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9 Ways to Keep Your Employees Happy

It doesn’t matter what services you provide or products you sell. Your organization can’t move forward without the support of your employees. Chief executive officers and managers around the world know that keeping their teams moving forward in harmony means the difference between success and failure. We take a look today at what motivates employees and how you can keep them smiling.

Surveys

Conduct surveys anonymously and invite your employees to share what they like or dislike about their jobs and their work environment. You may not be able to change pay or benefits, but you can pay attention to the little things from the survey. Encourage a suggestion box and invite ideas from the staff.

Consistent or Rotating Schedules

This is especially important when you have teams of shifting workers. Giving employees the power to remain in a regular shift, keeping a consistent time, and enabling them to make plans around their schedules are crucial. If this is not possible, one solution is to create a rotating schedule allows everyone to have a chance to reclaim a ‘normal’ schedule and work on critical thins. Skeleton crews on weekends and holidays also lends to higher morale.

Create Realistic Goals

CEOs and managers who set unrealistic goals with overzealous speeches sometimes set employees up to fail. Make employees feel valued and get employee buy-in by conducting goal-setting with the staff. To boost employee morale, managers might consider giving responsibility directly to the staff and alerting leadership of any hurdles in the implementation process.

Trust

Most managers don’t give this much thought but if you are one of them, take a look at how many meetings you hold or are giving direction through emails or verbally at employees’ desks. Are you micromanaging them to the point that they become anxious, inconfident, or frustrated? Trust your employees. Allow them to do their jobs and make mistakes. That is the best way for them to learn, do good work, and become better professionals.

Reviews

Although salaries are tied to annual reviews, holding quarterly reviews gives the employee feedback on their standings and where they may or may not need to improve. Surprising an employee with a negative annual review when they may have they were doing well can have huge ramifications. Ensure to recognize staff who are doing well to motivate your best employees and keep them happy.

Team Building

Closely tied to rewarding outstanding staff is the occasional surprise with promotional gifts or giveaways. Offer restaurant gift cards, concerts, sports tickets to all employees, not only for good work but for just being a part of that “family” business. Other ideas include bringing in bagels, donuts, or a once a week breakfast. Hosting a pizza lunch or happy hour for high-performing departments once a month is always popular and gives you and your employees a chance to establish camaraderie. You could even conduct a company picnic in the summer and celebrate the holidays as a team at the end of the year.

Promote Balance

Employees are their happiest when their employers understand their responsibilities and lives outside of work. Employers need to encourage the balance between work and home life by:

• Occasionally making it possible for employees to work from home. Allowing them to care for sick family members or to stay home during poor weather conditions keeps employees happy, keeping on top of their work responsibilities.
• Introducing flexible work schedules. By offering your employees (especially those with kids) adjustable schedules, you give choices to those who perform better in the mornings or afternoons, as well as for parents who are juggling family and work.

Professional Development

Whether you provide tuition reimbursement or internal training for a new role, employees who see opportunities for growth within a company are more likely to be happy and stay loyal.

Be Honest and Open

Communicate openly. Employees don’t like to hear company gossip through the grape vine, news media, or worse your competition.  Getting accurate information directly from the company keeps employees in the know and aware of any realities.  Include employees any time policy reviews are made to promote awareness and staff buy-in when it comes to making changes or improvements in policies.

Conclusion

Ensuring your employees are happy and productive is important to the success of any business. Whether you’re a major corporation or a small shop, it is cost efficient to invest in your current employees rather than incurring new costs to hire and train new staff members. Attracting and keeping the best workers in the labour force need to be a priority.