Last Updated on May 26, 2019 by Jessica Adams
You’ve finally torn yourself away from your mundane ‘nine-to-five’ and waved goodbye to your cushy promotion prospects. You’re officially ready to devote yourself full-time, to your dream of entrepreneurship. You know your worth, even if your old boss didn’t! Which is why you’re committed to always showing, that you know the worth of your employees, someday…
Deciding to start your own business venture is no easy feat, especially when you’re as determined as you are right now! Millions of people across the globe talk about following their passion, providing bespoke accountancy services to IT contractors or running your own shop but not many people actually do it. The world of entrepreneurship, as you will soon discover, is a competitive and at times, ruthless one.
Over time you’d hope that your startup begins to compete with your established industry rivals and that your company begins to grow. What might have started out as you in your home office may develop into off-site premises with two, three or four employees!
As your business begins to take off, you’ll inevitably need more people in more roles. Creating a cohesive team doesn’t happen overnight. However, get it right and you could have a well-oiled machine that shares your ‘business vision’ while working at their own dream job!
Doesn’t the idea of every person feeling valued and impactful sound like a wonderful place to own? Take a look at why you should never underestimate the worth of your employees and look at what you can do to ensure your staff remains cohesive, happy and productive.
Why You Should Never
Underestimate The Worth
Of Your Employees
They Bring the Skills to Achieve!
There’s nothing more demonstrative than if you actually flash the cash and invest in your staff. Ensure that each member of your team has a personal development plan. Also, take the time to talk to each person about their career goals. Many astute businesses attempt to align their business vision with their employees’ goals.
You want to be investing in your team but also in your business. You could try offering to partially fund an MBA for a middle manager. As they look towards their next step into a more senior role, you’re showing them that you’re eager to see them succeed.
You want them to enhance their skill set and in turn, do better work for your company. If you take a look at UAB’s online MBA student experience webinar, it is clear that many full-time employees can qualify and it won’t even impact their day to day work!
By providing professional development opportunities for your staff, you’re showing them you believe they’re worthy of financial investment. This will boost morale, keep your workforce happy and see them remaining productive.
They Create a More Lively Work Environment
You want your employees to wake up every morning and enjoy coming to work? Beige carpets, grey walls and lack of adequate ventilation will hinder this. You need the office environment of your working premises to be dynamic, creative and pleasant for your staff. Ultimately, you want to show your team that you know the worth of your employees.
Consider investing in some ergonomically designed furniture such as back support chairs and pod-like desks. Create zones within your office space. And actively encourage those water cooler moments where ideas can emerge. The days of personal work cubbies with a desktop computer and a telephone landline are over.
Open plan working, the collaborative sharing of ideas and even working from home, is encouraged for maximum productivity. Put some greenery in your offices such as plants or trees if space will allow!
Bringing nature inside can lift the mood and help people de-stress. The environment where you work needs to be a pleasant environment. By making the office a modern workplace, your staff will stay productive and enjoy heading into work each day.
It’s All About Maximizing Productivity
You could have the brightest minds, the most well-qualified people and the greatest leaders working for you. You absolutely know the worth of your employees! Then again, they still might not gel as a team or be productive. This could be because you have focused too much on their individual talents instead of their value as a team.
Or you may not be communicating with them adequately enough so that they can buy into your company vision. Remember, your business is very much your baby, your dream and your passion. If it all goes wrong, you will be the one to face the consequences since your staff will move on to other jobs.
It’s vital that you get your team emotionally connected to your business. By allowing them a say in the direction of the company and informing them of aims and goals, you’re showing them that you value their support, knowledge, and opinions.
A simple weekly email detailing successes and targets can suffice. Keep your employees in the know and they will appreciate the communication.
Also, take time out to get to know your team. You might not need to know ‘what little Jimmy’s grades are this term at school’ but your interest will be noted, if you occasionally ask how his grades in school are looking.
By seeing your staff members as individuals, you’re showing that you care. By making an emotional connection to your staff, you’re more likely to have a highly motivated team of employees who want to do well at their roles.
Becoming an entrepreneur doesn’t simply mean running your own financial affairs and working for yourself. Eventually, you will need to learn softer skills and develop a strategy to lead an entire team. While daunting, you can follow these strategies to encourage high productivity, a happy environment and a dynamic way of working.
Jessica Rose Adams
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