You never fully appreciate something good until it’s gone and when it comes to your employees, good ones are hard to come by. They’re even harder to keep hold of and so treating them well is critical to their longevity as an employee in your company.
Being attentive to your employees isn’t just an investment into their careers but more so, your own business. If you’re not willing to keep your employees happy and satisfied, can you really expect them to work harder or stick around?
In this article, you’ll receive some useful guidance on what to do when it comes to encouraging your employees to invest more into the work they do for the company.
Invest in their development both personally and professionally
A recent survey found that 94% of employees would stay at the company longer if the company invested in their careers. Whilst not everyone is wanting to progress from their current role, there are a lot who want more encouragement and support from their employers.
Investment isn’t just productive in a professional capacity but for their personal lives, outside of the workplace too. Consider what each of your employees would benefit from when it comes to what they’re after. It’s not something you can assume, so it’s good to set up 1-2-1 meetings and annual reviews to collaborate on their career progress and place in the organization.
Communication is one of the most effective ways of engaging and understanding what your employee needs to thrive and find enjoyment within their working life. Career progression is worth prioritizing because the retention of staff can be challenging for many organizations.
If an employee isn’t satisfied or unhappy with their role or progression in the company, they’re not going to stick around. So invest in their development and find out what your employees want and need.
Reward and incentivize employees that work hard
A good area to consider is the benefits package you supply to your employees. An employee engagement software is a great tool for providing benefits and rewarding your employees through recognition and other rewards.
Something like Perkbox is a great way of introducing a great benefits package for the workforce. When you reward employees for working hard, it provides them with a sense of value. Not only that, but other employees will see those rewards being handed out and that encourages them to invest more into the work they do.
Incentives are always a good way to give your employees a reason to work hard. Productivity is often a struggle for many businesses and giving incentives can help boost productivity in the workplace.
Create a positive and pleasant working environment
Despite the pandemic, global engagement rates of organizations in 2020 reached an all-time high of 68%. The reason for this could be that many staff members enjoy working from home or remotely most of the time.
It’s created a shift for many organizations on how they run their business and what they consider to be the working environment. Whilst, not every organization wants to be completely remote, it’s worthwhile thinking about how to incorporate this permanently within your business. It also draws attention to the fact that an employee’s surroundings can influence their engagement and productivity.
As you start to see more employees heading back into the office, it’s important to look at the working environment. How could you make it a more positive and pleasant one for staff? Perhaps you could introduce new policies to address any problem areas that existed beforehand?
If you’re able to create an environment that’s inviting for your employees, then you could see a higher rate of engagement acrosss your workforce as a whole.
Have a seamless onboarding process for new hires
When making any new hires, it’s beneficial to ensure the onboarding process is seamless. A good impression is always going to influence the employee’s overall opinion and attitude towards the business. If you’re not giving them the necessary training or onboarding process, then that employee may have difficulty getting work completed.
From a lack of knowledge regarding operations within the building to not being given access to the right files or shared folders, it all negatively impacts your employees’ engagement.
Make sure that you’ve spent the time creating onboarding processes that are detailed and are regularly updated to align with where the business is currently. You may also wish to incorporate a buddy or mentor system whereby new employees get assigned someone within the company to ease them into the workplace lifestyle.
It can feel quite daunting for a new starter, so having a friendly face can be helpful, especially during that first couple of weeks.
Prioritize a work/life balance and encourage breaks
Having a good work/life balance is becoming more important nowadays than ever before. The pandemic has certainly highlighted that, with many people enjoying the flexibility of working from home.
Companies that offer a good work-life balance for their staff, see a 25% reduction in their employee turnover. Reducing this can be helpful to save money and time that comes with recruitment. Why not save yourself the effort and financial burden by just giving your employees a bit more control over their work and personal life?
It’s good to be a company that encourages a more balanced work/life and one that is flexible when things go wrong in their personal life. Another problem to highlight is breaking times, with many employees choosing a working lunch over taking time away from the office. It pays to switch off for an hour and to step away from the desk so that they can press the reset button.
None of us are capable of being attentive and running at 100% productivity for several hours straight. As a business, you should be encouraging your staff to take proper breaks for the sake of productivity.
Not every employee will want to work from home or have a more balanced workload. So it’s good to approach this individually. That way, you get an idea of what each person wants and needs from the business.
Introduce more team building activities and away days
Team building activities and experiences where it’s not all work, work, work, is essential for business productivity. It also keeps your staff engaged, happy, and connected with other colleagues in the workplace.
Departments can often separate themselves from other departments and there can often be cliques or groups of friends within the organization, introducing more team-building activities and away days will give everyone the chance to meet any new hires recently added to the business whilst getting to know people they’ve not had much to do with before.
It’s beneficial to think about what types of company away days you could organize. Keep in mind that some ideas might not be as appropriate for the demographic of your workforce. For example, an obstacle/assault course might be a difficult one if most of your staff aren’t as nimble and sprightly as they once were. Neither is it a great idea to sit younger generations down for hours on end.
Cater to your workforce and introduce opportunities that they’ll enjoy, rather than going off what’s been done in other organizations.
Develop a mission statement for all employees to buy into
Company culture is an important part of work-life that many employees like to be involved in. How the company presents itself to the outside world or how staff conducts themselves within day-to-day working life is something that requires collaboration.
Developing your own organizational mission statement can be a great way to help employees feel like they’re part of the company and not just a number. Your employees may be wanting to make a bigger impact, especially from a societal point of view. This is apparent for many millennials who often look for companies with the same values as their own before accepting a job.
Ask your employees what they feel the company’s mission statement should be. What impact do they want to see their organization making? Perhaps it’s helping the local community or focusing on the experiences that the business provides for its customers or employees.
Getting your employees involved in the mission statement can provide them with a sense of ownership and belonging. It can make them feel like they’re a part of something bigger and that they have the backing of an organization that can achieve more for them.
Don’t neglect your employees
Your employees are the cogs in your business that keep everything moving forward and hopefully in an upwards trajectory. Neglecting your employees does a lot more damage than you might believe.
Focus on providing more for your employees because when you can deliver for your workforce, they will more than likely deliver on what you need as a company. It’s often the little contributions you make that make the biggest difference to your employees.