If you’re thinking about starting your own business or are already a business owner, hiring employees can be one of the most daunting tasks to consider. At some point, most business owners will need to start thinking about taking on employees as their company starts to grow and becomes harder to handle all on their own. It’s important to find and hire the right people to join your team, but you will also need to think about how you can improve the relationship between your employees and yourself as an employer in order to ensure that they are satisfied, productive, and loyal members of your business. When employees feel like they’re getting everything that they need from their current position, they are more likely to go the extra mile when needed and be loyal to your company for longer, reducing staff turnover and helping you get better results. These are some of the key areas to think about when it comes to making sure that your employees have a good relationship with your business.
Reliable Payments
Every employer needs to be prepared to pay employees a fair wage for their work. While it’s important to offer a competitive salary or hourly wage to attract the right people to come and work for your business in the first place, paying employees is something that you’ll need to make sure that you get right on a regular basis. Whether you pay out weekly, fortnightly, or monthly, your employees expect to get paid on time and to receive the amount they expect. While a couple of oversights will usually be forgiven if you correct them quickly, constant problems with forgetting to pay employees on time or messing up the amount they’re paid will quickly lead to problems.
Employee Benefits
Offering benefits to employees simply for working for your company is something that is becoming more and more important. Today, employees aren’t just looking for a job that pays them; they want to know how else they can benefit from working for your company over another that is likely to pay them the same salary or wage. To attract the right talent and keep your employees satisfied, you may want to consider offering employee benefits insurance. Policies such as health insurance are highly sought after and you could access discounts and other perks for your employees to take advantage of as a thanks for working for you instead of a competitor.
Recognition
Nobody wants to work for a company where they put in a lot of hard work and never get so much as a thank you. Sure, you’re paying your employees to work for you, but making sure that employees know you notice the effort that they put in and that you appreciate it can give them a motivational boost and raise their satisfaction levels in the workplace. Employee rewards don’t have to be anything flashy or expensive, either. Sometimes all it takes is a quick thank you email to everybody for their hard work during a busy period, a box of chocolates to an employee who’s gone the extra mile or a company-paid meal out or drinks at the end of the quarter. Satisfied employees who go the extra mile for your business or for customers might not do this with recognition or reward at the forefront of their mind, but it is always nice to know that it has not gone unnoticed.
Autonomy
Today, employees are more interested in a job where they have some freedom. While this might not always be possible in some industries, it’s a good idea to offer employees autonomy wherever possible and trust them to come up with ideas that you might not have thought about. Employees who are micromanaged and unable to make any decisions of their own at work are more likely to leave faster to find something else. If you want your employees to stick around for longer and become highly valuable members of the team, getting them as involved as possible in decisions, asking for their input, and trusting them to do a good job is crucial.
Remote Working
After the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been a massive increase in people who are looking for remote or hybrid work positions. After spending months working from home during the pandemic, people have realized that not only is it easier for employers to allow employees to work from home than was previously thought, but employees are actually having a better experience, being more productive, saving money, and experiencing less stress as a result. If you can, it’s a good idea to consider allowing your employees to work from home if they choose to do so. Hybrid working, where employees work from home some of the week and come into the office for the rest, is a popular option that allows employees more freedom to choose how they want to work.
Workplace Culture
Creating a genuine workplace culture for your employees is important for any employer. Culture is about much more than simply offering free food on Fridays or ‘dressing down’ in the office. While these are perks that most employees are going to enjoy, the truth is that the culture is all about how employees are treated and how they feel when on the job. Regular communication is important; no amount of little perks is going to help much if an employee feels that they are not communicated to when it comes to the work that they are doing. Make sure that employees have the resources available and that they feel able to ask for support when they need it. Bosses who listen and take employee concerns on board without judging or making assumptions can be the biggest contributors to a positive workplace culture with good morale and satisfied employees.
Whether there are plans for starting a business in your future or your current business has reached a point where you need to think about hiring, keeping the following in mind will help you get the relationship between your business and its employees off to the best start.
