How well you treat your employees will directly impact the reputation of your business, the capacity you can handle, and the level of service you deliver. A poor or toxic workplace culture where staff are not enjoying their jobs and are under pressure to do more than they can handle and their efforts aren’t appreciated will have a lot more impact than you think.
On top of this, consumers want to partner with companies with strong workplace ethics and promote corporate social responsibility. Part and parcel of this is ensuring that your team is well taken care of to be able to perform their best.
As an employer, these are easy ways you can do this.
Professional Development
You should always be looking at how you can give your team the skills they need to do the job they currently do, as well as progress within the company. Even if no leadership roles are currently available, you should still be training them as if they are being primed for the next available role. Not only will Supervisor Training give your employees the skills they need when taking on that role, but it will also allow everyone to work from the same page with the same knowledge and skills. You can be confident that your investment will produce better results and prepare your team for a time when they can move forward with their careers should they choose to.
Remove Toxicity
A toxic workplace is one of the main reasons people leave their employment even if they love the job. A toxic workplace can be caused by one person, one member of management, or even the owner themselves. It can be a collective group of people, or it can be a string of policies that are designed to keep employee morale at a minimum and allow the higher-ups to feel they have power. Look at what can be causing conflict in your business and assess why it’s being allowed to happen and how you can change it to help employees work in a safer environment that doesn’t impact their abilities or mental health every day.
Improve Communication
If you’re not communicating with your team properly or the lines of communication are getting confused at specific points, then you need to improve it.
Everyone needs access to the correct information to do their job, and all information needs to be relayed clearly and concisely via email, video call, or face-to-face. However, you communicate, simply be clear with directions and have a set chain of command so people know who to talk to, what is going on, and who to contact in the event of an issue. Improved communication leads to better results, more satisfied employees, and reduced time wasted due to being unclear about what needs to be done.
Give Employees Autonomy
Basically, what this means is allowing employees to work in a way that suits them best; Micromanaging is out, and allowing people the freedom to do the job they need without people needing to check or monitor their every move will lead to improved results, collaboration, and creativity which can only be a good thing for businesses. It might be that they need to tweak their working schedule later in the day, come into the office earlier or leave earlier, or even work from home from time to time to avoid having to call in sick. Giving them this option will create a healthier working environment and allow employees the freedom to work properly.