Engaging Employees
From the 21 April 2016 edition of BuZZ, Ball Horticulture's retail email newsletter, we get some salient tips on getting the best from your team ...
Owners and management are always looking for employee tips and here’s one for you. This piece from FastCasual.com is a great read on Employee engagement. We all know companies have to/should engage employees; this piece explains how to make that happen.
Here are their points, in summary:
- Start with communication. “People want to work for people.” People buy from other people because there’s that connection made at point of sale. Same thing for employees. They need to know who they work for and feel a connection. When everyone understands the message of the company from the top down on the first day, employees are engaged. So engage with them first to clarify the message and get them on board from Day One.
- Videos help. Put the owner on video on the company’s intranet or maybe the company’s Facebook member page in order to convey emotion and gain trust.
- Recognition. It’s easy to make your employees feel like an integral part of the company. Recognize them for the jobs they do well and for their contributions to the company. It’s a powerful tool that helps to boost compensation.
- Encourage employee growth. Good employees want to improve and contribute. Help them and allow them to do that. It doesn’t necessarily require them to move to a leadership role, but does help them feel they're giving back and helping the company advance.
- Turnover is crippling. It costs money and blocks progress. Engaging with and empowering employees helps mediate that risk.
Avoiding Micromanaging - Micromanaging has gotten a bad rap - and with good reason. It’s not a good thing to do to your employees. Here are a few tips from entrepreneur.com that can help you understand the issues, relinquish absolute control and instead become a mentor in your specific situation:
- Establish procedures. For everything. Come up with protocols for what’s to be done, assign responsibility. And follow them! That puts the responsibility for action in certain hands - many times not yours - so others can show their potential. And if not, then there’s a written procedure for next steps.
- Try new technology. Rather than you handling everything, maybe there’s a program or app out there that can seamlessly take over some responsibilities. It’s like hiring an assistant - but not really.
- Turn employees into partners. Consult with them. listen to suggestions and opinions. When employees are consulted they feel invested, and when they feel invested, they take their responsibilities even more seriously, protecting your business.
