to others so that you have more time for the things that matter most. If you are running a process serving or investigation business, delegating some of your routine non-essential tasks leaves you with more time to take on clients and time to grow your business within your market. This week, we will help you learn how to make the most of your new hire.

What to delegate?

When deciding what to delegate, begin by first selecting the tasks that you want to keep. Ideally, the tasks that require a lot of skill or responsibility are tasks you will want to perform yourself. Tasks that include a lot of personal client information should also be handled by you personally. Beyond these tasks, pinpoint the tasks that take a large portion of your time. Consider the role, skills, and abilities of the person you are delegating to. Make sure that the person you are delegating to can handle the tasks you are giving them. Hopefully, when you hired your new employee you clearly laid out your expectations, however, with any position there can be ambiguity.

Process servers and investigators can delegate administrative office tasks and even some of the simpler cases when overloaded. Process servers also may make good use of a new employee by having that person tackle status updates. Most new employees can easily give your clients updates on the status of a serve or get a status report from other process servers. New employees can mail packages and affidavits, deal with incoming and outgoing mail and answer the phone. Skilled employees can possibly tackle billing.

Investigators can delegate written reports, billing and preliminary research to new employees. Employees can double-check leads, perform basic office work and run errands (such as checking equipment or running to the store to buy new supplies as needed).

Best practices

To delegate your task effectively, begin by explaining what you want to be done specifically by putting it in writing. Keep in mind that what is obvious to you may not be clear to a new employee, especially if the employee has limited experience in the business. Explain why the task has to be done and give an exact deadline for the project. Finally, give your employee a clear description of what a successful end product looks like to you. For example, if you want your new staff member to write up a report, provide them with a copy of a previous report that was done well. This will help reinforce what you want to be done, which will minimize the number of questions your employee will have to ask you. However, do make it clear that the employee should ask about anything that is not understandable. This is usually far less painful than having your team member re-do a project because of a misunderstanding.

Many people assume that delegating is little more than offloading one’s work to someone else. Nothing could be further from the truth. If you are delegating, you still have a responsibility to make sure that the work gets done – and is completed well. On larger or longer projects, ask for updates periodically and make sure that the employee is on track. Provide feedback to the people you’re delegating to and be sure to praise and reward hard work. This will encourage your employees to do their best work for you every time.

The purpose of hiring new employees was to allow your business to grow and operations to run smoothly. Effectively delegating tasks to your new employees can help accomplish both of these goals. By carefully choosing what you are delegating and using solid communication to teach your employees, you are well on your way to mastering delegation.