Keeping employees engaged at work is one of the hardest parts of being a boss. You need to manage countless personality types and can’t always please everyone. That’s why only 36% of employees in the United States are engaged with their work.
The question is, can you do anything to make managing employees and keeping them engaged easier? Keep reading to learn four things you can do to make employee management more effortless.
- Don’t Hire on a Whim
It’s tempting to try and fill an open position as soon as possible. You have a role that needs a worker now, so it makes sense to quickly go through the hiring process. Doing this is a mistake.
It’s harder to manage small business employees when you don’t hire the right ones. If you make the wrong choice, you’ll end up with someone unproductive or not a great culture fit for your current team. If you want an easier time managing people, hire the right employees instead of running through the hiring process.
- Create Clear Communication Channels
It’s hard for people to handle their jobs correctly when they don’t know all the details. Unfortunately, you’ll find yourself in this situation if you don’t have clear channels for communication.
Set up an online tool to manage projects and handle internal communications. You can do this with project management software, internal chat channels, or other online tools. Keep your communications on-point in these channels to ensure people can find what they need and ask for feedback when they need guidance about what to do.
Check here to learn about other office features to help you keep track of where your team is. When you know people are in the office, you can better organize meetings and other team-building exercises.
- Provide Positive Feedback
It’s easy to give feedback when someone doesn’t do their job the right way. You need to correct the behavior, so reaching out to tell someone about a problem is a no-brainer.
It’s harder to let someone know that they did a great job. You expect someone to do well, so you provide no feedback about someone’s success.
If someone only hears from you about problems, that’s a big hit to morale. Let someone know that they’re doing well to improve morale, confidence, and productivity.
- Provide Advancement Options
While some people don’t mind doing the same job all the time, the same isn’t true for many people. They want to advance in their careers, so they look for more options to upskill and get promotions. If you don’t provide these opportunities, your team will get demotivated.
Allow your employees to learn new skills and take on projects outside their primary skills. Giving people a chance to grow will encourage them to contribute more and give you a more skilled employee that can handle more. These investments in your employees will compound and grow over time.
Managing Employees Is a Constant Battle
If you expect the people you hire to do their jobs well, it’s on you to make sure they work in an environment suited to them. That’s why you always need to work on managing employees and giving them all the tools they need to succeed. When you do, you’ll get more productive and happy employees that are more willing to stick around and stay loyal to your business.
If you found this post helpful and want more tips that will help you manage your business, check out the latest blog posts for more great ideas.
