All Of The Best Ways To Take Better Care Of Your Employees
Taking care of your employees is essential for a healthy and happy business. Happy staff does not only make a business grow, but it also makes for a happier workplace environment, which is key for mental health.
Should you want to take it upon yourself to take better care of your employees, then use these tips.
Show them recognition
Recognition goes a long way in the workplace. Should you avoid recognizing and praising your staff, then you will never show them how much you appreciate them. Showing them you notice their efforts will only encourage them to continue their efforts, which will result in a more successful business.
Making sure to focus on employee recognition and praising them for their efforts and achievements will help them gain more confidence, which will boost their productivity at work. The more confident a member of staff is, the more effort they will put into their everyday work. They will enjoy their job, which will help them stay focused and passionate.
Some simple ways to show your employees recognition include:
- Acknowledge their achievements right away. As soon as you witness an employee’s achievement, make sure to reward them and show them that you have noticed straight away. Doing so will ensure that you can enjoy the happy moment at the right time and spur them on to make them feel good.
- Say thank you a lot. Saying thank you once is enough but saying it multiple times through good efforts from particular staff members will ensure that they know how much you appreciate them.
- Ignore minor mistakes. Everyone makes mistakes from time to time. So, if a staff member makes a minor mistake then try to brush over it instead of making a thing of it. Doing so will help them stay confident and continue with their good efforts. Likewise, making them feel bad for a minor error could hinder their happiness after achieving something great.
Offer flexible working hours
Strict working hours can sometimes result in higher work output. Yet, it might not result in the best work from your staff. Therefore, using flexible working hours whereby staff members can choose their own time (so long as they cover the hours that they are paid for) will ensure that they work when it suits them, which will ensure they give the work the best effort.
If you still want the staff in the office yet offer flexible hours, then you could offer varying work hours. For instance, you can open the office from 7.30 am to 7.30 pm Monday to Friday and allow the staff to pick and choose when they want to come in. Doing so will help them feel more relaxed and ensure that they can avoid high-stress levels. Should someone need a long lunch to take their children to the dentist then they can do so and not have to worry about the strict time pressures.
Better pay
Although money isn’t everything, better pay will ensure to keep your staff happy. Paying staff members more money for going above and beyond for the business will show them that you respect them and want to give them something in return. Besides, if they are doing more for your business then they are likely making you more profit. So, you have more money to cover higher wages.
More compensation will encourage employees to work harder. Although, make sure not to give it to them on a plate. If you do, they might still offer their same efforts yet you are paying them more.
To make them work harder to achieve more pay, you could set targets and therefore award employees with bonuses when they reach them. Therefore, they will stay motivated and work to achieve a bonus.
Prioritize health
Mental health is crucial to stay on top of the workplace. Work is often a key stressor, which can hinder a person’s health and wellbeing. Therefore, make sure to put health first.
Doing so will ensure that staff members are happy and well at work as well as at home. To prioritize health in the workplace, you can practice the following:
- Encourage people’s passions. If staff members are passionate about an area of the business that they currently don’t work on, then encourage them to learn and work on it so that they can follow their dreams while still maintaining efficient work in their current role. You should never tell someone that they cannot do something, as it will hinder their confidence and motivation.
- Offer support. From time to time employees might need some extra support. They might want someone to talk to about their problems and offering that in the workplace will ensure that they have somewhere to go.
- Walking meetings. Sometimes office meetings can be a bit daunting or overwhelming. Therefore, offering walking meetings in pairs or groups of three (so that it isn’t too crowded) will help people get fresh air and see different scenery while talking about business. This promotes general health and will help employees gain new ideas and inspiration by being outside of their usual space.
Upgrade opportunities
Most employees will work for your business in the hope that they will climb the ladder. Should you lack these opportunities or never offer them to internal staff, then your employees might lose motivation at work. It could hinder their confidence and make them not feel good enough to take their job up a level.
Offering your internal staff upgrade opportunities through encouraging them to learn new skills will give them something new and exciting to work towards. Eventually, the appropriate members of the team will step forward for the opportunities and be able to take their careers up a notch.
Help people grow
Likewise, it is important to help and encourage people to grow. Some members of your team might lack confidence for work or personal reasons. If so, they might not believe in themselves to attain new opportunities, become a manager, or take on a new skill.
Encouraging employees to grow will show them that they are good enough and capable of better opportunities.
A healthier environment
The workplace is often where people sit down all day, snack, and don’t get much movement. Well-being is easily achieved with a healthier lifestyle. Therefore, you should offer a healthier work environment so that employees can maintain good health at work. Better health will make staff stay energized and efficient, which will make them more productive. More productivity can result in employees feeling more accomplished each day as well as increasing your business’s output, which will help you achieve your goals.
You also need to ensure the workplace is safe for your staff. No one expects to come to work and end up injured or worse and the last thing you want as an employer is to have to face the wrath of a qualified injured workers compensation attorney.
To create a healthy work environment you can:
- Offer lunches. If employees have to take care of their own lunch they might grab something easy (and not necessarily healthy) or not eat at all. Offering lunches from a canteen will ensure that staff is provided with nutritious meals.
- Encourage exercise hour. Whether or not you have space in your workplace for exercise equipment, you should encourage office hours. You could host your own exercise sessions or invite people for lunchtime walks to get people up and moving.
- Talk to people. Avoiding communication at work can make people feel lonely and tense. The more you talk to people, the more comfortable everyone will feel. Creating a social hour every few days will ensure that workplace relationships can improve, which will improve the mental health of staff as well as create more friendships at work.