To speak of SMEs is to speak of business units made up of few but very well-defined talents. SMEs cannot and should not be seen as large companies and therefore their relationship with their collaborators, even called employees or workers, must be completely different from the vision that other organizations must possess in these terms.
In SMEs, the space, the market and the financial aspect have different characteristics and conditions from the already established holding companies and therefore owners of important market segments. In these large organizations, the collaborator feels identified by elements such as the reputation, the trajectory, the global or technological nature of the work environment and everything that this represents for their personal and professional growth. These companies offer broad socioeconomic packages that are difficult to overcome or achieve if you do not have all the machinery they have.
Therefore, these companies can be governed by the generally accepted paradigms in the field of administration and management. It is something like saying that in them it is possible to observe how Newtonian physics is fulfilled. Exactly. Predictable. Unalterable.
But SMEs are like the microcosm. They have their own physics. Its conditions cannot and should not be observed under the same rules and conditions of other companies and therefore its exercise requires a new way of calculating trajectories, vectors and behaviors. In SMEs, employees feel identified with the work in a sentimental, personal and personal way, beyond economic and financial claims. As if in some way the collaborator fell in love with the project, the activity and the dream of the person who runs it and, as a simile of the socio-cultural aspect, repeats to himself that he must be involved with it “in health and disease. In wealth and poverty ”.
SMEs can carry out really lucrative activities that facilitate their growth and projection, but it must be understood that once the income and personnel limit is exceeded, their condition is no longer the same and therefore does not fall into the corresponding category.
While you are an SME, your capital will be limited and your business relationship with your collaborators will depend a lot on your earnings and market positioning, all in a directly proportional relationship. But will employees be willing to win when the SME wins and to lose when it loses?
Under the traditional approach to business administration and the limitations required by law, organizations are obliged to pay a minimum percentage of wages and salaries and, in turn, distribute their profits among their collaborators, even when this means sacrificing projects of growth or improvements embodied in the minds of those who create and lead them. But that approach cannot continue to be present in the minds of those who seek to stay competitive, endure over time and generate wealth. It must be reviewed and adapted to the reality of each scenario.
One of the most common concerns of the SME issue has its genesis in the compensation approaches required to retain talent while maintaining the pace that this requires so as not to risk cash flow and stability. financial of the business unit.
This has led small and medium-sized entrepreneurs to stroll through scenarios where compensation is established by a fixed income up to proposals that seek to compensate for competencies, without forgetting variable and mixed compensation. These practices have brought the same level of discontent, demotivation, misunderstanding, and desertion as in large companies, because linear thinking simply cannot be used on a three-dimensional plane, Newton's physics in the quantum universe.
In the first place, it must be understood that it is one thing to “pay wages” and quite another to compensate. They are usually understood as synonyms when in reality they are very far from being them. When a salary is paid for a task, a specific, agreed and limited consideration is being canceled. It is not compensating.
This consideration arises from the traditional and elementary agreement of the hiring where the candidate is told how much is remunerated for the position he is opting for in the schedule, the conditions and the previously agreed requirements and the applicant accepts freely and voluntarily. Compensating is different. When talking about compensation, it should be understood that there are a series of elements that the collaborator is resigning to carry out the agreed task or that, through the exercise of it, it will be possible to achieve or maintain a series of expectations that require time, dedication, money and effort, that only through the task it is possible to satisfy.
When it is compensated it is given what is lacking or complements what is already owned. So the compensation is only similar to the concept of value added.
Now, once this point is clarified, it is necessary to expand on the quantum physics simile.
Firstly, the process of selecting and hiring talent in SMEs cannot be similar to that of large companies, mainly because they are not such and, subsequently, because their conditions are limited. In the selection, emphasis should be placed on the use of Coestima as a tool for leveling, guiding and exchanging expectations, this is only achieved by emphasizing the objectives, goals and aspirations of the position (or level of knowledge) expected. occupy and the real projection of growth, development and challenge that the position has and compare them directly and without the use of negotiation with the candidate you want to hire.
It should not be forgotten that people seeking employment in large companies have broad expectations for growth and development, usually generated by their fame and stability, but people who enter an SME are motivated by other elements, on the one hand, some just want to get in touch with the practice and contrast it with the theory they have learned, others are tired of the big corporations and the bureaucracy that characterizes them and are in search of closer relationships, or they lack formal studies but have Sufficient experience in certain fields and SMEs are less rigorous and demanding in terms of academic training. On the other hand, they are people who seek comfort, are enterprising or simply prefer to try their luck at them.
This means that these people are not in love enough with SMEs to repeat the aforementioned vows and therefore costing them is more than part of the process, a requirement.
When co-esteemed, purposes, motives or expectations are not negotiated or sacrificed, they must fit in such a way that the relationship is practically "love at first sight" and therefore the function of the business unit administrator will be to prevent it from going out. the flame of that bond always maintaining the individual's motivation.
But keeping him motivated should never be understood as the traditional and preconceived practice of increasing his salary as a result of evaluating his performance and / or the use of promotion or salary awards so common in large companies. Keeping him motivated means compensating his work by adding value to his purchasing power without necessarily resulting in an increase in wages.
