A family business can be a source of great joy and pride, where multiple generations work to build a company while blending home and work lives together. For the same reasons, it can ruin families.
A family business is a unique environment – and for it to succeed, you need to have people doing the right tasks and working in the right positions. Just as in any business, it’s critical to create clarity via job descriptions to avoid everyone doing everything, wasting time, hurting people’s feelings, and failing to reach your goals.
Write it down
An important starting point is to find out what each family member in the business wants out of it. Particularly when the second generation begins to take over, the assumption that they want to same as what Mum and Dad wanted is more likely to lead to frustration, then disagreement and potentially family fracture.
So ensure everyone is on the same page strategically.
Once the business is clear about what it is trying to achieve, it can start working towards achieving that.
Often, members of a family business have a ‘general’ idea of what each person is supposed to do, but getting things in written down on paper – where each role is defined and includes a full job description – provides clarity, accountability and more focused expectations. Without these, the business can struggle with:
- Decisions: “Isn’t Dad supposed to arrange that meeting?” or “Are we buying that new piece of equipment?” are the types of questions that come up when the roles of decision-makers are unclear, leading to missed opportunities, angry customers, or failed deadlines.
- Accountability: Just because someone is a relative doesn’t mean they’re not responsible for their work. But it can make it more awkward to ensure each family member does what they’re expected to do. Job descriptions help everyone see more clearly what their responsibilities are, how they’re performing, and how they fit into the goals and success of the organisation.
- Duplicated efforts: When tasks aren’t defined, it’s easy for family members to assume they need to jump in and take care of something, so things get done twice or work is completed inefficiently.
- Arguments: If some family members feel they’re doing more than their share of the work, resentment and frustration are bound to occur, which can lead to anger both at work and at home. In the worst cases, fights can break up both your family and your business.
- Skills and growth: Are family members using their strengths doing tasks they enjoy? Or would their abilities be better used somewhere else? With written job definitions, members can focus on the areas where they’re most successful – and at some point, you can hire employees from outside your family to help you expand the business and bring in additional skills.
- Succession: Who will take over key roles in the future? With clear guidelines for each role, it’s easier to make transitions, put training in place where needed and develop a strong succession plan to ensure your family business continues for future generations.
In short, by defining each person’s role and creating job descriptions, family businesses can help avoid problems like these and create an efficient, professional operating environment with greater chances for future success.
Seek expert advice if needed
If your family business has never had discussions about job roles, it may be wise to seek help from a third-party advisor with strong knowledge of how successful businesses operate. He or she can serve as a neutral mediator – completely distanced from family feelings – and provide objective assistance, keeping discussions strictly professional.
If you need assistance in outlining job descriptions to help you build a great business, contact the experts at Accru today.
