You may have a great business idea, a brilliant concept to build a foundation on. Also, a high return on profits but none of that really matters if your employees are unhappy with the environment they find themselves in. But before we explore the strategies to get the best out of your business. We need to understand what actually Business Strategy is?
Business Strategy
According to Business Jargons, “Business strategy can be understood as the course of action or set of decisions which assist the entrepreneurs in achieving specific business objectives.” So, to achieve those objectives, every organization needs some creative business strategies to get success.
Creative Business Strategies
At the heart of any business are the people that make up that business – those who put in the long hours to ensure deadlines are met. Also, constantly work to improve their productivity. All in the hopes to implement creative business strategies to bring success to their business and flourish it further.
Therefore, few questions arise which organizations need to address:
- In what manner you can keep your employees happy?
- How to translate your enthusiasm and drive onto your team?
- How do you make sure that they’re productive and motivated to succeed?
Treating Employees With Respect At Workplace
Now, we will look at how an organization should really be treating its employees and the methods they can undertake. To ensure that their workforce is not just motivated to work. Also, they go home with a smile on their faces.
Incentivize Quality
You can always thank your employees for their work but at the end of the day, it’s the money that does most of the talking.
To create incentives focusing on quality, an organization can instill a multi-tier reward system. Whereby employees can earn badges or tokens if they meet certain goals. These goals can reflect either individual tasks or the achievement of team goals. The aim is to give the employees something to work towards, and more specifically something that can benefit their personal needs/requirements.
You also have the opportunity to start structuring performance incentives into the salary packages for employees just so that they have an idea upfront of what the potential benefits could look like for them.
Lastly, it’s always nice to talk it out with your employees. Let them know what the incentives are, and how they can achieve the goals that will guarantee them those very incentives.
Sell The Company To Your Team
By this, we obviously don’t mean that you end up handing over your entire organization to your employees.
However, giving equity to your employees always helps them to be more motivated. Since they now have a concrete stake in the business. They know that if the business profits, their shares will increase in value which will obviously benefit them.
Employees with shares within the company are more likely to have motivation. Not just because they benefit from company profit but because they now feel as if they quite literally are a part of the business.
Learning Never Stops
Your employees should never feel like they’re now ‘stuck’. Instead, they should come to work hoping to learn more. Further, developing skills that will contribute to their individual career paths.
The first step to initiating a learning journey for your employees requires you to sit down with them and discuss areas of both strength and weakness. So, you have an idea of the gaps that need consideration. However, don’t try to make it seem as if you get to decide what they will be learning. Instead, allow them to suggest the skills/courses they would like to learn/be a part of and how they feel it will benefit their performance in the organization.
While letting your employees take courses and also holding learning sessions within your organization. You can also delve into the plethora of certifications being offered for various skills and see if your employees could somehow be a part of those sessions.
Support Creativity
One big mistake that many organizational leaders make is believing that they’re the ones who know best. Therefore, disregarding the effort and contributions of those that are on the ground working on their projects and making advances leading to an improvement in results for the organization.
The ideal environment therefore would be one where employees have the space to communicate freely and make suggestions for improvement at any level of the business. If your employees are coming up with new ideas or making suggestions. So, this just means they care about the company – so it’s a win!
Not only can you be open to suggestions but also let your employees run with their ideas or test out new things provided that both time and cost allow the testing period to take place. Even if they don’t end up with the desired results. They’re learning a thing or two out of the experimentation. On the other hand, if they do get the results then that’s even better.
Flexible Working Hours
If the past year in COVID Pandemic has taught us anything it’s that there is potential in the workspace to let employees work on their own time and from their own comfort zones as long as they are meeting the targets.
Each employee comes from a different background. With it, they bring a set of external factors such as family, friends, hobbies, side projects, and any other commitments. If you provide your employees with the opportunity to fit work around their life (rather than the other way around). You’re more likely to end up with happier team members.
Letting employees be flexible and allowing them to set their own work hours can go a long way in enabling better performance from employees and helping them work in their own comfort zones.
Moreover, with the inclusion of self-management models/people-management software, you can always let your employees check-in and check-out virtually and also let them manage their projects at their own pace.
At the end of the day what should matter is that results are being delivered and if that means letting employees set their own working hours then what’s the harm?
Mentoring Those Around You
Earlier, we touched upon the idea of letting learning be a continuous process for employees. This is possible through the initiation of a mentor-pairing activity whereby employees have someone to engage and interact within hopes of learning something new and adding to their set of skills.
You can even go a step further and set up a mentoring/leadership program that employees can opt for if they’re looking to learn a few skills or gain some insight into specific lines of work.
Transparency Is Key
Many organizations make the mistake of putting up a front for their employees to make them feel like they’re constantly improving and growing. This obviously creates a false sense of security amongst employees and they never really know of how their company is actually performing in the market space.
Instead, organizations should instill a system whereby employees get monthly updates for the numbers. Moreover, help them understand where the organization currently is in terms of the goals that they set out for themselves.
You can also go a step further and make reports/documents accessible to all members of the staff. So they can have the option of learning more about the performance/successes and failures.
Through this activity, you’re giving employees not only an accurate idea of where the company stands at the moment. Also, giving them the space to make their suggestions on how they can improve these results.
Creating Security
None of these incentives will work if at the end of the day your employees feel insecure and just not happy while at work. Employees need to know that they’re in a protected environment., their opinions matter and are acknowledged. Also, they have a strong role to play in the setup of the team.
You can do this by letting them suggest ideas on how costs can be cut or how they can generate more income. While also asking them for feedback on any continuity plans for the business.
Summing Up!
At the end of the day what matters is how comfortable of an environment you can create for your employees. If they feel secure, and believe that their opinion can actually be considerable, then they’re likely to stay committed to your organization for a long long time.