Share financials. The annual report, as an example, we started doing that four or five years ago. It’s a summary of our performance during the year that’s just ending. We publish it in December; we send it to the homes of our employees so that it’s something they can share with their families.
It’s everything from financial statistics to information on major new clients, to practice areas, new individuals that come into the firm, we highlight people who have had significant anniversaries with the firm. The annual report is just that; it’s a state of the firm in the past year and, of course, … how we’re doing compared to other years. I certainly think that’s one thing that is important to provide to our employees.
(A) firm meeting is … the spoken version of the annual report. Our goal at that point is to provide a lot of the same information to employees.
Even in bad times, employees get comfort looking at our statistics, our revenue goal achievements, so that they can see that the organization is moving forward. It makes them feel a part of the organization. As I said, we want to share that with the families because there are 200 families who are a part of this organization, and we take seriously our responsibility to those 200 families. It brings them into the process, understanding who the firm is, what our values are, how we’re moving forward.
It is just so vital to everyone to understand the finances of their organization. Our information tends to be high level as opposed to every detailed line item, but certainly what I think employees, and every member of an organization, can certainly appreciate and understand is the revenue. Is the firm growing? Is the firm headed in the right direction?
Obviously, many public companies, all of their information is available, but I think more and more private companies are going to share information with their employees.
How to reach: Brown Smith Wallace LLC, (314) 983-1200 or www.bswllc.com
