Be A Professional!
If you want to ensure a successful business, you need to look after those who work for you to keep them working for you! There are many ways to do this nowadays. A very important factor is making sure your business has a professional look. Think about a company logo and make a professional website, create business cards and leaflets and ensure you tailor your marketing to as wide a range of customers as possible. Having an identity as a business is also extremely important. Make sure your employees feel like part of a team by providing company shirts with logos for a modern relaxed look where possible.
Praise, Perks and Perfectionism
Employees want to feel valued, so make sure you always praise excellent work and give them perks such as discounts and rewards. Some companies even give days off for birthdays! Make sure the environment they are working in looks and feels friendly; it’s amazing what a lick of paint, some houseplants and a coffee machine can make! Think about the image of your company and how you want your employees to feel working for you and try to reflect this in the workplace.
Pay and Progress
Make sure you pay your employees a decent wage, think carefully about Continuing Professional Development strategies to enable them to make progress with you and ensure you set out a fair pay rise system. You could also think about corporate days out to work on team building; these are fun and help your employees to enjoy each other’s company and working together, which can give favourable results in the workplace too! Choose activities that work on physical, mental and emotional tasks that will increase their overall wellbeing both in and out of the workplace which in turn will have a positive impact on your business and its wellbeing.
Problems
If you feel an employee is not pulling their weight, identify and deal with it as soon as possible. Similarly, if employees are not seeing eye to eye, call a meeting to iron out any issues and offer your support to make a positive change. Make sure you are approachable if an employee has a problem, whether it be work-related or something happening in their personal life. If you can help and support them in any way, they will be happier to come to work and do a better job for you. It is important for them to know they can be honest with you and vice versa, which is vital for a solid employer-employee relationship.
Participation
Ask your employees for feedback on your company; is there anything they would change? What do they like most and least? By asking your employees, they can suggest ideas you hadn’t thought of and by involving them in the process, you are giving them power to help and transform the business to expand and improve. This will make them more likely to want to work for you if they feel their input is important and valued. It will also help your business to grow.