It’s easy to understand that employees are the hearts and minds of a small company. Whether you believe it or not, they are the cogs that drive your company forward; you’re just along for the ride, managing and tracking their progress, assigning tasks and maintaining a healthy workflow. But how do these “cogs” think and feel? This is something most employers fail to grasp; it’s not you that’s keeping the company afloat, it’s your employees, those busy bees that work and look up to you for guidance.
More often than not, your employees will have something to say to you; whether it’s a new business strategy or just plain asking for a raise, it’s important to let them know its okay to speak up. How do we do that?
From day one; each of employees thinks and acts differently, so in order to get the best out of them you need to treat them differently. Some are fearful of failure and lack confidence, but their records clearly state otherwise. Others are workaholics who just need that proper motivation as to “Why?” their job position is important and beneficial to the company, and the rest is history.
Keep in mind, you will have good and bad days, but your workers don’t necessarily need to know that. You are the leader of the pack, and it’s up you to keep your head up and smile. A healthy and feedback-oriented working environment is easy to maintain once it’s there, but how do we get “there”?
Empowerment
You might feel like a parent sending their child to college with this one, but giving your employees more responsibility and at the same time, more executive power and greater personal satisfaction. It’s not uncommon for employees to be dissatisfied just because they’re treated like children, so giving them more risky tasks is sure way to motivate them by letting them know that you trust them. Let them learn a bit beforehand and announce the new job description before hand so they are properly prepared.
Learning
Ask your employees what are some of the skills they would like to gain? Is it possible to do by sending them to a course or a seminar? Why not go for it? New learning opportunities and certificates can go a long way in making sure your workers are satisfied and happy with their job placement. Make sure that the courses or trainings you are sending them to can be applied to their jobs; you want them to be happy, but you want them to work for you as well.
Hire speakers to keep your people engaged
One of the best ways of engaging employees is with motivational speakers. Hire someone to talk to them on a weekly or monthly basis. Make sure it’s someone experienced and skilled so that your people can seem interested to know more. A skilled motivational speaker can do miracles to your company’s productivity. He/she can instill a drive in your workers to strive harder to achieve greatness; and at the same time boost your company bottom line.
Reward
Employees like it when you recognize their efforts and offer adequate rewards for their work. Implementing a transparent free-for-all reward system in your company can be a huge incentive for workers to give it their best. It doesn’t have to be money, even trainings and seminars can come into play as rewards for being pro-active.
It can boost productivity, make employees happy and encourage competition, but you have to be careful about it; rewarding them for ordinary tasks such as coming to work on time will make them feel as if they are not doing anything special. Rewarding them for speaking up and coming up with new ways of doing business for example will do just the opposite and this is essential to coming up with a open-minded solution oriented working environment.
As you can see, all of these methods are are long-term, offering a good way to boost your employees satisfaction and make them more open to communication and sharing. Your workers are delicate, and you need to be so when working with them.
If you come up with a good system your company performance can only grow over time and make sure your workers talk about how good of a boss you make. Making sure they are happy and productive is a cycle with no end; why should there be one? Both you and your workers are evolving every day to make sure your company prospers. It’s a win- win.
By Christopher Austin and LondonSpeakerBureau.com!
The post Let Your Employees Talk Freely! Ultimate Way to Get New Ideas for Your Business appeared first on Employee Engagement Blog | Herd Wisdom.