The economic limitations that SMEs have cannot be ignored, because if they did not have them, they would not fall into that category. It is impossible to imagine a scenario where there is a tabulator that must constantly be reviewed and adjusted at the expense of the financial and operational health of the company, without the denial of its existence being understood, what is meant is that, at Unlike large companies, SMEs cannot afford to use such tools under the same conditions as their "older sisters".
It is also naive to suppose that a climate of job satisfaction will be maintained if a system of variable compensation is definitively implemented, divorced from the expectations and interests of employees simply to safeguard the health of the company. Or that a mixed approach can coexist that responds more to the objectives of the SME than to those who make its existence possible. Another approach is necessary.
In this scenario, where traditional medicine may be more counterproductive than disease, strategic alliances and "tailor-made plans" become an option little exploited by SMEs, but doing so would end up being extremely beneficial.
At the time of hiring, the SME must establish what the candidate's priorities are, these divided into HEALTH, EDUCATION, FAMILY, ENTERTAINMENT, SAFETY, ACCESSORIES (Vehicles, electrical appliances, technology) and other elements that, if they could be covered by the candidate, they would not feel pressured by the lack of them and, therefore, could divert their energies to the fulfillment of their tasks within the business unit.
According to the previously mentioned priorities, a “compensation package” would be offered that, together with a pre-established amount of salary consideration, would compensate your expectations by increasing the purchasing power of what you receive for the work (nominal value), expanding your possibilities of satisfaction (actual value).
But how can an SME achieve such things? It is obvious to suppose that a small or medium company with only six or twelve workers is at a disadvantage when it comes to negotiating exchanges and benefits with supplier companies. It cannot be ignored that the essence of the business is to generate profits and that the above cannot and should not be observed as the simple exercise of a subsidy. How, then, can we offer compensation to employees without affecting the company in its economy?
Firstly, SMEs must assimilate the indisputable fact of their proliferation and growth in the current conditions of the market. SMEs are a reality for the economy and are both customers and suppliers of other large companies or, also, of other SMEs. Therefore only through the use of the Strategic Partnership, not to establish common goals, regulations, limitations or policies; These business units can establish alliances that benefit them together, making use of the volume discount that usually exists in any business whose operations require the satisfaction of wide demand.
For example, associating six people in Hospitalization, Surgery and Maternity (HCM) insurance will hardly mean an important business for the insurance company, since six people do not represent a significant income for this concept. But if several SMEs come together and together insure a hundred collaborators, regardless of their activities and business years, the figure will be more attractive and therefore the amount of the policy, as well as the cost of it, can be negotiated and acquired in better circumstances.
That same scheme would result in agreements with Pharmacies, Study Houses, Stores, Recreation and Leisure Services, Hotels and so many others that would complement the collaborator's salary scheme.
Therefore, if a person has his studies as a priority and, under the traditional scheme, he is compensated in a variable way, for example, but the environmental conditions do not allow him to achieve the imposed goals and therefore fails in his attempt to Studying will be at a competitive and comparative disadvantage of a collaborator whose SME has offered him an agreement with an Educational Institution where he should hardly allocate part of his salary (or none of it) to satisfy his expectations. Would not this achieve a true identification with the company? Wouldn't this scheme keep the collaborator "in love"?
This Strategic Association would allow SMEs to access bands that would be independent of them independently and, through compensation packages, keep their employees satisfied without sacrificing their financial health.
But the proposal does not end here. The incorporation of this strategic association to the business concept would also ensure the sale of the product or service of each SME by exchange, which would facilitate trade and in turn consumption. It would be like transferring the approaches of the Free Trade Agreements that are discussed in a macroeconomic way to more local and significantly closer scenarios.
However, in the absence of the aforementioned Strategic SME Association, the compensation proposed in this case is not impossible to achieve, since regardless of its condition it is more feasible for the business unit to access credits, discounts, exceptions and special conditions for each collaborator individually.
That advantage that the SME possesses must be explored and exploited in a visible, tangible and evident way for its collaborators, because otherwise the identification that unites them to it will fade in the absence of elements that transcend the simple consideration and neglect the compensation, directing his interest then to the first, since it is evident that in this consumer society only through money can access certain levels of satisfaction. But when the compensation is properly taken care of, the money is only part of what is received by what is invested in the company (time, intellectual capital, effort, dedication, etc.)
It is prudent to point out that this scheme gives the collaborator the responsibility of choosing the “compensation package” that best meets their expectations, so that the satisfaction or not of their needs, once chosen, is their responsibility. Of course, the SME must facilitate the scenario, seek the conditions and generate the corresponding strategic alliances, but what emerges from the choice corresponds to the individual.
This translates into individual, own and personal contracts that will not necessarily resemble those held by other collaborators. It will require adaptation, flexibility, maturity and true identification with the conditions of the SME, since compensation and stability will depend on its stability and development. and not necessarily the salary, improve and that will only be achieved through the effort and work of all its members.
The simile most similar to what has been commented is the economic exercise that the family environment has, although it is true that the family is not chosen, it is no less true that once the concept of what it contains has been understood, the conditions they go through, or the ups and downs they experience, will not matter, as long as there is identification and there is a genuine interest in the leader to fairly and correctly compensate its members, the vote will always be the same and will be unconditional "in health and disease, wealth and poverty" because the expectations that are held are common to all and are the same for all.
