A Comprehensive Guide To Employee Care

Staff

Employee care is one of the most important things you’ll set out to do for your business, from day one. Caring for your employees will reduce employee turnover, and have a myriad of other benefits to your business that will help you to thrive. This comprehensive guide to employee care will fill you in, so you can be sure you’re doing everything right:

Keeping Your Staff Engaged

Having engaged staff members is one of the best things for your business. Around 80% of engaged staff members received some kind of reward or recognition when deserved. Rewards don’t have to be huge to work well; simple verbal recognition could be enough to tell your staff that they’ve done a good job. It isn’t unheard of to have managers who don’t say thank you, and even pass off staff ideas like they were their own. This isn’t what is going to create engaged staff members!

To keep your staff engaged you also need to make time for them. Make it your goal to have regular conversations and show an interest in day to day projects. It’ll go a long way. Don’t lock yourself in your office. Have more of an open door policy. When you speak to them, they’ll feel more confident coming to you with any issues they may have.  

Go Above And Beyond To Help Them

Make sure you go above and beyond to help your staff with both work and personal issues.  These are the qualities of a great leader. A healthy, happy employee is better for your business, so figure out what you can do to help with any troubles they may be facing. This can create a loyalty that’s difficult to break, and a strong business relationship. For example, one boss helped his employee to secure a new place to rent by meeting with the owner of the property after he found out she was struggling. That’s a truly great leader!  

Make sure you don’t BS them when they ask for feedback either, this will hinder them further. Being transparent and honest will get better results in the long run, so if they ask for feedback or it’s time for a review, make sure you say it honestly.

Have Clear Policies In Place

Having clear policies in place so that there’s absolutely no confusion will go a long way. For example, everybody should be clear on customer service policies and how much power they have to deal with certain issues. You should also have a policy on what happens when an employee doesn’t come into work. You can find more information on this in the post ‘How To Deal With No Call, No Show Employees’ – it may actually be that you’re making it too difficult for people to book time off, so they are skipping work instead.

Relate To Your Employees

Don’t act like you’re above your employees. There’s nothing worse than a boss that has somebody carry their own bags for them. Use what you’ve gone through to share with your employees and inspire them to overcome their problems. Think about ways you can relate and they will feel able to open up to you so much more. Show vulnerabilities and imperfections and they’ll see you as another person, not just their boss.

Show That You Care About Their Personal Life

You have to show your staff that you care about their personal life. Don’t just see them as typing monkeys! If it is a staff members birthday, what can you do for them to make it special at work? Maybe you could decorate the office a bit, and get a cake. Show interest in their significant others too. You can do this without being weird! If you appreciate your employee, it only makes sense to show that you appreciate their other half.  Make sure they are invited to functions!

Get Creative With Employee Perks

Getting creative with employee perks can be a lot of fun, as well as help to make their personal or professional lives better. It doesn’t have to be expensive. Gym memberships are a great perk, as they help to take care of your employee’s health, which in turn enables them to have less sick days and be more productive at work. Flexi time is another great perk; your employees may prefer to work from home one day, and some find this more productive. Having a games room/relaxation area is a good way for them to get away from their desks to think or chill out, and come back recharged.

Help Employees Take Care Of Their Development & Health

Helping your employees take care of their development, physical health, and mental health is crucial. Health insurance is common, but you could even go one further. In Sweden, bosses are giving employees 1 extra week off work when they exercise for just 3 hours per week.

You can also allow staff members to take mental health days off; this could prevent physical ailments from manifesting and therefore mean less sick days in the long run. Some bosses still believe that things like depression and anxiety are not an excuse to have days off, but this is an outdated viewpoint and mental health is just as important as physical health.

Also, make sure you invest in things like training and team building. Not only can this be fun for your staff, it shows you care about their personal and professional development.  

See? There are an abundance of ways you can care about your staff and encourage them to stay with you for longer, as well as improve their feelings of work satisfaction. Increasing salary year on year is OK, but it won’t make that much of a difference if you’re not caring for them throughout the year. With happy staff you get happy customers, a more positive working environment, a high quality of work, loyalty/retention, and so much more. It’s always going to be worth putting in a little extra effort, time, and money to show them that they are appreciated!  

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