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Turn That Frown Upside Down: Top Tips For Happier Employees

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StrategyDriven Managing Your Employees Article | Turn That Frown Upside Down: Top Tips For Happier Employees

While there are many different ways you can set out to future-proof your business, maintaining employee satisfaction is one of them. This is because employees serve as the ‘face’ of your company, interacting with your clients day in, day out. This means that they are responsible for how others perceive your brand. Furthemore, studies suggest that when we are happier – we are often more productive. This means that by focusing on employee wellbeing, you can also improve your workplace efficiency – which is another step towards success.

That being said, employee satisfaction can be difficult to monitor from an employer’s perspective. This is because while employees may voice their dissatisfaction with their peers – they are likely to do so directly to their boss through fear of being reprimanded. However, this does not mean that their happiness should not be a priority – especially if you are relying on them to help kickstart your entrepreneurial ambitions.

With that in mind, here are some top tips that you can use to guarantee employee happiness in the workplace.

  • Delegate work fairly. One of the biggest complaints that many employees have within the workplace is being overworked and under-compensated. As a result, you should strive to ensure that the amount of work they are tasked with each week is fair and reasonable. You can do this by making the most of the services available to you and your company that can take some of the responsibility off your shoulders. For example, if your company does a lot of deliveries – looking into additional trucking services means that your drivers only have to make one stop instead of 5-6, lightening their workload significantly.
  • Put together a workplace wellbeing program. There are many different reasons why your employees may be unhappy at work – some of which even relate to their personal lives. This is due to the fact that it is sometimes impossible to stop your mood from impacting your work. However, you can combat these issues by placing a real emphasis on wellbeing in the workplace. For example, you could offer support to your staff by providing them with free access to therapy or counselling services. Alternatively, you can promote good workplace wellbeing by encouraging them to reach out for support as and when they need it – whether they want to reduce their hours or take time off.
  • Be responsive to complaints. If you want to create a better workplace for your employees, you need to figure out what you are doing wrong in the first place. The easiest way to do this is to ask. However, as mentioned previously, they might feel reluctant to speak up directly to you. Thankfully, there are various ways in which you can combat this. For example, you could set up an anonymous feedback submission box. Alternatively, you could ask them to elect a member of staff to take on their complaints and discuss them with you privately and anonymously. However, while taking these steps show your employees that you truly care about them – listening is not enough. You then need to make actionable change that shows you have taken on their feedback,

What Are the Organizational Benefits of Professional Development?

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StrategyDriven Managing Your People Article | What Are the Organizational Benefits of Professional Development?Hearing the phrase “professional development” makes some people squirm, others roll their eyes, and a few actually listen candidly. There’s often a misconception that managers who suggest some type of professional development to their employees actually suggest it because of poor performance, but this couldn’t be further from the truth.

Professional development is a great way for people at all levels of an organization to hone in on what exactly they want their career path to look like and gives them the opportunity to experiment with new tools that might help them to get there. There are many different avenues of professional development, but some common types include seminars, workshops, conferences, career conversations, job shadowing, and online courses.

The Benefits of Professional Development

If you’re reading this and thinking, “as much as I’d like to offer these types of programs at my organization, it just sounds a bit time consuming and expensive,” then consider the many benefits:

Long-Term Money Savings

As the tried-and-true sales saying goes, it costs more money to acquire new customers than it does to retain existing ones. The same goes for people within an organization.

It is important to note, however, that poor employee development (unorganized structure, prioritizing high performers over the whole, etc.) will cost more time and money than no development at all. So if you’re going to go in, go ALL in.

There’s No “I” In Success

Some people enjoy the monotony of knowing exactly what their tasks are for the day, how long it will take to complete them, getting them done successfully, and doing it all again tomorrow. Others like a challenge—setting higher goals and aiming for the moon. By understanding the unique motivations of your employees you can tailor a different professional development plan for each individual. Skilled managers should strive to foster their employees’ development because when your employees are successful, then everyone is successful. By creating professional development plans, you can combat complacency and build teams from simply competent to excelling in no time.

Improve Company Culture

Company culture may seem like a cliche buzzword, but it still holds a lot of value to today’s labor force. As of 2019, 46% of job seekers say company culture is very important when applying for a specific role.

Now more than ever, employees are worried about crafting a sustainable career with a company that has values closely aligned with their own.

Initiate Professional Development Conversations With Employees

“But how do I go about starting the conversation on employee development,” you ask? It’s simple, talk to your team and discuss your motivation for wanting to start a development program. If you’re in a hybrid or remote work environment, you can easily set up a video conference call and begin asking questions to get the team thinking about how they would like to see their role expand.

One great question to ask your team is: “How can being an employee here help you become the person you want to be?” It shifts the perspective from “what” you would be (your duties in a role) to “who” you would be (emphasizing you as an individual.) Unlocking your team’s core values will help you further understand their goals as well as new ways you can help support their success. After all, contributing to meaningful work is the number one reason employees choose to stay in their current positions.

Foster Professional Development During COVID-19

It might be daunting to talk to your employees about their careers in the midst of a pandemic, but, nonetheless, these are still important conversations to have. It’s vital to utilize a secure network option to ensure your line of communication is private and confidential. Other tools like learning management systems make it easier to track employees progress with special e-learning courses unique to the company.

You can test the waters of your development plan by checking in on your remote employees often, and making sure they know that you’re accessible, even if it’s only over Zoom. You can also encourage their success by highlighting them in larger team meetings.

After getting a feel for the areas your employees have expressed interest in, try introducing them to other people in the company that have experience in those areas. Professional development doesn’t have to be only hard skills—it can also include soft skills such as networking or public speaking.