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For a business to be a success, it needs to have a team of hardworking people behind it, keeping everything running along nicely. If you’re a business owner and employ others, you should know already how important your staff are for company growth. While we don’t doubt you put in a lot of graft yourself, your team will share numerous responsibilities to keep everything afloat.
Your employee’s happiness and welfare should be top of your agenda. After all, if they’re content in their role and enjoy their job, they’re likely to be more productive and go for gold, which will benefit your company. With that in mind, here are some of the best practices you can implement today for investing in your employee’s welfare.
7 Best Practices for Investing in Your Employees Welfare
1. Reward Your Team
When you have employees working on projects and tasks, many will go the extra mile to ensure everything is completed on time, and most importantly, keep clients satisfied. If you’ve noticed your team have gone above and beyond their duties, make sure you acknowledge this and provide rewards. Whether it’s vouchers, an extra day off work, or a personalised gift, they’re sure to appreciate the recognition. You don’t have to spend a fortune to keep your team happy. Even a well done can mean the world to employees.
2. Listen to Your Employees
Active listening is a key trait that every business owner should learn and master. Your employees are human beings and have their own thoughts and ideas, just like yourself. Successful companies listen to what their team have to say and take on board valuable opinions and ideas. When an employee feels like they’re being heard and respected, they will feel more confident and happier in their position. No employee likes a boss who lets their words go over their head. Therefore, you need to show that you care about what your team thinks and make changes where necessary.
3. Provide Opportunities for Growth
While some employees are perfectly happy in their current roles, others aspire for greater things and something different. To keep staff with you, it’s wise to provide opportunities for growth, such as moving employees to different roles within your company. This is where internal talent mobility comes into play. Randstad RiseSmart have a guide on how important internal talent mobility is, and how it can build greater business agility and help your team build greater flexibility and adaptability. Their solutions for talent mobility boost employee involvement and contribute towards better business results.
4. Encourage Feedback
In a nutshell, a happy workplace is a productive workplace. If you’ve noticed profits are sliding and work performance is dipping, there’s likely to be a reason behind it. It’s your job to encourage feedback from your team, whether it’s positive or constructive criticism. Regarding the latter, you can’t expect employees to open up directly about issues. Therefore, consider having an outlet staff can write in that’s strictly confidential. This will give you an insight into how your team are feeling and if there is anything that needs addressing immediately.
5. Offer Flexible Working
Gone are the days when employees would have to adhere to the Monday to Friday, 9-5 pm schedule. The COVID-19 pandemic in particular resulted in millions of us working from home and pushed us to do have a own home workplace. One of the benefits of this is many businesses offered flexible working. This means you allow your team to choose the hours they work, so long as they fulfil their duties. Offering flexible working gives employees more control over their schedules.
6. Organise Social Events
All work and no play is never a good thing. While you will want your team to work at their best, in order for this to happen, there should be a bit of fun along the way. Organising social events outside the office can be a brilliant way for your team to come together, socialise, and build strong bonds. When your company employees get to know one another, this can be a brilliant way to improve teamwork within the company. There are lots of events you can put on. Whether you head to the pub for a meal or sort out a team-building activity, doing something away from the office can help form solid relationships, and give you chance to get to know your team on a personal level.
7. Hold Regular One-On-One Meetings
As a business owner, holding regular one-on-one meetings is one of the best things you can do for improving productivity and efficiency in the office. This is because when your team gets to speak to you one-on-one, they will feel that you truly care about their role and wellbeing. Some business heads rarely have time for their staff, and this can have dangerous consequences.
Showing that you value and appreciate your team goes a long way. When an employee feels respected, they’re more likely to stick around and put their all into your business. You don’t want to be dealing with high staff turnover rates and unhappy individuals within the company, so following our guidance above will ensure your team is well looked after and take pride in their roles.
