You will have many important obligations as a business owner. You will need to pay attention to your finances, marketing and technology infrastructure. However, your employees are your most important asset. Your employees will make or break your organization, so you have to find ways to keep them productive.
There are a lot of things that you can do to improve employee productivity. Training is essential, but the most important thing is to keep employee happy. Happy employees are far more productive and less likely to leave.
According to research reported by HRMorning near the start of 2022, over 90% of employers intended to particularly prioritize enhancing the employee experience that year.
However, regardless of how well your own company’s 2022 New Year’s resolutions have been going, it’s never too late for you to set out a plan aimed at making things better for your workers and show that you care about them. Here’s what you could include in that plan…
Show more empathy
Not too long ago, and perhaps even now, many of your workers will have been concerned about the possibility of becoming infected with COVID-19. The pandemic has definitely changed business. At the moment, though, it could be the cost-of-living crisis that is taking the heaviest mental toll on your staffers.
Hence, you shouldn’t be afraid to let them know that you would be happy to help them if personal struggles are straining their work lives.
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See if you can add to the employee benefits package
It might not be quite as appealing as you assumed. In one survey, over 70% of employees claimed that their companies could prevent turnover by improving benefits. However, only 42% of employers deemed the existing benefits a problem.
Have a good look at your own firm’s employee benefits package. Does it include employee life insurance, for example? The workers themselves could also let you know what kinds of perks they would especially like.
Leave remote working an option
In the above-mentioned survey, almost 65% of employees said that flexible scheduling and remote work options would enhance their experience and loyalty to the company.
Even if you can’t quite offer fully remote work arrangements, you could consider hybrid options, where employees spend a certain amount of their work time in the company’s office and the rest at home.
Offer a good range of learning opportunities
With many employees having cited self-improvement opportunities as an incentive to stay put, you know what lesson to take from this.
The training pathways you could put on the table include webinars, self-directed learning and in-person events. However, before making any of these options available, you should help each of your employees to ascertain the specific career path that would be right for them.
Ask employees for their input into crucial decisions
As revealed in research highlighted by HR Daily Advisor, employees who believe that their voices are heard are almost five times likelier to feel empowered to complete their best work.
Employees are also likelier to work well when they perceive their work as having purpose and meaning and communication channels within the business are kept open. So, when you are set to make a big decision about your company, seek your employees’ feedback first.
Make sure your employees’ work challenges them
When work is too hard for an employee, they can get frustrated. Meanwhile, when work is too easy for them, they can get bored.
This is why you should strike a careful balance with the difficulty of the work you hand to any given worker. The assignment ought to be difficult — but still reasonable — for them to finish.