{"id":10004,"date":"2021-09-17T10:00:14","date_gmt":"2021-09-17T09:00:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-gb\/blog\/?p=10004"},"modified":"2026-01-29T09:37:34","modified_gmt":"2026-01-29T09:37:34","slug":"support-first-employees","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-gb\/blog\/support-first-employees\/","title":{"rendered":"How to support your first employees and help them thrive at your business"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPeople & Leadership<\/a>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\tHow to support your first employees and help them thrive at your business\t\t\t\t\t<\/h1>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

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\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\"Anthony\t\t\t\tAnthony Impey<\/span>\n\t\t\t<\/a>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n\n\n

An entrepreneur for more than 30 years, Anthony Impey, now CEO of productivity non-profit Be the Business<\/a>, has set up, built and operated numerous businesses in the IT and telecoms sector.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His decades of experience have taught him a number of important lessons in managing employees<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here, he shares five tips on how best to support your first employees:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. Give people scope to be extraordinary<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

2. Relinquish control<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

3. Remember your employees won\u2019t necessarily have the same connection to the business as you<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

4. Have a set of beliefs that your team can sign up to<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

5. Remember that your employees are human beings<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Download your free copy of A guide to hiring and supporting your first employees<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

1. Give people scope to be extraordinary<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Some of my biggest management successes have been where I have set some broad parameters but otherwise let people get on with the job they\u2019re doing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the right kind of guard rails, clarity on the direction of the organisation and a common goal that everyone is working towards, people can do extraordinary things.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It never fails to amaze me how people respond to those environments and the kinds of things that people achieve.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When someone comes to work for your organisation, they want to do a good job.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You don\u2019t need to tell them the minutiae of what needs to be done \u2013 let them fulfil their own objectives<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Don\u2019t overmanage people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2. Relinquish control<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s been only you from the start. And when it\u2019s just you, you know where the organisation is heading but you\u2019re also the person doing all the work that helps to get you there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These two roles fuse into one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The moment you bring somebody into your organisation<\/a>, you have to be able to separate those two things. Letting go of control is really easy to say and very, very difficult to do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is always a tendency to think that you \u2013 as owner-manager of the business \u2013 know best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It can be really tricky when you ask somebody to do something and they don\u2019t do it quite the way you would have done it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But they may do it a better way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Managing that tension is a challenge, and it\u2019s always best to ask yourself the question \u2018is this going to help us reach our goals?\u2019 You need to be able to rely on people to apply their own ingenuity to achieve those goals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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At Sage, we\u2019ve joined forces with Be the Business<\/a> to help you hire and inspire your new employees like a boss<\/a>. Check out our series of articles, which will support you along the way:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n