MBA2681 Q&A Wednesday: How Do I Ask an Employee to go from Full-time to Part-time Hours?

Hey. Today's Q and A Wednesday's question comes from Terry and it's a tricky one. He asked, how do I ask an employee to go from full time to part time hours? If you're running a small business, this is gonna happen more often than you think. Maybe cash flow is tight, maybe the workload has shifted, or maybe your business is transitioning into a new phase and you don't need the same resources full time anymore. So how do you have this conversation in a way that's fair, that's professional, and doesn't completely ruin the relationship with this employee? I'm gonna break it down. I'm gonna show you exactly what I do in these situations. These are not hypotheticals. These are exactly the steps I take when I need to shift somebody to less hours than they currently are on. So let's get into it. Welcome back to the $100 MBA show. I'm your host, Omar Zdenholm where I deliver practical business lessons three times a week, Monday, Wednesday and Friday to help you start, grow and scale your business. Before we get started, I just wanna take a quick second to say thank you for being here. You're a learner. You're a doer. You're my kind of person. And if you wanna join people just like you in our growing community of entrepreneurs, hit follow right here in your podcast app. You grow, we grow, we all win. Thanks. The first thing I recommend is to get clear on why you're asking somebody to go from full time to part time. Before you sit down with the employee, way before you even have any kind of conversation with them, you need to get crystal clear with yourself. You need to make sure you know exactly why this is happening, why you're making this decision. Is it about finances? Is it about the workload? Is it about a temporary situation like a seasonal dip and you don't really need those hours right now for the next, you know, few months? If you can't explain why in a simple way you're doing this, the conversation with the employee is gonna feel really shaky and unconvincing to them. It's not really gonna go well in my experience when I did this wrong. Employees can really sense when you're not confident in your decision. So get clear and get confident. Number two, decide what you can offer. You're gonna be reducing their hours, but what's the upside for them? Think about it for a moment. Okay? Maybe it's flexible scheduling. They can work from home if they don't need to come to the office anymore. Right? Keeping benefits if possible. They can still have their benefits but reduced hours. Guaranteeing them first pick at the time when the hours are picked up again. Right? When they you need full time help or maybe there's a advancement in a promotion in a position that is full time hours. This is all about framing. …