Within our business growth series so far we have covered tips for acquiring and retaining customers but we have not yet discussed employees, another vitally important group of people that contribute towards business growth. Employees are the life blood of your business, the front of house, the makers of your product and the face of your business – put simply, without your employees your business probably would not operate.
A survey revealed in 2020 that 33% of employees say that they won’t stay in their current job for more than a year and employee turnover for businesses is bad news because it costs the business in terms of recruitment, training and downtime whilst training up a new recruit. It’s also demotivational for other employees when colleagues leave. Therefore, keeping your employees satisfied should be at the heart of any business growth strategy to ensure your employees give their best effort and to reduce the chances of them leaving or giving a poor service to customers.
Let’s look at some ways you could improve employee satisfaction within your business.
1. Build relationships
Following the turbulent time UK businesses have experienced over the last year, managing people is now much more than just admin and a shift towards employee wellbeing has become paramount. Create a positive culture within your business by offering regular check ins and team catch ups, and don’t be afraid to branch away from business and engage on a personal level because showing a human side to your employees can go a long way.
2. Technology
Technology is at the heart of any growth strategy in one way or another and here, technology can be useful in promoting employee satisfaction to make life just that little bit easier and less time consuming for employees. Self service systems such as Payroll Self Service can empower employees by letting them manage their payslips, holiday entitlement, P60’s and more without relying on HR personnel to tell them. Being able to book holiday online without lengthy holiday forms can be more straight forward, and online timesheets are quicker for employees too.
3. Remote working
Research from recruitment firm Monster has found that 77% of employees would like a hybrid approach to working following the Covid-19 pandemic when many got used to working from home. Investing in cloud-based software allows this to become completely practical as employees can access systems they would use in the office, at home in just the same way, providing they have an internet connection.
4. Training
In a LinkedIn Workplace Learning survey, a staggering 94% of respondents said they would be more likely to stay at an organisation which invests in training and personal development. Training makes employees feel valued and highlights progression within the company, but it also benefits your business by teaching your employees more skills to help them do their job, making it a win-win for all parties.
5. Incentives and recognition
Incentivising employee retention with share save schemes, additional holiday for length of service or loyalty rewards for employment anniversaries are good ways to keep your employees. However, you don’t need to have comprehensive benefits packages to satisfy your employees and sometimes some simple recognition can be the most powerful tool. Shout it from the rooftops to celebrate employee success in company newsletters, share new hires and for achieving targets.
6. Surveys
One of the simplest ways to find out if your employees are happy is to ask them and to send out regular employee satisfaction surveys to monitor satisfaction levels and commitment to the company. This may cover things such as new systems you have bought in, changes in processes or even the cleanliness of the toilets or staff kitchen. One of the most important factors here is to act on any feedback because ignoring employee comments will only fuel dissatisfaction further.
To conclude…
People-first companies are the ones who understand the true worth of their employees and these companies will have a good backbone to any growth strategy. The heart of any growth strategy should be your people because without the driving force of your employees, business growth will be slow. There are some simple and cost-effective ways of maintaining employee satisfaction such as simple thank you and catch ups to see how they’re doing, however investing in training and technology can be significantly powerful for employee satisfaction.
For more information about any of the suggestions discussed then please contact our friendly team.
Posted On: June 16, 2021
