Why Set Up an Internal Committee?

An internal committee can effectively help you solve business problems and also engage staff in business operations.

However, if your small business has less than five employees, do not read any further (unless you plan some quick growth ahead).

An internal committee only makes sense if you have staff and/or other business stakeholders to participate on the committee.

However, there are other activities that all small business owners (with staff or without staff) can undertake to build a useful small business forum or community:


Such as finding and working with business mentors or business coaches during specifically challenging times (or even on an every-day basis, to help guide and support you); joining and participation in the right type of association - one that helps you build your business; and joining or developing a strong business network that will help you assess and improve your business (make sure you understand the key strategies for a successful network before joining one).

Your committee needs to have a mandate – something to accomplish (otherwise why are you meeting or investing time and resources to it?).

It also needs access to business resource tools to help research business solutions.

Effective internal committees I’ve participated in have been:

• Continuous improvement committee

  Which was focused on analyzing non-conformance in manufacturing or service and then, after analysis, focused on building improvement plan(s).

• Employee committee

  An employee committee can be a good, informal way to communicate with employees. However always follow up in writing if you are communicating important changes or policies and practices.

• Safety committee

  This type of committee can be invaluable in setting up safety practices and investigating safety incidents. When employees are committed to, and involved with setting up, safety practices there is simply more engagement and acceptance of those practices.

• Environmental committee

  The same is true of establishing in-business environmental practices. Employees will engage and be much more committed to the process of environmental responsibility if they are not just viewed as part of the problem (what do they do with the pop cans they drink at lunch or the newspapers they read at coffee time), but are also allowed to participate in developing the solutions.

• Management committee

  Regular meetings to deal with day-to-day activities and ensure that everyone’s on the same page. Having these meetings actually minimizes daily interruptions if you can train your managers to save all but the urgent issues for the meeting.

  And often if managers can save those issues for a meeting, they’ve solved the issue by the time the meeting occurs. This committee format seems to be most effective when held on a regular and frequent basis (e.g. every Friday from 2:00 to 3:00 p.m.). Have someone record action items and circulate the same day as the meeting.

There are also many other type of committees to consider.

For Example:

• a Task Force to address a specific, rather immediate concern or issue;

• a Project Team to develop a plan and implement it (e.g. new software implementation; research into new products or services; etc.)

• a Customer Service Team to improve service by including staff from operations, marketing, finance, shipping/warehousing, etc.

Internal Committees can become effective internal small business forums: a place to discuss what's most important to your business, with people who are important to both you and your business.

Return from an Internal Committee to Business Community.

Or Return From Internal Committee to More-For-Small-Business.