Part of being a good leader for a company is making sure that your employees are happy with your organization. When employees aren’t happy, they won’t provide as high of quality of work. In addition, unhappy employees are more likely to seek employment elsewhere, costing your business more time and resources when you need to hire a replacement. With that in mind, below are five modern-day strategies you can use to help keep your employees happy.
Help Your Employees Grow
A good place to start is recognizing that each of your employees has their own goals. The position they currently have with your business may not be their final career goal. Maybe they’re looking to start their own business one day or simply want to move into positions with more responsibilities over time. As a manager, one of the best things you can do is help your employees grow and reach their individual goals.
Start with your most recent employees. According to Talent Keepers, “Over 70% of organizations report that their highest turnover occurs in the employee’s first year”, so you’ll want to make sure these employees are happy first. Set aside time to interview each one of them and learn about what they’re hoping to accomplish. From there, you can develop specific plans to help each employee reach their goal over time, such as recommending courses they can take or assigning them tasks based on their goals. Employees who have managers invested in their personal career goals will feel more at home in a company and more likely to stick around.
Try Different Work Environments
Over the past few years, more businesses have experimented with different work environments. For instance, some have switched to an open floorplan within their offices, where there are no cubicles but instead one large communal workspace. Other organizations have allowed more employees to work remotely, letting their employees avoid difficult commutes and work from the comfort of their own homes.
Explore some different options for your business when it comes to the work environment and see if there are any you can test out. For example, you might find that allowing everyone to work from home most days allows you to save money since you can downsize to a smaller office space. You could also implement a “hot desk” system, where no one has assigned desks in the office and instead simply grabs an available one on the days when they don’t work from home. There are many options available – see what works for your business and your employees.
Prioritize a Good Work/Life Balance
More and more, employees are starting to prioritize their work/life balance. Many people don’t want to spend their entire lives pursuing career goals and instead want to have more time outside of work. To help keep employees around, your business will also need to prioritize a good work/life balance with its employees.
There are several ways you can go about this. For one, you can encourage your employees to use their time off and take breaks. You can also ensure that you’re not overloading your employees or creating a culture where work comes before mental health. It’s a good idea to frequently check in with your employees to ensure you’ve created an environment where a good work/life balance is not only accepted but encouraged.
Make Time for Fun
Ensuring a healthy work/life balance for your employees is crucial, but it’s equally essential to inject some enjoyment into their workdays. When employees are immersed in their tasks without any breaks, it can lead to exhaustion and a decline in productivity. In some cases, they might even contemplate seeking alternative employment opportunities.
Consider introducing some fun activities into remote or in-house work meetings. For example, you could host a team trivia night or an exciting virtual murder mystery party. These events allow co-workers to let off some steam while bonding and building their collaboration and problem-solving skills.
Request and Implement Feedback
Finally, make it a priority to get feedback from your employees. Ask them questions about which aspects of their job they like and which ones could use improvement. Also, ask them for ideas on how you could improve their experience with your company. In many cases, your employees will have ideas that you hadn’t thought of but that will make many of your employees happy. Once you gather this feedback from your employees, be sure that you implement it. This has the added benefit of demonstrating that you value your employees’ feedback and that you’re willing to implement good ideas when you hear them.
