When it comes to any business, your employees are your most valued assets. Sometimes it can be quite the challenge to manage and guide them, but it is completely necessary. This is especially true for small businesses, because they oftentimes depend on repeat business from the same customers over and over. In some cases your employees and customers might even be on a first name basis. When your employees act out negatively or take negative actions, it can greatly affect your business.
It is important to remember, as an employer you can play a major role in motivating your employees and increasing their productivity. Now, as a small business owner, you might be thinking that you lack the resources or revenue to meet all your employees’ needs, but this is completely not true. Below, you will learn how small businesses motivate employees and increase their overall productivity.
Correcting A Lack Of Interest
An employee who is more interested in their work, show shine with passion and put more effort into everything they do. Of course, you can’t change your whole product line to suite your employee’s desires and it is only natural for them to get burnt out after doing the same thing day in and day out for years on in. So, how do you go about correcting this issue? Well, speak with you employees in a one on one capacity and ask about their ideals. Maybe one of your employees has new ideals for completely remarketing your product. Maybe another employee has new sales strategies that can be implemented to increase sales.
You can’t use all your employees’ ideas and make changes all throughout the company, but maybe you can take some of those into consideration once a year or every six months.
Properly Tackling Fear
No one out there is perfect at everything. On top of this, no one likes to fail, but an employee that has fear issues will tend to stay away from certain areas, where he or she lacks confidence. For instance, if one of your employees has a fear of rejection, he or she might not be promoting new products to customers in order to avoid their fear of rejection. Correcting these issues will take some time, but it is completely possible.
Bring in your employees and ask them what their biggest fears are on the job, or ask them what aspects of the job they need the most improvement in. You do not need to bring in specialists or experts, but you can work with your employees on a one-on-one basis to help them tackle and eventually conquer their fears.
Try Increasing Quality Of Life
Did you know recent studies show that the United States is world’s most overworked nation? That is something you wouldn’t expect, but these studies show that the average fulltime American employee ends up working 47 hours a week. These results are a poor quality of life. Employees are more stressed and worn out on the job, which leads to lower work quality and a decrease in productivity.
If you try to be more flexible with your employees working hours and schedules, you will not only greatly increase morale and productivity. But, you will also reduce workers compensation claims simultaneously. When employees are overworked they can often make mistakes that result in insurance claims or maybe even lawsuits.
Offering Incentive Programs
It probably is no big secret that money is one of the biggest ways to motivate your employees. However, as a small business it might be hard for you to offer employees incentive programs that greatly increase their pay. However, you might be able to offer days off, restaurant coupons, or even the slightest increase in pay can go a long way in increase productivity. The most important think is to make sure that you show your employees that you appreciate their hard work, and that they are recognized for it.