If you are the manager or owner of a company, then you will soon realize that the biggest asset of your business is not the assets you own or the sales channels you develop, but the quality of your employees. If the employees are fully involved in ensuring the progress of the company, then even a substandard plan can lead to growth and expansion.
In contrast, demotivated and disinterested employees can make even the best plans go awry. A good way to keep the employees engaged in your business is to make them feel good about being a part of your company. And below, we look at seven ways you can do this.
Weekend Breaks
Take an hour or two off work the last working day of each week so that your employees can connect with one another in an informal, fun way. So, if your last working day of the week is on Friday, then keep aside two hours of that day, ideally after the lunch break, and conduct special programs that involve large scale employee participation.
The programs can be anything from a karaoke competition, a quiz competition, a screening of popular funny videos, and so on. As long as the event makes your employees laugh and connect with one another, you can conduct any program you wish. And once the weekend event becomes a regular activity, your employees will bond together stronger, helping them to engage in the business activities much more openly.
Feedbacks
Feedbacks also play a big role in ensuring that employees are fully committed to the welfare of the business. And there are two aspects to this – feedbacks which are given by the company to the employees, and the feedback which the employees offer to the company. When offering feedback to employees, businesses have to be very careful as to how they present it. Most likely, the feedback is likely to be something that is seen as a drawback of an employee.
As such, when you talk to an employee about their shortcomings, you must not sound condescending or authoritative. Instead, present it in a factual, open-minded way, while adding suggestions as to how the employees can overcome these negatives. If you come across as condescending, then the employees will likely develop a standoffish attitude towards the company, and may not put in their 100% to their job.
Coming to the feedback offered by the employees, be sure to receive it in a pleasing manner. Do not look disinterested when they are providing suggestion since they might feel disrespected. And if the opinions of the employees are valid enough that it can be put into practice for the benefit of the business, then surely do implement them.
Assign Important Tasks
When employees are given the responsibility of handling important tasks, they feel a sense of pride in accomplishing them. This mostly has to do with the fact that being assigned such an important task is a sign that you trust them completely. As such, it indirectly says to the employee that they are a valuable part of the organization.
So, whenever you have a big project that needs to be executed, don’t try to manage everything by yourself. Instead, split it into small tasks, identify employees who you think can handle such tasks and let them do the job. This will inevitably increase employee engagement since they will constantly be thinking about how best to finish the job so that the company benefits from their performance.
Personal Growth
Most people look for opportunities to develop their capabilities. If they are stuck in a work where they never learn or try anything new, then they are very likely to find the job mundane. This can eventually make them become less involved in the office activities. As the owner or manager of a company, you must never let the working environment of your office turn like this. You should ensure that your employees get all opportunities to gain new knowledge and practice new techniques that add to their skills.
For example, if you have a large sales team, you can conduct special psychology classes that enable them to interpret the body language of customers and customize their sales presentation to take advantage of such signals. Not only will your team be exposed to new ideas, they will be able to implement the knowledge in their career and see fantastic results as well. And for letting them develop new skills, your employees will always feel indebted to you and your business, which will motivate them to perform to their best of abilities.
Recognition And Rewards
It is the nature of a human being to feel needed and be appreciated for the achievements and contributions they make to the society. This is true in the case of a business organization also. One of the worst things you can do is to never acknowledge the contributions of your employees. Such actions will only end up demotivating them and they will slowly withdraw from making any significant contributions to your business. This is highly undesirable since you want your employees to dedicate themselves to their jobs. As such, when an employee does something significant that results in a benefit to the company, make sure to acknowledge it.
Let the office know what that specific employee has done and appreciate them in front of other employees. This should be enough to make them feel good about themselves and will keep them engaged in the progress of your business. And if you can reward them, whether monetarily or otherwise, then all the better.
Working Comfort
The working environment should be comfortable enough that employees can work for long hours without being discomforted or stressed out. Many factors play a big role in this. For one, ensure that all the chairs in your office are ergonomically suitable for long working hours. This will make sure that employees do not feel any back pain or similar discomfort no matter how long they sit and work on the chair. Secondly, try not to put employees in cubicles.
Instead, opt for an open working area where employees can see and talk to one another without any reservation. Cubicles will end up isolating your employees and restrict their interactions. Thirdly, make your office less cluttered. If there are too many furniture and other items in the office, then employees might find it difficult to move around. This can also play on their minds and restrict their movements and exchange of ideas.
Social Work
Once a month or so, try involving your employees in some social work. It can be the distribution of textbooks to poor school children or helping an old age home with setting up a music system. By having them help put the needy, your employees will feel good about themselves. This will eventually lead to greater employee engagement as your workers will start seeing your company in a positive light due to all the good social work you do.
In addition to the above, make sure that you only hire employees after taking into account whether they will fit in with the culture of the company or not. If you are developing a very close-knit team where every member of the office will openly share their views with one another, then the last thing you need is to hire an employee who does not interact with anyone. So, make sure to hire a person who will seamlessly gel in with the way your office runs.
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