Happy Employees; Profitable Business
This is a contributed post and may contain affiliate links. The thoughts and ideas expressed may not be exactly what the ghostwriter Scott Sery believes. But he did read it, and signed off on it, so it’s at least pretty close.
Whether you’re getting ready to expand your business and hire your very first employee or have noticed a significant drop in employee retention, finding new ways to keep your workforce happy and engaged is integral to your long-term growth.
After all, when your employees are content, they’re likely to work harder. This means that they’ll always meet deadlines or go above and beyond to ensure your customers/clients are happy. Conversely, unhappy employees will be markedly less productive and focused and are also prone to making more mistakes.
Here are five ways to keep your employees happy.
Offer a Competitive Salary
In the current economic climate, salaries are the biggest ‘sell’ you’ll have when convincing an employee to join (and stay) within your team. As such, you should offer a competitive salary that meets the industry standard for their role/duties. Furthermore, it’s important to note that salaries should not be set in stone but should increase as your employee’s skills grow. For example, it is standard to offer a 3% pay rise each year. If you aren’t sure what this means in terms of numbers, you can use a Percentage calculator to figure it out.
Ask for Feedback
Receiving feedback can fuel growth in more ways than one, especially as a manager. After all, this will provide you with valuable insight into your performance as a leader, something which is difficult to assess independently. For example, while you may think that you’re a great leader, your team may think otherwise, and providing them with the opportunity to voice this can be incredibly beneficial.
This way, you can begin to concentrate on becoming a better leader moving forward, such as enrolling in management classes or figuring out new ways to motivate and inspire your team. By taking their feedback on and applying changes, you’ll also be able to improve employee retention rates, as your team can see that you’re paying attention to their wants/needs.
Invest in Employee Wellness
Investing in employee wellness is also critical when it comes to managing a happy, engaged workforce. This is because any oversight when it comes to your employee well-being will ultimately result in a loss of motivation and burnout. Fortunately, there are many ways in which you can begin to invest in your team’s well-being, the most obvious is to implement a wellness benefit. This could provide your team with access to a range of wellness-adjacent services, such as discounted gym memberships and exercise classes or even therapeutic services and resources. If you are unsure what to include in your package, ask your team for feedback.
Recognize their Hard Work
Showing your appreciation to your employees, such as recognizing when they’ve done a particularly great job or exceeded your expectations, is incredibly easy – and it’s also one of the best ways to keep your team happy. For example, employees who receive positive feedback from their superiors are less likely to report being burned out and less likely to seek out employment elsewhere.
Where verbal and written feedback can go a long way, you may also want to invest in some kind of reward scheme, such as by choosing an employee of the month. This can incentivize hard work while also increasing feelings of self-worth!
Create a Positive Work Environment
According to a recent study, ⅓ of workers have left a job due to a negative or toxic culture within the workplace. As such, improving workplace culture should remain near the top of your to-do list moving forward, especially if you work in a competitive industry.
Fortunately, there are many ways in which you can set about improving workplace culture for the better. You should start by making it clear to your team that they’re exactly that – a team. This means that they should work together toward shared goals, as opposed to viewing their colleague as their competition. By doing so, you’ll find that morale shifts quite considerably and that collaboration between different teams and departments runs much smoother.
In short, there are many steps that you can take as a business owner to keep your employees happy. This ensures that you will maintain excellent retention rates, saving you time and money when it comes to seeking out new employees to fill crucial vacancies within your team. Not only that, but it will also make your company seem much more attractive to prospective employees, who can see that you always go above and beyond for your employees.