There is absolutely no doubt that if you have happy employees, you will have a more joyful business all round. It doesn’t take a lot to throw the balance off, and quite often, staff happiness can be fixed with a few simple changes. Just being present for your employees and helping them through any problems they may have will make a vast difference to you, and you’re an overall business success.

Obviously, this will be one of the main things you consider when employing staff for the first time, and if not, it’s never too late to start.

There will be signs that your staff and management team aren’t happy that you wouldn’t be able to miss it. Such as increased sickness and lower performances. In some fields, this is easily quantifiable, as targets will be missed, and clocking in sheets will be out of sync with expectations.

But any business can improve the happiness of the staff working for it with a little effort.

Clear guidelines

Having a job description, and a spec that gives members of staff clear guidelines on what is expected of them, and regular updates to show everybody exactly what they need to do, and when they need to do it. It will be the best starting point for any team. Whether the person’s job is to order stationery or arrange 3/4 ton fleet vehicle rentals regularly doesn’t matter, what does matter is that everybody works together as a team, and are happy doing so.

Even a list of suppliers and telephone numbers to ensure that things are easily found will add to the confidence of your employees. Falling short on this can leave your staff disillusioned and confused. This only breeds tension and resentment over time. 

This is also true for HR practices, if your business has plenty of Procedures in place for every eventuality, with a trained staff that can deal with any grievances and problems that may arise between staff members. Then you’ll find it very easy to lead from the front and make sure that your staff is happy and productive.

Studies show, and common sense would say that happy staff is much more likely to produce excellent results for you.

Training

It can’t be expressed enough just how vital, funny training your staff is. As well as knowing what is expected of them, they must know how to action this. Not only the basics, although that’s fine at first, also being able to have the skill set that will cover all eventualities in their role.

Asking each individual member of staff what they would prefer to learn, finding out how those valued members of staff prefer to learn, and implementing this will pay off as confident, and incredibly valuable team players, and feel like they are doing a great job.

This, of course, also benefits your business since it prevents any mishaps, miscommunications, and accidents from happening. Once you have a solid team in place and they are working effectively, you can really reach your business goals quickly.

Getting to know your team before this point in time can actually make all the difference to your training plans. If you don’t have time to train your staff effectively, then you must find a training manager, or an outside training provider, who can help you with this. After being shortsighted, this investment in your business will show you’re in it for the long haul. It also extends to training yourself as the business owner to fill the gaps that will potentially appear further down the line. 

Rewards

Rewarding your staff will be one of the best decisions you can make. “Employee of the month” isn’t going quite to do it.

But reward systems and appraisals that are positive in nature will ensure that the excellent work your team put in is awarded and reinforced at all times. Just be careful not to go too far down the ‘competitive’ route so you don’t end up with staff confrontations. That’s the last thing anyone needs when working together!

Ultimately it’s a balancing act, which can be tricky to navigate. 

Above all else, a kind word will go along way in anyone’s books. Anybody that works for you, there is no doubt doing their best to recognize this and find yourself with a team of happy people. In addition to this you will need to make sure you are feeding this information to your team leaders and managers so that everyone is on the same page. 

© New To HR