Most business owners struggle with a common question – how can my business retain its workforce effectively?
Quite surprisingly, 57% of unhappy employees leave their jobs because of their bosses and the fact that they feel invaluable.
So how can a small business strengthen and retain its workforce?
Let’s talk about it in detail.
1. Hiring Right
Hiring the right people for your business not only speeds up your momentum of reaching your company’s goals but also creates a sustainable working environment for your existing employees. It also ensures maximum employee performance and compliance.
To hire right:
Define the job roles and expectations clearly
It is essential to create detailed job descriptions so employees know what to expect.
This will save time training these hires later on and ensure optimum performance from day one.
See if their cultural values align with yours
Every company has a different culture and ecosystem within.
Assess if the candidate aligns with the company culture and if they share the same values and enthusiasm that the rest of your team does.
A culture test by Test Gorilla will help you quickly analyze the cultural alignments between a potential employee and your existing team.
2. Display Values & Ethics
In small businesses, the teams are small and tight-knit.
A team working in a small business reflects the personal values of its founders and owners.
In order to strengthen your workforce and keep them at the top of their game, ensure that your values are clearly articulated and consistently practiced within your organization.
Here’s how you can do that:
Lead by example
As a business owner or manager, your actions set the tone of your tone and by extension, your entire business. Being a role model and demonstrating ethical values is extremely important to help your team perform in the same way.
Open Communication
Every business strives to create an environment where everybody feels comfortable expressing their ideas and opinions. Encourage open dialogue and active listening to foster a sense of inclusion.
Acknowledge The Rights and Wrongs
Though it is commonsensical to avoid conflicts, you don’t want to turn a blind eye on that employee who shows up late or slyly avoids work. You also don’t want your high-performing and dedicated professionals to go unacknowledged. Failure to do so will create a demotivated and disgruntled workforce.
The trick is to let employees know that you know what’s going on and take actions to create a fair and reasonable environment for everyone. Have regular one and one and team meetings to optimize performance and discuss goals and progress. Recognize performance by certificates, awards, or price rewards.
3. Embrace Diversity
Embracing diversity and inclusion in your small business workforce isn’t solely about brand image.
Rather it’s more about not missing out on talent. You want to create an all inclusive space where decision-making and problem-solving aren’t marred by prejudices.
To create a diverse workforce:
Inclusive Hiring Practices
Implement such recruitment processes that will actively seek diversity. This includes sourcing candidates from different backgrounds and promoting your job openings in different communities.
Equal Opportunities
In your workplace, ensure that your employees have equal opportunities to prove their talent, capabilities, and career development.
Diversity Training
A part of nurturing a diverse culture is investing in diversity training for your workforce. An inclusive environment will affirm the feelings and values of every employee while also promoting a community experience.
4. Avoid Micromanaging
Unfortunately, micromanagement is almost a part of every small business – it disrupts employee productivity and motivation.
More than 68% of employees in a report have mentioned that micromanagement has decreased their morale, and 55% claimed it had hurt their productivity.
Micromanagement is counterproductive. It instills a sense of belittlement which is discouraging and disparaging for staff. You want them to feel empowered and give them a sense of power and autonomy.
Reiterate the job role
Before you hire a candidate, set clear all the expectations and goals you’ve laid for them.
Most importantly, after candidates are hired, they need a comprehensive overview of their duties and responsibilities. This allows them to understand their roles well and fulfill their responsibilities on time.
Delegate AuthorityZendesk’s customer service software
You also need to delegate tasks and decision-making authority to the employees based on their expertise and experience. Empower them to take ownership of their work. This will also mitigate politics and conflicts on the floor.
Use constructive feedback
This doesn’t mean you optimize your workforce. Constructive feedback is the way to go. Here are some useful tips and tricks.
5. Investing in Technology to Support Them
By providing your workforce with all the necessary tools and technology it requires, you significantly increase the productivity and efficiency of your team.
Identify Technology Needs
Assess your employees’ technological requirements and provide them to boost efficiency and save time. For instance, Zendesk’s employee experience software can help your sales team reduce workload
Training and Support for software
An essential part of deploying new technology is the right guidance to use it. Offering training and ongoing support is going to make sure that your workforce is able to use technology to its full potential.
6. Flexible Environment
At the current pace of how the work is evolving, flexibility is a crucial component of a modern workforce.
Sustaining a flexible environment will enhance employee satisfaction and attract top talent.
Remote Work Options
After the pandemic, the rate of working remotely has increased a lot. Most importantly, it has also increased the efficiency of workforces for multiple businesses. Offering flexible work arrangements will satisfy the diverse needs of your workforce and reduce commuting stress.
Flexi-Hours
Allowing your employees to set their own working hours will make it very easy for them to balance their personal and professional commitments.
Work-Life Balance Support
A culture that promotes work-life balance is something that the employees will embrace and appreciate a lot. Encouraging employees to take time off when needed will help them develop loyalty towards your company and its success.
7. Opportunities for Career Advancements
An important part of retaining a skilled and motivated workforce is by providing opportunities to your team for growth and advancement.
Professional Development
Investing in training and development programs to enhance the skills and knowledge will benefit your company drastically. Doing so helps your workforce to learn on the job, make the learning curve a little less steep, and develop the overall skills that they can even use on the job.
Internal Promotions
Promoting from within your organization always reflects a promising path for your team members. Show your employees that there are real opportunities that can look up to.
Conclusion
A small business workforce could be the ultimate team to make or break your business.
Your employees are the backbone of your company and their business is intrinsically attached to yours – which is why you need to be smart to help you pick the right people for your growing business.
Shubham Rajpara is an experienced copywriter based in the UK, he writes on all things technology and marketing. He has offered businesses create actionable content that acts as lead magnets. He has a degree in psychology and is based in the UK. To boost your content marketing efforts reach out to him at rajpara.shubham@gmail.com
Workforce stock image by PeopleImages.com – Yuri A/Shutterstock
