4 Ways Your Business Could Be Taking Better Care Of Its Employees

You’ve started your own business. That’s awesome! You’re well and truly living the dream. You’re one of the 27 million entrepreneurs out there that are showing people all over the country that, despite the inherent trials and tribulations, it can be done. None of this would be possible without your unique combination of ideas, experience, personality, and (let’s face it) raw talent. You’re an exceptional individual. Although the odds were against you, you’ve taken a few ideas scribbled down in your notebook and transformed them into a fully functioning business enterprise. To your legions of customers and clients you provide a vital service and for a carefully chosen few, your business is also their livelihood.

Your employees are exceptional, too. While your ideas and passion may have been what got your business up and running, it’s their hard work, dedication, intuition and indeed talent that keeps it going from strength to strength. With that in mind, could you be doing more to take care of them? Here are some ways in which your business could be taking better care of its employees…

Providing better access to training and development

Each of your employees fulfills a vital function within your operation. And when they do their job well it can be tempting to (intentionally or unintentionally) keep them in their place. However, employees are much more loyal and more motivated when they feel that you are interested in them outside of the function they fulfill for your enterprise.

Demonstrate that you are committed to their ongoing personal and professional development and they will be far more likely to remain loyal to you rather than running into the open arms of your competitors.

Ensure that each employee has access not just to job-specific training but any other program that can help them to advance their skills and move upwards in their careers. Give each employee a personalized scheme of continuous professional development. If your employees are great now, think what they can accomplish when you furnish them with new skills.

While training can be costly and disruptive, it’s nowhere near as potentially costly and disruptive to your business than the prospect of talent flight.

Keeping track of their working hours

While your employees enjoy working for you and are completely behind all the ideals and standards that your business represents, let’s be honest here… They want to be paid at the end of the month. What’s more, they want to be paid fairly and accurately. A big part of this is keeping track of their working hours as well as possible. What Are Work Hours? They’re the hours in which your employees are on duty. Whatever form it takes, your employees’ time cards are a legal document and it is a requirement that they’re kept up to date and accurate. What’s more, overtime should be calculated and paid accordingly so that your employees don’t get any nasty surprises when they open their payslips.

Use appropriate software to efficiently and accurately calculate employee working hours. It can be really demoralizing when they open their payslips to see that the overtime they worked so hard on wasn’t processed properly.

Offering team bonding activities

Alone your employees are formidable, but working cohesively as a team they can be unstoppable. However, while you work hard to recruit individuals who not only have the right skill set but the right set of character traits for your team, a lively and potent team dynamic can’t be rushed or forced. It needs to be nurtured.

Team bonding activities are a great way to supplement employees’ daily experience and allow your team to get to know, understand and appreciate one another better by interacting outside of the workplace or outside of normal working conditions. There are no right or wrong ways to do this, although for it to be fully effective, it helps for them to have some creative input. This brings us to…

Ensuring that their voices are heard

Finally, employees don’t want to feel like anonymous worker drones. They want to feel as though they’re actively contributing to the betterment and evolution of the hive. They’re creative and dynamic individuals with great ideas of their own. And you’d do well to listen to them. Ensure that they have a forum to voice their opinions, concerns, and ideas. This can be something as simple as a suggestion box or an opportunity to add to the AOB section of your weekly general meeting.

Many entrepreneurs started their own businesses because they felt they were ignored or undervalued at work. Maybe you had a similar experience that put you on the path to entrepreneurship. If so, don’t risk turning a loyal employee into a potential competitor.