If you already own your own business or are thinking about starting a company, then the prospect of hiring employees can be quite daunting. At some point, the majority of business owners will need to think about taking on employees as the company begins to grow and is impossible to handle alone. It’s crucial that you find the right people to join your team, but even more important that you focus on building a great relationship between your business and the people who are working for it. When the culture is great and employees feel that they are getting everything they need and want from their position at work, they are more likely to be productive and satisfied members of staff who will go the extra mile when needed.
Some of the key areas to think about when it comes to building great relationships between your business and its employees are:
Great Company Culture
The company culture is one of the most important things to think about when you are creating a pleasant and enjoyable work environment for your employees. Culture is about much more than simply the employee benefits that you provide or the type of work that employees do, although these can contribute to it. Many companies mistake the culture for being something like getting free food once a week, but while these perks can be nice, the culture refers more to the overall vibe of the company. Is there good communication and teamwork? Can people trust and rely on each other? Is everybody treated with the respect that they deserve?
Employee Benefits
Today, employees expect more than just a standard wage when they come to work for a company. There are lots of jobs on offer these days, so you need to figure out how you are going to differentiate your business from the competition with the additional benefits and perks that you provide. Offering some of the most in-demand employee benefits such as health insurance will not only make it easier for you to attract the right talent to come and work for your company, but also reduce employee turnover.
Reliable Payments
While it’s simple, being paid on time can have a huge effect on how happy employees are working for you. Not being paid on time, or not knowing when you are going to get paid can be frustrating. All employees expect to be paid on time whether they receive their wages weekly, bi-weekly or monthly. Although the occasional one-off error might be forgiven easily, problems that are recurrent can cause further issues for employees, such as not being able to pay their bills on time, which might sour their outlook on their job and your company.
Recognition
Nobody wants to put in a lot of hard work and not be recognized for it. While you are, of course, paying your employees to work for you and potentially providing them with a range of employee benefits too, it’s always nice for them to know that you have noticed the work that they are putting in. There are lots of ways to do this; while the easiest option is to simply say thank you, you could also consider running employee competitions with prizes for the winner, or even having an employee of the week or month program that workers can aspire to.
Remote Working Options
If you want to attract the top talent today and keep them engaged in your business, then it is worth considering offering remote working options. While of course, not every role can be done from home it is a good idea to offer this wherever it is possible. Many companies are now taking on a hybrid working model, asking employees to work from the office for one or two days a week, and work from home for the rest of the week, which is ideal for most people.
Autonomy
Many employees today are going to be more interested in doing a job where they feel that they have more freedom. Although this is going to be more possible in some industries compared to others, it’s always a good idea to offer employees as much autonomy as possible. Whether that involves trusting them to come up with an act on their own ideas or giving them brief instructions and allowing them to be more creative with their work, employees who have the ability to make more of their own decisions and more creative freedom in the workplace tend to be more satisfied and stick around longer compared to those who don’t get much of a say.
Whether you’re hiring your first employee or looking to expand your team, these are some of the best ways that you can set your company up for a great relationship with your employees, improving the hiring process and boosting retention.
