Aside from being a moral responsibility, respecting your employees has a great impact on your success as a leader. However in the hustle and bustle of the day-to-day, managers sometimes take their best employees for granted. Don’t let poor management skills create a relationship of distrust and anxiety between you and your employees. If you want to truly engage your employees, you must treat them with same amount of respect you treat your customers. Here are a few actions to take to show employees how much you really appreciate all of their hard work.
Show up on time and bring your whole self.
It’s hard to convince employees you appreciate them if you’re never in the office. A great manager shows up on time, gets involved in projects, and is the hardest worker in the office. Say please and thank you to employees, just like you would to your customers. Stress an open door policy for communication and respond promptly to employee emails and requests. Take a look in the mirror and make sure you’re being a role model and advocate for your employees.
Find out what’s important.
Your employees come from many different backgrounds and career paths. Some took the job to avoid a resume gap, while others are hoping to build a career with your organization. Take the time to find out what keeps your employees showing up everyday. What do they desire? What is their projected career plan? What do they want out of their current position? When you find out what’s important your staff, you can relate to their ambitions and tailor to their needs. Show employees you care about their happiness by having them work on projects that are beneficial in helping them achieve their goals.
Set expectations.
Many managers devalue employees by demanding a lot, but never showing appreciation for those efforts. This causes an endless cycle of staff working hard to meet strenuous demands, but never feeling like their work is good enough. The manager becomes more and more demanding until the employee suffers burnout. This can be avoided by setting your expectations with employees at the beginning of a project. Make sure that both parties agree on what determines the success of the project.
Recognize a job well done.
The employees most often taken for granted are the ones that are consistently top performers. Their good work becomes expected instead of recognized and appreciated. Don’t use your knowledge that high performing employees enjoying being challenged as a way to manipulate them to do more. If you want your best employees to keep performing well, you need to make sure you’re appropriately distributing their workload and not overloading them. Workplace recognition goes a long way in the office. Whether an employee is having a long week or is pressured with the stress of an added project, simple recognition from upper management can help keep them motivated.
As Q4 comes into full swing, focus on building better relationships and not taking your employees for granted. Doing so will improve the success of your company this holiday season.
If you’re looking to fill open positions in your organization, let the recruiters at BOS Staffing provide you with the best talent. With over 35 years of experience, we understand how important the right staff is. So we make sure that the people you see are the right fit, have the right talents and are ready and eager to work. Contact us today and see how we can provide the right staffing solutions for your business.
