Small Business Builder: Treating Employees Right

May 15 -- Tell the truth. Were you secretly pleased when the recession gave you an excuse to stop playing nicey-nicey with your employees?

All those perks and benefits — fitness classes, tuition reimbursement, mental-health insurance, and the like — were a real nuisance, weren't they? You never really bought in to the concept — right? — so when sales fell and costs rose, you didn't feel too bad about trashing all those extras ... maybe even canning a few employees.

Did you resume making autocratic pronouncements, banning personal phone calls, and saying things like "my way or the highway"? Doesn't it give you at least a small amount of satisfaction to see the look of fear in your minions' eyes when companies in your industry announce more layoffs?

Not!

Not you, anyway. After all, you're reading this column. People who seek business advice tend to be genuinely interested in their employees' well-being and their companies' long-term health … and the two go hand in hand, good managers realize.

Good managers have always handled their "intellectual capital" with kid gloves. The red carpet rolled out when unemployment was at 4 percent might not be as long or as wide, but good managers haven't torn it up and thrown it away.

Good employers have always managed for the long haul. Many planned ahead and have been able to forgo layoffs and retain benefits. They find creative ways to do so, even though the fierce competition for good workers has eased … for the time being.

Not that it's been easy. Rising insurance costs — which tend to hit small businesses harder than they do large companies — are just one of the reasons employers are strapped these days. For example:

Commercial property and casualty insurance premiums in the U.S. are skyrocketing. In part because insurers were hit with $50 billion in Sept. 11-related claims, the average monthly premium rose more than 30 percent in February and March, according to the Texas-based firm MarketScout.