Investing in Your Employees: 4 Ways To Attract and Keep Hold of Top Talent

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StrategyDriven Managing Your People Article |Attracting Talent|Investing in Your Employees: 4 Ways To Attract and Keep Hold of Top TalentSecuring top talent is undeniably essential to the long-term success of any business.

But certain high-level professional skills are in incredibly high demand. There are so many roles to fill, that those who have proven their ability can afford to be picky, and to move on if they aren’t satisfied with the position.

So now the job market swings so heavily in favour of these candidates, how can you attract them to join your enterprise, and convince them to stay for the long haul? If you’re looking for some pointers, check out the list below.

Know Your Value

Highly-trained candidates with specialist skills will have many employment options. So your recruitment process needs to be as much about communicating the value and potential of your business, as it is about assessing their suitability for the role.

What are the wider repercussions of the work you do? What are you proud of having achieved? And what are you striving for in the future?

Your employees want to feel that they will contribute significantly to something progressive and exciting. Make it clear how they will fit in, how their skills will move the business forward, and how they can become part of something impactful.

Invest in your promotional material – your website, careers pages, videos, and personal communication from your team – to spread this message loud and clear.

More Than Just A Job

A long-term career is more than just a job. It’s a personal investment that touches every aspect of your life. And potential candidates will want to know that your business puts time and effort into developing a healthy work-life balance.

Can you offer more flexible working hours? Can you give the option to work at home when needed? How does your business support parents, or those will disabilities? Do you provide meals, activities, or mental health initiatives for employees?

Think about what is going to be important to the contentment of your employees outside of the role and the salary. Because family, health and happiness will play a bigger role in their decision than just about anything else.

StrategyDriven Managing Your People Article |Attracting Talent|Investing in Your Employees: 4 Ways To Attract and Keep Hold of Top TalentInvest in Their Professional Development

Smart, ambitious people will get restless in a job that doesn’t challenge them or lead somewhere exciting. And when they feel like they’re stagnating or heading towards a dead-end, your employees will simply look for employment opportunities elsewhere.

So it’s important to discuss the professional development goals of your employees and plan regularly how to facilitate them. This might include gaining experiences in other roles, learning new skills through outside IT Training, or training for management or leadership positions.

Wherever they want to go, you should do your best to help them progress. Because a sense of purpose comes hand in hand with loyalty and motivation.

The Social Side

One of the biggest factors in job satisfaction is having good friendships with your colleagues. So working hard to foster the social side of your business is absolutely essential.

Take the time to introduce new employees to the team and try using a buddy system to make sure they feel supported from day one.

Invest in social events and team building exercises and give people the chance to get to know each other outside of work.

And if you have a great social environment already, let potential candidates know this! Show them around the office and give them a sense of how much fun it would be to work here. Because if they feel like they’ll fit right in, they’ll pick you over your competitors.

Improving Employee Efficiency

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StrategyDriven Managing Your People Article |Employee Productivity|Improving Employee EfficiencyIf you are able to save time in the office, then it can be something that can be really beneficial to your business and to your employees. These days, employees are spending more time at the office, and in many instances, are exceeding the typical hours that should be worked in a working week. However, simply working more hours isn’t something that is going to make much of a difference, as productivity can be lost over time. If the team is tired, asking them to keep working more than they should won’t be a good thing to do. So how can you as a leader in business help to improve the productivity of your employees, while still doing things to save time? Here are some of the top things to be thinking about.

Delegate

While this tip can seem like something that is obvious, it can be hard for some leaders to delegate and share the load. Your business is going to be your baby, and you’ll want to be in control of it. There is nothing wrong with checking on how something is going, or what the finished product looks like. But if it means you are wasting your time to check every small detail, then it can be detrimental to you, as well as the team of people you are working with. So instead, look to give responsibilities to the qualified employees, and then you just have to trust that they will perform the tasks. This helps the team to grow, as well as feel needed in the business, and can let you get on with other things, being more productive overall.

Train and Develop Employees

If you want to reduce training, or even stop it altogether, it can seem like you will save money as well as time. Although people can learn on the job, it can actually backfire, as learning on the job can be quite inefficient for some. So one thing to do, that will help productivity in the long run, is to take a day to train them in something, and carry on doing this from time to time, to show they are valued and that you want to keep them improving their skills.

