The importance of our employees sometimes gets lost in the shuffle between focusing on the bottom line, meetings, focusing on your customers, meetings, focusing on your brand and yes more meetings! Employees directly impact your organizations bottom line. They are the ones that bring your brand to life. They are the ones that take care of your customers. They are the ones that often get missed.
If your employees could write you a “Dear Santa” letter, I bet the following would be on it.
Your employees WANT:
1. To know what you expect
You may be thinking they know what’s expected, it’s on the job description. All it really takes is common sense. Let me ask you, when was the last time you reviewed your job description? Does it really tell you what is expected? Or does it tell you about the job duties? And common sense, well let’s just say it’s not all that common any more. What you consider common sense is not what someone else may consider common sense. Clearly state your expectations and do it often. Effective leaders coach to the expectations.
2. Training
Employees need to be given the tools necessary to be successful. Make sure they get all the training they need to meet and exceed your expectations. Teach them what success looks like. Even top performers benefit from training. If an employee is exceeding your expectations that’s fantastic! Don’t just pile on more work or forget about them. Help to develop other skills outside of their job duties. Training helps to develop knowledge and skill sets. What are you doing to help develop your employees?
3. Feedback
Feedback can be both positive and developmental. Either way, be sure you give it to your employees and frequently. Employees want to know every single day where they stand in terms of their performance. Don’t wait for your annual performance review or even your quarterly review to provide feedback. Let each person on your team know what they are doing well and where they need to improve. Believe it or not employees want feedback and want it frequently. Make providing feedback to your employees a priority!
4. Recognition and rewards
Most employees aren’t motivated long-term by money. A personalized, hand written note goes a lot farther than that 5 cent an hour increase in pay. Recognizing employees both in public and private goes a long way in teaching them the right things to do. And guess what, they keep doing those things! When you recognize or reward an employee make sure you focus on specific behaviors and the impact of those behaviors on the expectations. This way you will come across as sincere and the feedback is personalized. Let your employees know you care and care enough to recognize and reward their efforts.
5. A coach and mentor
Employees want to be challenged. A great way to do this is to coach and mentor them. As we are challenged we need on-going support and guidance. Ask your employees what their goals are. Find out what will help them. Ask for their input and feedback. Show your employees the potential they have yet to realize. We all have potential sometimes all it takes is someone to help us unlock it. Set goals, review goals, celebrate successes, engage your employees by talking to them. Provide the guidance they are craving, even if the craving hasn’t hit them yet.
6. A fun work environment
Fun at work?! Yes, fun at work. We spend a lot of time at work. A sure fire way to engage your employees is to make work fun so that the work is fun. My good friend Tim Porthouse recently wrote a great article on creating fun at work. It’s not about having games or contests or team building days. It’s about connecting with team members and customers. It’s about igniting a passion. It’s about creating an environment where people want to come to work, especially on a Monday!
What else do you think employees want? How are you giving your employees what they want? We would love to hear from you, I am sure we have only scratched the surface!
