Without our employees, our businesses are pretty useless. After all, who’s going to help us find clients, who’s going to manage our accounts and who’s going to do all of our advertising? Businesses should be pictured as gigantic machines with each cog being manned by a living and breathing person. If one of those cogs fails, then the machine could probably still work, but it’s not going to be as efficient as if everyone is working in harmony.
This is why we refer to your employees as the backbone of your business. Without their support, every other asset in your business will collapse and fail. Think of your employees as the glue that holds your business together and makes it successful.
Strengthen your team the correct way
Now that you understand the importance of a solid core group of staff, here’s how you can strengthen them.
Firstly, focus on your employees and how to improve their morale. Are they suffering because their chairs are uncomfortable? Do you think they need vision insurance because they’re staring at the computer for too long and you’re worried about their eyesight? Is their equipment outdated, causing them to be less productive?
These are all issues that you should keep in mind, but it’s actually fairly difficult to tell if it’s the case unless your employees are giving you regular feedback. As such, it’s important to keep channels of communication open so that you can receive comments on how you’re doing, how your employees are doing, and how your business is running in general. Without this employee feedback loop, you’ll be left in the dark when it comes to strengthening the backbone of your business and it will become difficult to manage your employees.
A little happiness goes a long way, and the happier your employees are the more likely they’re going to stay with your business. They are, after all, the backbone of your company, so if they’re happy, then your business is going to be in good shape and they’ll go the extra mile to ensure that your company is running optimally.
Teaching your employees new skills
One of the best ways to improve the productivity of each employee is to give them specialised training in their fields or teach them new skills that could complement their current skillset. For instance, if you’re working in a software development field, then your quality assurance testers could also make fantastic debuggers. Your social media management team could do with a course in interacting with media, and even your telephone operators could become fantastic community managers in the future.
It’s important to recognise when an employee is being held back by their current role. This is so you can create an effective means of promoting them. By teaching them new skills, they will become more productive, they’ll strengthen the core of your team and they will ultimately play a key role in your business’s growth and success.