You can get people in to train them, though with a corporate training platform, you could also perform the training yourself. Offer some continued employee development and help them to expand their skills. It will be what helps your business to grow and grow. You could also offer some specific courses, or things like mentoring, if they are ultimately looking to achieve something specific.

Embrace Telecommuting

If your business is one where just a laptop and a phone are all that is needed, then encourage and allow your team to work from home from time to time. You might think that they won’t get much done from home, however, the reality will be the opposite. Working from home can be much more productive, as they won’t gossip with colleagues, go to the coffee machine, or take a full lunch like they might when working in a city. Plus, you have the option to keep productivity high for your business. For example, an employee with a cold might feel a little rough to come in, though they are still able to function. Instead of them calling in sick, they can work from home, as that will be easier for them to do when they aren’t feeling completely at their based. In bed checking emails and getting things done, will be better for the business than that person doing nothing that day.

Ways To Create A Harmonious Workplace

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StrategyDriven Managing Your People Article | Ways To Create A Harmonious Workplace

Nobody wants to come to work to be unhappy. More importantly, when you consider how much time your employees actually spend in the workplace, you can appreciate the need to need for your team to be happy at work. An unhappy and stressful work environment can have a very real impact on the mental health of your employees. As a business leader, you have a duty of care to ensure that the health and happiness of your team are maintained at a high standard.

From a business point of view, creating a happy workplace means that you will have a more productive team. There will be less sickness due to stress, and your team will work together in a more effective manner.

But, how do you prevent internal conflict and problems that stem from the way that the company is managed? Here are some ways that you can create a harmonious workplace.

Get Outside Help

If there are signs of any conflicts within the workplace, or the way that you are running the company seems to be bringing about stress and unhappiness, then this could end up being quite costly.

Seeking external help will mean that you get an outsider’s point of view. And a company that deals in dispute resolution and litigation solutions will be able to provide operational support and advice from a legal standpoint.

Have Policies In Place To Protect The Team

Many insecurities and stresses in the workplace stem from concerns over the fact that there are no policies that allow the team to feel secure. By making sure that all of their rights are taken into consideration in their contract and in the company policies and procedures will ensure that they feel secure and protected.

Foster A Policy Of Open Communication

Your employees have a right to know as much as possible about their workplace. Of course, there will be matters that they don’t need to know. However, if there are changes that may occur, consulting with your team and being open about them well ahead of their implementation will provide the time for any adjustments.

Be sure that you have an open-door policy, where you are approachable and free to answer any questions or deal with any concerns that your employees may evert have.

Encourage Your Team To Celebrate Each Other’s Successes

Success is something that should always be celebrated. You need to make sure that you create a workplace where this is standard practice.

As habits and behaviors are learned parrot fashion, you need to lead by example. Find the time each week to point out the success of the team, but also to highlight different personal successes. Don’t just focus on the same people each week though, and try and demonstrate a variety of skills and successes to celebrate.

A great way of encouraging your team to share in each other’s success is to create a noticeboard where they can leave positive thoughts about other members of the team. A ‘motivation station’ is great for building morale and making sure everyone feels part of the team.

How Much Should You Pay Your Staff?

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StrategyDriven Talent Management Article, How Much Should You Pay Your Staff?

If you’re a start-up business looking to hire employees, you’ll need to consider how much money is enough to keep your staff happy without your business suffering. To stop you skimping out or overspending, here are some ways to budget for your staff and ensure they get the most suitable rate.

Know how much you can spare

Consider how much you need to comfortably live on and if you will need to make any cuts. You will need to be making enough money from your clients to cover the cost of your staff’s wages, plus compulsory insurance schemes such as employer liability and vehicle insurance if they are planning to drive. You’ll also have to account for any training and any wastage that may occur as a result of that (if it’s a restaurant you may need to prepare practice dishes resulting in wasted food, if it’s a professional electrician business you may have to pay for health and safety courses).

If after all this you still can’t afford to pay your staff minimum wage, you should reassess your business plan before making the decision to hire employees. Taking on a financial advisor or accountant temporarily may be necessary in order to budget this.

Commission or salary?

