As a business owner, you have a lot of responsibilities. When people look at your company, many will judge its success or failure on your decisions. They won’t see any other factors at play, except for your leadership. But, there are plenty of different factors affect whether a business succeeds. You can do everything right, and your company can still fall.
One of the most important factors to consider that will play a massive part in the success or failure of your company is the people who work for you. These are the people who customers and clients will see and interact with on a regular basis. These are the people who are responsible for the little jobs that keep the cogs in your company turning. Without a great job by them, your company could be dead in the water. Of course, to ensure they do a great job, you need to look after them.
There are lots of different ways that you need to look after your employees. You need to keep a check on their physical and mental health. You must make sure that they are happy with their job and the incentives they receive to work hard day after day. You also need to check that they are being treated fairly, and there are no issues making your company a hostile environment. So, what steps do you need to take to ensure all these bases are covered?
Health And Safety
The health and safety of your employees isn’t just about keeping office safety levels high. Although that is a good place to start. Remember, it’s not true to say that employees want to suffer an injury while at work. Most know that getting a personal injury claim accepted is hard work and don’t want to go through it. They will do everything they can to keep your office safe. But you have to do your part too. You must make sure that there are no hazards that could cause an accident. The best way to do this is to appoint health and safety officers. They will check your work environment and act as a part of the line of authority. They will deal with health and safety issues, only getting you involved when necessary.
Remember, one of the best ways to ensure high levels of health and safety is to train your employees. If you train your workers, they can regulate the safety levels of your office themselves.
However, there is more to safety than protecting physical health. You need to make sure that, emotionally, your employees are happy and secure. You may think this is not your responsibility but, if a problem is occurring at work, it is. Even if it’s not caused by an issue at work, you still have a duty of care. It is crucial that there is a support system in your business that your employees can trust and rely on. Usually, this is an HR team. This can be an inhouse team or an outsourcing service. There are plenty of organisations that use Ellis Whittam for their HR needs, but you should research different companies as well.
Happiness And Comfort
You might also want to make sure that your employees are happy working for you. If they are not happy in their job, they may not provide their best day after day. This could negatively impact the efficiency level of your business and the profitability. If you want to check employees happiness levels, you can send out a survey on occasion. If it is anonymous, there is no reason employees won’t tell you how they feel about your company. Alternatively, you may want to adopt an open door policy. An open door policy will allow your employees to come to you if they have an issue. Typically, this is only recommended if your business is quite small. If it’s big, you might find all your time is spent dealing with employee issues.
It’s not a bad idea to think about incentives you can grant employees to encourage hard work. This could be an increase in pay or bonuses at the end of the year. Other ideas that don’t include money could be insurance coverage and of course, company cars. Any one of these incentives can make your business a more attractive place to work, and that’s important. For your business to succeed, you need to be continuously hiring new, skilled, workers. They are only going to want to work for you if you can offer an attractive career possibility.
We hope you see now why it is important to look after your employees.
