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20 - The Oakville Beaver Weekend, Saturday October 11, 2008 www.oakvillebeaver.com Affordable tips for motivating employees 1. Make the job interesting: The more accurate and realistic you are about job specifications and requirements, the more likely your people will feel motivated to do a good job. 2. Give feedback: Feedback allows your employees to develop and improve skills and capabilities that will have a greater impact on your company. 3. Manage your top performers: Get their input often, point out where they need to improve and reward excellent performance with extra perks. 4. Give innovative perks: Consider flexible work hours, downtime for hard work and tele-work opportunities. 5. Reinforce team spirit and recognize team/employee efforts and contributions: Through dinners, sports events or informal gatherings at your home. Assign new employees a buddy to help during orientation. Money and your employees CONTINUED FROM PAGE 18 PLAN AHEAD ­ BE PREEMPTIVE All companies, regardless of size, should have a performance management system as a key component of any human resources strategy. This can be developed with the help of a consultant, or at a minimum, pick up any of the many books available on the subject. "This is fairly easy to put in place. What's more difficult is having the discipline and the rigour to evaluate your employees' performance at least once a year ­ to discuss how they are progressing, their areas for development and where they want to go longer term in their career," says Karamanos. A sound HR plan should be integrated in your business plan and strategy. It should also include some forward thinking on what type of talent your company is going to need two-to-three years from now. Consider where your company is going, such as expanding into different market segments, products or services. Also consider your normal turnover and pending retirements. This will help you focus on what type of skills and capabilities your organization will have to develop and/or acquire to achieve its goals. "This type of planning allows you to be very proactive in tapping into your internal workforce to develop the skills you will need, and more importantly, taking steps to hook up with your future workforce externally before you even need to hire them," says Mercier. How to win over a venture capitalist What does an angel investor or venture capitalist look for when deciding whether to invest in a company's R&D? Jacques Simoneau, Executive Vice-President, Investments, at BDC, says companies considering the VC route are usually start-ups with lots of great ideas but no revenues. HE POINTS TO THREE CRITERIA THAT COULD SWAY A POTENTIAL INVESTOR: 1. Your Technology: Is it the best approach to solving a problem? A company may believe in its technology but it has to be evaluated against other approaches that may exist. You need to convince investors that your technology makes sense. 2. Your Market: You've built it but will they come? You may not be the only solution out there. Be satisfied that the market is there and that it will buy your product in sufficient numbers and at the price you want. 3. Your People: Can they develop the technology, can they sell it, and can they manage the whole process? "This is critically important," says Simoneau. "So-so technology with a so-so market but with excellent people can do as well or even better than having a great technology or a great market but with people that can't run the business." Transform your home with Design Route As daylight hours shrink and homeowners retreat indoors, those long overdue renovations beckon for attention. This is compounded by the urge to ready the house for the holidays and the onslaught of guests. Enter the kitchen and bath professionals at The Design Route. With a bevy of web images to illustrate the firm's expertise and more than five years worth of client referrals there are limitless possibilities to revive and solve problematic, outdated, awkward and unloved kitchens or bathrooms. "We have developed a tradition of high standards and our aim is to give our clients sound advice, quality products and exceptional service," said The Design Route's owner Riddhi Raina. As added assurance to clients, Raina is a Certified Kitchen Designer with the 40,000strong National Kitchen & Bath Association, which promotes professional and ethical standards in the industry. "Finding a balance between aesthetic appearance and function from concept to completion is paramount throughout each project", said Raina. To use The Design Route's free one-hour complimentary consultation as the starting point to an inevitably beautiful change on the home front, call @ 416-274-5823 or visit their website www.thedesignroute.ca. Design Route www.thedesignroute.ca THE Your Home . Your Style . Your Way We offer design services for all areas of your home from bathroom renovations, kitchens to customized storage units, media room, high end custom closets, home office, library and more. We work from basic wall dimensions to make your floor plan come alive with beautifully detailed elevations and perspectives from concept to completion of your project. The services provided may include the following: Turn key Kitchen and Bathroom Projects Space Planning and Interior Designing Design and Decoration Recommendations Vaastu Shastra and Feng Shui Consultancy Give us a call or email us ... for a free 1 hour initial consultation with a NKBA certified Kitchen Designer. e. info@thedesignroute.ca c. 416.274.5823 www.thedesignroute.ca