Running a business can be very enjoyable, but your enthusiasm could soon start to dissipate if it dawns on you that your employees aren’t as enthusiastic about the whole endeavor as you are.
You can’t always achieve your goals by yourself, but your recruits could too often act as though they are merely going through the motions, never quite as emotionally invested in the task as you are.
It helps to explain one research finding, as reported by Fast Company, that about 46% of new hires departed their companies after just one year. However, while you can’t “make” your staff care, you can give them compelling reasons to care. Here are just a few influential ways of doing it.
Be open and clear about your values
What are your values? Maybe you’ve never stopped to seriously think about them, write them down or communicate them – in which case, you shouldn’t be too surprised if what you say doesn’t clearly resonate with your employees, who want you to be specific about what you believe.
Forbes points to the example of Virgin Trains, which has described, in words, various things it has deemed valuable – including “empowered people working together” and “doing the absolute best for people, doing the right thing”.
Grant autonomy and trust your employees to use it well
If you work in a particularly creative field, you could rejoice in seeing employees thinking of productive, helpful solutions on their own initiative. However, you can’t always expect your workers to do this if you fail to provide a sufficiently encouraging environment.
Rather than just tell your workers that you trust them, back up those words with action. A separate Forbes article advocates that, even for junior employees, you allow them to reach their own decisions, only minimally guided along the way, and hold them accountable to large expectations.
Give your workers opportunities to develop professionally
Handing more responsibilities to your employees can feed effectively into this – especially if you shed these workers of their fear of failure. This fear can hamper creativity before it even has a chance to take root, hence why you need to be sympathetic in your role as a mentor.
Yes, that’s right – mentor. You should help your staff to thrive not only in the office but also outside it. Otherwise, too many of your employees could grow convinced that better opportunities for development lie elsewhere – in other words, not with your company.
Show a genuine interest in your employees’ lives
How much do you really know about your workers’ personal lives? Do you know, say, what they like to do on their days off? Do you know about the members of their family?
You shouldn’t get too intrusive, but even knowing generally where they live can help you to foster a good relationship with your workers. A boss who, say, chooses to rent an office space in London from BE Offices to let staff easily commute on the London Underground has their staff’s needs at heart.
