emploe

When building a successful business, you might have learned the importance of listening to your customers. However, you might not yet have learned that it is equally important to listen to your employees. You might be the one running your company, but they are the ones who make everything work. As such, you want to make sure they are doing their job efficiently; you don’t want to be paying them to slack off on your time. If you’re getting reports that some aspects of the business aren’t running as smoothly as they should, assess how you’re running your company and see if there are things that could be done better.

Communication

Open door policies are a great start, but they often they end up being hollow, rarely-used entries in employee handbooks. To create a true environment of open communication, you should encourage collaboration and feedback between departments, as well as between management and staff. Productivity will improve as a result of a more positive office morale.

Clear and up to date business goals

Sometimes efficiency can drop because employees haven’t been updated about new company goals, or the communication about new business goals weren’t clear. As the boss, you have a clear idea of what is organizational design of your company, but you need to accurately communicate it to your employees if you expect productivity to remain high. If emails aren’t clear enough, arrange a meeting and encourage your employees to ask questions. It will go a long way to preventing further confusion.

Use technology wherever possible

Technology has done a lot to improve productivity and communication in the workplace, so you should take advantage of it in you business. Up to date machines will increase the speed at which your employees work, letting them do their job more efficiently. A company social networking tool such as Slack is faster than email, but doesn’t have all the distractions of actual social media sites.

Take time to train

Forcing employees to learn on the job can be extremely inefficient and overwhelming for your new worker. If it doesn’t encourage them to quit, you may eventually have to make that decision for them. Instead of expecting them to effectively accomplish a task with little to no instruction, take the extra day to teach them the necessary skills to do their job. Make it clear that it is okay to ask questions, and they don’t have to present themselves as an expert. In the long run, you will have an employee who knows how to do their job well, and you won’t have to read more applications for a while.

Incentivize

People work better if they’re rewarded with more than just a paycheck. Recognizing their efforts and contributions will make them feel appreciated and they will continue to be productive workers. Make sure you take into account their individual needs or preferences when thinking of a suitable reward. One employee might appreciate public recognition, while another would prefer a private “thank you.”