Poor employee relations are prevalent in many business settings. It can feel especially difficult now when employees are not in the office. Studies have shown that poor employee relations can lead to a much higher turnover rate and less productivity. Here are some tips to prevent this from becoming a reality for your business.
Tip 1: Promote Open Communication
Clear communication is the key to avoid stress and allow for employees to speak about their problems and grievances. This is the only way for true change to occur and to allow for a more honest and trustworthy relationship for you and your employees. New company policies or project expectations should be both verbalized and written so that everyone is on the same page.
Tip 2: Help Employees Feel Valued
Appreciation is a much better motivator than criticism. Shift your focus to the multiple things that were done right instead of the one thing that was wrong.
Some tips to help with this include:
Say thank you.
Tell employees that they are valuable.
Give recognition to high achievers.
Tip 3: Offer Career Development
People should have a dream or goal they wish to work towards in the company. Find out these goals from your employees and help them reach their full potential. Consider skills or talents that an employer has and adjust roles based on those. This not only gives them a new skill to implement, but it also shows that you have been paying attention and focusing on their potential.
Tip 4: Reward and Motivate
Motivators are a great way to increase productivity in the workforce. Think about implementing a reward system, such as employee of the month. Again, make sure employees are feeling valued. Look into creating goals for different tasks with employees so they feel involved in the process and more accountable for their work.
Tip 5: Promote A Healthy Work and Life Balance
A healthy balance is huge. It can be easy to forget that personal life should take priority. Offer employee benefits like paid time off, health benefits, more flexible schedules, and more. This will develop a greater sense of loyalty between both employee and manager.
As you can see, employee relations are an important part of the job. By managing these well, your business will become much more productive and positive.