It is a fact of life that some companies do better than others financially and owners have had far more freedom and happier lifestyles than others. Businesses have spent large sums of money over the years trying to find out what the secret sauce is. Believe it or not, it comes down to your employees. You must first hire the right people and have a culture that brings out their best performance.
Here is why investing in your employees is so important, and the return you can expect to see from doing so.
Why You Should Invest in Your Employees
Many employees are only concerned with making it through the workday and bringing home a paycheck. If that is the extent of your workers’ goals, both your business and your employees are going to struggle.
When you invest in your employees, however, you not only attract and retain the best workers, you also build a strong, highly productive team that’s unafraid of change. It also makes your staff to feel valued and supported.
This gives them the space they need to be creative, confident, and do their best work. It empowers them to focus on tasks where they excel, leading to a more successful organization.
When you develop your employee’s abilities, they become motivated to innovate and confront challenges, rather than running away from them. This improves their performance, encourages them to look ahead, innovate, strive for promotion, and take on more responsibility. [quotesright]Which in turn, boosts the company’s overall performance, output, sales, and revenue growth while decreasing turnover and absenteeism.[/quotesright]
Encourage Good Communication
Many companies don’t communicate properly, or they assume everyone on staff already knows what’s happening and what is expected from them. A survey entitled the Cost of Poor Communications showed that poor communication was costing companies tens of millions of dollars.
[quotes]Communicating regularly and often is essential and sending mass emails isn’t enough, especially in these days of working from home. [/quotes] Deploy an alternative, reliable form of communicating and sending out frequent, timely alerts. Slack or a tool like Alertus Desktop™ Notification can help you stay in contact with employees, keep them informed about changes, updates, and company announcements, and enable you to capture their attention immediately without worrying about messages getting overlooked or lost in crowded email inboxes.
With so many teams working remotely from home and remote workspaces via online apps like Zoom, both managers and employees can feel particularly disconnected and alone.
[quotesright]Managing remote workers well takes a different set of skills and a solid understanding of the ways to work together remotely.[/quotesright] If you are interested in learning more about a program that teaches managers and workers the skills and mindset for success when working away from the “mother ship,” we can recommend Distance Leader for more information and the tools you’ll need.
Solicit employee feedback through satisfaction surveys they can submit anonymously. Ask them what they like about the company and their jobs, and what they would like to see changed. Transparency and a regular flow of communication will help you to create a workplace that meets everyone’s expectations, and keep them on the same page.
Provide Employee Training and Development
[quotesright]Fact: Companies that offer extensive training double their employee retention, enjoy higher profit margins and generally higher income per employee. [/quotesright]
When you invest in training, you give employees the resources they need to feel confident. You also show them you are concerned with their long-term success. Recent polls show fewer than 40 percent of employees feel confident they have the training to do their jobs. Of those respondents who had received work-sponsored development opportunities during the preceding 12 months, more than half planned to stay with their employer for at least another year.
Offer Recognition and Incentives
[quotes]There’s much to be said for offering a carrot instead of a stick.[/quotes] Recognizing individuals is key to providing a workplace that satisfies career and personal needs. This isn’t a new strategy; Ken Blanchard’s best selling business book advises, “Catch People Doing Something Right (and reward them publicly).”
Offering incentives is a great way to do this, through bonuses and other financial incentives, awards such as certificates or plaques, time off on their birthdays, team events, or even just bringing cake into the office. All these help employees to feel valued, which is key to winning their loyalty, giving them a sense of purpose, focusing their energy, and recognizing their achievements and levels of performance.
Equip Employees Adequately
[quotes]Nothing is harder than using inferior tools as you try to deliver superior work.[/quotes] Make sure your workers have the best equipment available for the jobs they do. Get improved desks and chairs. Upgrade their computers to avoid downtime and frustration. Provide tech tools like scheduling apps so they have ongoing access to their schedules. Ask them to tell you if they hear about new technology that would make their jobs easier.
Investing in your facilities is a way of investing in your employees that delivers huge returns in employee motivation and efficiency.
Benefits of Employee Investment
Increased motivation and engagement are primary benefits of investing in your employees. Studies show that engagement improves retention, performance, revenue, and profit margins.
Engaged employees take fewer sick days and are more likely to stay in their jobs. They work smarter, not just harder, and find ways they can improve their processes. They offer suggestions, develop creative solutions, and share information with colleagues.
Motivated and engaged employees have a better understanding of customers’ needs, speak up on behalf of the organization, and have a stronger possibility of recommending their company and its products to others. They also have fewer accidents than unengaged staff.
All of these result in lower staff turnover costs and higher revenue. [quotesright]Research by Gallup Consulting showed that firms with highly engaged workers grow their earnings-per-share (EPS) at a rate of 28 percent, while low-engagement firms had an average EPS growth rate decline of 9.4 percent.[/quotesright]
The Costs Involved
Investing in your employees sounds like a good idea but you are a “show me the beef” kind of person. You may wonder how could you afford it?
[quotes]Investing in your employees returns many multiples of what you spend.[/quotes] Why? Because the average company has not invested heavily in training management and workers on better practices and ways of thinking about how to deal with today’s more complex, fast-paced and competitive word. [quotesright]It’s not all about the cost, it’s the cost of doing nothing too. [/quotesright]
You should take into account the offsetting costs when you do your calculations including:
- The cost of sick leave, substitute or temporary staff during sick leave,
- Recruitment, interviewing, hiring, appointment, orientation, and training of new staff, and
- Lost productivity and lost opportunities.
Compare the resulting gains in productivity and profitability against the small cost and you’ll have a clear picture of the benefits of investing.
Sound Interesting? Want to Know More?
The big ROI today comes from improving your team, not equipment or "tools." We are employee productivity specialists with results-proven solutions which will improve your ROEI in any area from Administration to Management to Sales. Get in touch and let's set up a time to talk. Brian Tracy USA: 877.433.6225 Email Me
Resources: https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/315095 https://blog.wagepoint.com/all-content/6-powerful-ways-to-invest-in-your-employees https://www.alertus.com/blog/5-reasons-to-invest-internal-communication