As a business owner, you need smart, dedicated employees to help run and grow your business. But to do that, you have to make sure that the employees are happy first because a thriving working environment is essential to retain your best people. While a decent salary is a good starting point, employee satisfaction and low worker turnover are often driven by much more than money.
This is more obvious in high skills industries like tech and healthcare. High-performing workers in these industries are often driven by something bigger. And if the proper environment is lacking, they’re often willing to take a walk and seek out other companies where they can get more satisfaction.
So, whether you’re a small or medium-sized business owner, you need to make sure that you create a thriving working environment where they can thrive. The tips in this article will help you get started.
In some organizations, new workers are recruited with little or no training and expected to figure things out as they go. Unfortunately, this is a system that drives a high churn rate in these companies.
In some industries, 17 percent of new hires resign from their jobs within the first 90 days because of this approach. This is why you must set up an adequate training system that makes the new hires’ transition into your workforce easy and seamless if you are ever going to have a thriving working environment.
For instance, Zappos, a leading online shoe retailer (now acquired by Amazon) has a 5-week training program for all new employees. You don’t necessarily need to allocate 5 weeks to training new staff. For small and medium-sized firms, they can do that in 2-3 weeks.
Just figure out what works for you and do it. This will help drive new staff morale through the roof.
It’s currently an “employees’ market”, which means that talented employees are always seeking better incentives when looking for a new job. If you don’t want to lose your best people to the competition, then you have to have great perks that transcend good pay.
So, make sure you have great perks including affordable health and dental insurance for employees and their dependents, robust workman’s compensation coverage, paid leave, education stipends, or tuition reimbursement (some companies have been known to sponsor employees’ full MBA programs), and many more.
While there’s no such thing as a perfect working environment, it is possible for an organization to strive towards an excellent one. A great working environment isn’t just about the walls, chairs, and building, it’s about the people.
Put the right structures, cultures, and values in place, and design work so that it matches every employee’s cognitive capabilities. Then, ensure that the work tools, necessary software like communication tools, and other equipment are available. Also, make sure that employee sitting positions and workspaces are positioned or arranged optimally.
This will help workers focus more and become highly productive. All these will create a thriving working environment where people are often performing at their best, and producing great work all the time. A conducive environment always drives and improves workplace efficiency. Commit to this and your company will be the better for it.
