You might have heard the saying in business that employees are the lifeforce of the company. This is certainly true. Your employees, whether you choose to believe it or not, will determine whether your business succeeds or fails spectacularly. But don’t be misguided into thinking that it’s all determined by the actions of the people you hire. No, you have an important role to play in whether your employees become your greatest strength or your biggest liability. So, let’s look at some of the steps that you can take keep your employees on track.
We can start by thinking about training.
Train Them Up
It’s a mistake to neglect or disregard the idea of training. Employees avoid training for a few reasons. The first is definitely the cost, and it’s true, training employees can be very expensive indeed. You might have to hire professionals to come in and whip them into shape. You might also need to think about investing in software and technology, particularly for e-learning. They may have to head out on courses that will take them away from your office and business, and their workload will obviously have to be covered by temps. Learn how to get business temps on www.inc.com.
Then there’s the worry that once you train them, they will leave your business in search of greener pastures. This is always going to be a concern, and it is a possibility, but avoiding training simply isn’t the answer. In fact, if you avoid training then you are ultimately putting yourself in the situation where your work force and certainly their chances at reaching their maximum potential is dramatically weakened.
If you want to make sure they don’t leave once they are trained, then you need to work to build up employee loyalty. There are numerous ways to do this. Arguably the best is to make sure that your business feels like a family and like somewhere that they want to come each day. It shouldn’t be a chore, it shouldn’t be a nightmare. Don’t forget employees will spend thirty per cent of their life at work. If you want to keep them, they can’t just feel like a cog in the machine.
Keep A Check
Be aware that issues in your workforce can often build without you realising it. An example of this would be problems with bullying or harassment right now. Both are hot topics due to their current spotlight in Hollywood but both are prevalent in many industries and affect numerous workers.
Problems like this can and will impact your business efficiency levels. How do you fix this? Well, you need to think about using HR software. With HR software offered by sites like www.dataserv.com, you can make sure that you can keep a check on your employees by quickly finding all the information and data that you need on them in seconds.
But that’s not all. With HR software that is fully automated, you can quickly and easily discover whether there are any issues currently impacting efficiency. This can be achieved by getting employees to fill out surveys that are sent out each week with key information about their mental and physical status. The software can be set up so that any red flags are immediately sent to personnel that will handle the situation head-on. When you’re running a company, it’s so easy to close the doors of your office and hope that everything outside is being managed as it should be. But this is dangerous because issues can develop without you even realising that they are there. That’s why ultimately, you need an open door policy and there must be a structure in place to handle situations, automated or not.
Rewards and Incentives
You also need to think about offering your employees rewards and incentives. It’s important that they feel appreciated and this is a great way to do it. By providing employees with rewards you show them that their work matters and that they are part of the team.
Ultimately many business owners will immediately think regarding payment as a form of a reward which is certainly not be dismissed. At the same time though, if you’re running a small company, then you probably don’t have the money in the budget to constantly offer the best employees cash benefits such as raises or bonuses. That’s understandable, and the good news is that there are plenty other types of rewards to consider.
For instance, you can think about offering them the equivalent of office golden time. In call centres, it’s not uncommon for there to be some sort of game such as shooting a football at a net. When employees get a big sale, they get to take a shot. Now, while, this might sound silly, it’s actually very clever and provides a brilliant way for employees to connect and feel part of a team. It also allows them to show that they have succeeded to other employees which motivates them to try and work towards the same goal.
There’s also the more typical rewards such as days off and extra holidays that will show employees they matter and won’t cost you anything.
Keep Them Physically Fit
Finally, you need to think about the physical health of your employees. Here we’re going to focus on two important areas. The first is hygiene. Issues with hygiene in your office will lead to a lot of workers calling in sick, and that is going to impact levels of profitability. You can fix this problem by making sure that your business is clean, tidy and hygienic. Sites like www.ccsirgv.com have some great advice on how to do this. In other words, don’t cut corners when it comes to paying for cleaning services. If you do, it’s your company model that will suffer.
Next, you also need to think about RSI. RSI is one of the most common causes of employee injury in the business world today. Thankfully, it can be avoided quite simply by making sure that you are getting your employees the right levels of breaks that they need.
As you can see then, it’s easy to keep your employee on track and make sure they definitely are the lifeforce of your business.
