Employing family members and voluntary staff

Preventing communication breakdowns

Communication is as important for the success of a family business as for other businesses.

When you work with family members it is sometimes easy to ignore the importance of open and regular communication. A typical response to a difficult scenario is to let sleeping dogs lie rather than confront a situation or issue early on.

This creates a breeding ground for bad feeling and resentment that could destabilise the business' operations and put your family relations at risk. It can also create an unpleasant working environment for non-family staff and could encourage them to take sides.

Good practice in communication
You may find it useful to assess whether or not your management style encourages a culture of listening and consensus. You might achieve this by:

• finding out family members' different goals and needs, and then seeing if you can coordinate them - you could ask an independent party to do this
• creating opportunities for views and concerns to be heard
• addressing views and concerns
• seeking consensus for decisions, whenever practical
• encouraging an open, sharing atmosphere rather than a blame culture

Download a family business rulebook from the BDO Centre for Family Business website.

Subjects covered in this guide

• Introduction
• Family employees - consider your motives
• Family employees - minimising business risks
• Preventing communication breakdowns
• Employing your spouse
• Employing younger family members or volunteers
• Voluntary staff - points to consider
• Voluntary staff - contract rights, benefits and allowances
• Health and safety issues
• Tax reporting requirements - young, old or voluntary staff
• Here's how our business overcame the pitfalls of employing family members

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