The success of your company depends on a variety of factors working in concert – a great service or product, efficient tools and protocols, strategic marketing. But perhaps most of all, the success of a company rides on the people who inhabit it.
Your employees bring your business to life and when they’re at their best, you thrive. Employees who are prospering want their companies to prosper and they’ll work to make beautiful music on your behalf. Unfortunately, the opposite is also true; when employees feel underappreciated or overworked, your reputation, turnover rates, talent acquisition costs and market value can suffer.
Encourage loyalty, productivity and professional growth among employees with two basic tools: efficiency and emotion. On the efficiency side, it’s vital that the organization be committed to streamlining the employee experience. An efficient, straightforward way to improve employee satisfaction is often shown through raises and bonuses. With Merit Matrix, Paycom’s Talent Management tool, it is easy to rate employee performance and budget for raises and bonuses; however, while monetary incentives are powerful motivators, they’re not necessarily the main determinants of a productive, happy staff.
That brings us to the emotional tools, the human element of human relations. Here are three instruments for nurturing feelings of fulfillment among your workforce, played in the key of E:
• Energy – Energize your employees by letting them pursue the aspects of your company they’re passionate about. It’s simple pride of ownership. From contributing to the internal newsletter to organizing grass roots marketing, employees reap greater satisfaction from projects they’re personally invested in. Set quantifiable goals so employees can measure results and managers can estimate the ROI of these passion projects.
• Eyes and Ears – As often as is feasible for the size of your company, meet face-to-face with every person you employ. Grab a coffee, let them talk, and listen to what they say. By understanding what your people love about their jobs and what needs improvement, you’ll retain experienced employees and keep that turnover rate low. And between meetings, keep communication lines open; good ideas can come from anyone, regardless of job title.
• Education – Crush productivity-killing boredom by allowing your employees to grow. Build time into your staff’s schedules for self-improvement; maybe it’s three hours a month to read the latest industry books or working lunches with guest speakers. If the company can afford it, support your employees’ growth through seminars, conferences or continuing education programs. Learning new skills or gaining certifications tells your staff their careers are advancing.
Since almost all employees who voluntarily leave jobs feel pushed away by dissatisfaction in the workplace rather than pulled toward a new job opportunity, you can increase retention – and productivity – by increasing the happiness of your people.
It all comes down to the harmony of working efficiently and working emotionally. If your HR processes are bogged down with redundancy and inefficiencies, consider updating them. And if your people are confined to one-note, one-size-fits-all roles, loosen up. Treat your employees as the unique, talented individuals they are. Because when the individual succeeds, your company succeeds, too.