Simple Ways to Show Employees You Care

Your employees provide the labor necessary to turn capital into profit. Without them, whatever resources you put into starting your business will stagnate. After all, capital does not yield more capital. Only labor can do that. That is why it is in your best interest to keep your employees happy. They directly contribute to your business’s success. Moreover, high employee turnover has been proven to be quite expensive and hence detrimental to any business.

Thankfully, that is not something you have to contend with. You can ensure that your employees stick around, ideally, until they finally decide to retire. How you might ask. Well, by following these simple but effective strategies.

Set up a Nice Office

The office is where your employees do the bulk of their work. And their output directly affects the state of your business. Poor employee performance can easily translate to poor sales, for instance. The first step to ensure the utmost productivity of employees is setting up a nice office.

Make sure your office layout is work conducive. Your electric system should be topnotch so that no work is interrupted by power outages. The HVAC system should be reliable. Even the office decor should inspire employee creativity and enthusiasm.

Prioritize workplace Safety

This is most crucial now more than ever. Given the pandemic, we all have renewed appreciation for workplace safety. If you can’t send your employees home to do their jobs remotely, at the very least, make sure they are safe working at the office.

Follow safety protocols. Have hand washing stations in strategic areas. Give out hand sanitizers. Make sure the office gets sufficient ventilation. Plus, you may campaign for voluntary vaccination among employees, and if you can, offer rewards to those who get vaccinated. That way, you can convince a vaccine-hesitant employee to take one for the team.

Have Anti-Bullying and Harassment Policies

One major contributor to toxic workplace culture is pervasive bullying and harassment. These instances may occur between colleagues or between a superior and subordinate. Whatever its nature, workplace bullying and harassment should never be tolerated. Taking bullying and harassment issues seriously tells your employees you care for them, especially those belonging to marginalized groups such as people of color (POC), LGBTQIA +, and people with disabilities.

You need to have anti-bullying and harassment policies written on paper and disseminated across the organization. Everyone should be On the same page. And no incident should be swept under the rug.

Offer Perks and Privileges

Do you run a creative enterprise with creative people who have a penchant for creative things? Why not give away tickets to a play or a concert from time to time? That will really make your employees happy. Or is your office made of mostly family men and women? Why not give out gift certificates your employees can use the next time they do grocery shopping? They will feel valued and special.

You might think investing in these tokens of appreciation will be costly. Rest assured, the rewards you reap will be priceless. For one thing, you’ll have a pool of employees that stay grateful and excited about their job.

Conduct Consistent Surveys

You do not have to talk to your staff one person at a time. You can conduct anonymous surveys conducted online or in real life to get a feel of the office’s pulse. You never know what information you can glean from these surveys. You might even stumble upon issues you are not aware of.

Also, surveys make your employees feel that what they have to say matters. And giving them a voice is tantamount to expressing your appreciation to each member of your organization.

You have built your dream business. That is thanks to your hard work, of course. But now, it is no longer just about you. You cannot sustain your business’s continued success with your efforts alone. You need the help of a team. This is where your employees come in. And while they should be grateful for having received employment from you, they are not indebted to your business. If anything, you are indebted to their labor.

So, make your employees happy. Follow the strategies listed above, for starters. You can explore other ways and means to ensure that your employees do their job with smiles on their faces. And not all of them need to cost you money. Or too much time. Sometimes something as simple as sincerely checking in on someone who’s wearing a scowl because of probable burnout would suffice.