Next you’ll have to decide what kind of contract to give your staff. For businesses in which payment is not always guaranteed from week to week, commission pay may be more appropriate. In some sales jobs this can be a great incentive to make those big sales. However many employees may be put off by the uncertainty of not always being paid. Salary-based pay works best when you have a regular enough income to always assure payment to your staff. Failing to be able to provide for your staff could get you into a lot of trouble, so make sure you have that regular income to fall back on.

Account for age and experience

For young employees, the minimum wage bracket varies. This ranges from £3.40 for apprentices to £7.20 for those 25 and older. For businesses wanting to take on staff cheaply, apprenticeships are popular choice. However, apprentices are limited to what work they can legally do, and may still have to do their apprenticeship alongside a college course, so don’t look at them as a full-time solution.

It’s important to also account for experience. If you’re hiring an assistant manager, they should be getting more than your average worker. When advertising for experienced workers, make sure you’re charging more than the starting rate to ensure they don’t choose another business over yours.

Compare other businesses

A great way to gage the going rate is to find out what other businesses are charging. Job sites are a good indicator of this, as you can see what other employers are charging. For an even better pointer, you may wish to pay for a salary benchmarking and comparison survey. This involves paying a professional to review similar businesses to your own and find out exactly what they are paying their staff. From here you can set your own rate and know that you aren’t being too tight-fisted or over generous.

Incentives and bonuses

On top of regular pay you may want to provide extra incentives to keep staff happy. The most popular form of incentive is to offer bonuses to staff that perform well. This could include setting a yearly target that the whole team must aspire to or individual targets. Of course, make sure that these targets are realistic so that staff want to achieve them and don’t alter the goalposts halfway through the year – find a target and stick with it to keep people motivated (keep it on a big board or continuously talk about it weekly meetings).

Another incentive is to offer your staff stakes in the company. John Lewis is the most famous company to have pulled this off, but you don’t have to be retail giant like them – small business can offer shares too.

You can also offer other incentives such as free dental care, childcare vouchers, a company car or free lunches. Christmas parties and social events can also be provided to improve morale. These are some of the best incentives as they don’t just offer workers money but offer experiences. Such benefits are often known as employment packages. It is important to realise that these are affected by tax and NIC implications (another thing you may want to ask a financial advisor or accountant about).

Key Strategies For Increasing Productivity

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StrategyDriven Talent Management Article |Productivity|Key Strategies For Increasing ProductivityProductivity is an area that has a direct impact on the success of a business, but it is also an area that can fluctuate drastically. When you are able to keep productivity high and find ways to boost productivity when inevitable dips occur, it can help you to take your company forward and keep your employees working at a high level at all times. This is an enormous challenge for business owners, but there are a few effective strategies that should help to increase your productivity and, in turn, help your business to find greater success and improve the performance of your team.

Increase Collaboration

One of the most effective strategies to try is to increase collaboration. People tend to step up their game when they are working in a pair or as part of the group as not to let down the other group member(s). Collaboration can also help your team to come up with different solutions, create a strong team-based mentality and lift morale.

Remote Working

Encouraging remote working can also have a positive impact on productivity. It may seem like allowing your staff to work from home would have an adverse effect, but you will find that productivity increases because morale is high and stress is lower, plus it can also be easy to work remotely thanks to cloud computing.

AV Design

Utilizing the best audiovisual and video conferencing systems can also help you to maximize productivity by creating technologically advanced workspaces that can allow you and your team to work to a high standard and collaborate with ease. Specialists like Interactive Solutions can work with you to understand your needs and then deliver high-tech, state-of-the-art spaces which will certainly have a positive impact on productivity.

Recruitment & Training

It is also worth addressing your recruitment policy to make sure that you are hiring the right people for the job. In addition to people who have the right skills and knowledge for each role, you should also make sure that you are hiring passionate workers who will come into work each day ready to perform. Additionally, you need to train your staff and give them added responsibilities to keep them engaged and on their toes at all times.

Improve Work Environment

You cannot expect your team to be productive if they are not working in a healthy environment. This is why you should take a careful look at the office environment to see if there are any improvements that could be made, such as increasing natural light, increasing airflow, allowing staff more room, or by investing in ergonomic furniture.

Hopefully, these strategies will give you a few ideas for how you can increase productivity in the workplace. This needs to be an area that all business owners keep a close eye on as there can be times where productivity will inevitably drop and so you must understand why this is. You can then take action to make improvements and maintain high levels of productivity for continued success.