Blog

We sure have been spreading the love this month and today it goes out to your employees.  These are the men and women who add value to your business every day; recognizing this gives you a recipe for success. By treating your employees like important stakeholders in your success, you create an environment where your employees feel like an asset, rather than a purchase.

In doing so, your employees will approach their work with increased passion, productivity, and creativity – resulting in higher profits for you. Happy employees are vital for enhancing an effective and efficient business environment. Remember, your employees have constant interaction with key clientele, while providing your business with the talent and skills to get important jobs done right and on time. By recognizing that employees are a dynamic asset to your business, you can ensure success and increased profits.

Now, traditional logic holds that offering employees higher salaries or year-end bonuses will result in them being happy and you getting better output. However, with today’s fast-paced turnover rates, cash alone just isn’t enough to get the job done. Dr. Matthew Lieberman, a CNN consultant says that, “Countless employees are unhappy, reporting that they only work for the money and yet would trade a raise for a better boss and work environment.” And, Chad Brooks of BusinessNewsDaily, points out that money only accounts for “5.4 percent of how happy an employee is with the job.”

So, what is a boss to do?

• Talk to your employees and find out what is important to them. Listen and be proactive to their needs.
• Promote a work-life balance. Encourage appropriate allocation of employees’ time and energy between work and family, health activities, hobbies, and all of life’s non-working requirements.
• Flextime is a powerful tool to achieve happiness for employees. By identifying which jobs offer themselves to flexible work scheduling and implementing policies for coordinating flexible schedules, you can reduce stress levels on employees considerably.
• Telecommuting is a wonderful way for your employees to work from home while taking care of a sick child or family member while reducing stress and unproductive time due to a commute. (Note to bosses: this is a great recruiting tool as well)
• Allow for time off from work. Remind your employees to use vacation and sick-leave. This will prevent burn-out and daily stress from building.
• Set limits on taking work home to finish. When work is taken home regularly, it can blur the lines between professional and private life.
• Allow your employees to take leave for volunteering and community service. Doing something to benefit others can give your employees a sense of fulfillment and satisfaction.
• Regularly offer genuine and precise praise and feedback. Employees need to be reminded of their value to the business and they need to know specifically how they achieved it.
• Give employees new challenges. There is nothing like a change to keep employees fresh and developing new skills.
• Take the time to get to know your employees: their interests outside of work, their family, their hobbies, etc.
• Recognize milestones in the lives of your employees: birthdays, birth of a child, engagements, etc.

By placing an emphasis on the value of your employees, you will nurture a sense of ownership among employees and, in return for the love you send their way, they will provide you with a substantial return on your investment.  You will have fewer complaints and better workplace relationships, in addition to a workforce that feels the company values their work.