The employees of any business are at the heart and are also at the core of what any company is trying to achieve and accomplish. With a solid foundation of caring, good and dedicated employees, a company is more likely to flourish and prosper than a company who has got employees who do not care as much, and are simply in the job because they need the money. Of course, anybody who works in a full time job is obviously working because they need the money. Anyone who says they are working in a job because they do not need money could be fabricating the truth, as a job obviously helps to pay the rent, pay the mortgage, pay for groceries and allows us to live comfortable lives. But, then again, working in a full time job, for some people, is all about expanding their personal development and adding vital spects to their CVs. Whatever job it is that anyone works in, valuable experience will be gained in not just a professional environment but in a personal way, too: aspects such as communication skills, group work, punctuality and people management are important in both a job and in someone’s personal life.
However, if you are a business owner, you will need to put the time into enabling your employees to feel valued, appreciated and that they are doing a good job which is benefitting the business. If employees feel undervalued, underappreciated and feel that you do not really know what their actual job role is, or that you do not know them as people, there is a chance that they will not hold a good amount of morale for the job they are doing and the business that they work for.
Do you know your employees? Getting to know your employees can be a very beneficial aspect of allowing your employees to feel like they are significant within the company. There are many ways you can get to know them, but a good way could be to organise an office trip away for a few days or a weekend and to set up team building activities while you are away such as rock climbing, wine tasting or simply to book out a room in a bar and get to know your staff that way. When staff feel like they know you, they will believe that you know them, and will feel empowered by the fact that you have given them time to talk to you, to get to know you, and more importantly, to get to know their boss on a more personal level.
Being able to empower your staff is a great skill to have in itself. Empowerment can come in many forms, such as allowing your staff to have more of a say on how different aspects of the business is run, to allow them to feel safe and secure in their job role, and another example could be to allow your staff to go through with new policies and procedures without feeling the need to notify you first (although, this should only really be delegated to experienced managers or supervisors within the business). If your business is thinking ahead to the future and you would like to add new aspects to it, talk to your staff about the potential that merchant credit cards could add to your company, and assign a group of staff, or a few staff, to discuss how to maximise that aspect and to form solid ideas with which they can feedback to you. If you are thinking of putting more energy and life into the social media accounts of the business, then, again, talk to your staff – especially the more creative ones or the marketing team – to ask for their thoughts on how the social media could be further expanded and allow them to come up with as many creative and beneficial ideas as possible.
Allowing your staff to feel empowered is a really vital aspect of any business, as happy staff are almost always good staff, and good staff almost always means a flourishing business. You should take the time to think about what more you could do to enable your staff to feel more empowered and to feel like they are doing a really important and significant job within the company. It does not matter what type of business it is that you run, as long as there is happy and fulfilled staff in place, your business will be more likely to succeed.
