Easy ways to create a culture of care in your workplace
Employees who don’t feel valued in a workplace often don’t stick around for long. Overworking, having communication barriers or just feeling like they are cogs in a machine can all adversely affect employee morale. An employee that feels acknowledged for their contributions will go above and beyond for their company.
For any good leader, an experienced and trusted team is the best asset they can have. Around 76% of employees quit simply because they feel unappreciated at their workplace. A leader who disregards the importance of connecting with their employees will inevitably have to pay a heavy price for it.
To avoid losing valuable employees, here are some tips for you to demonstrate care for your team members.
Providing feedback
Positive feedback encourages the employees to give their best to the company by maintaining or improving their quality of work. Employees don’t often have the chance to get feedback on their performance. As a leader, you must acknowledge it if an employee has done a job well. To do so, you can take a moment to appreciate one task per employee. Often acknowledging each other’s efforts can also help strengthen the bond of the team.
However, even if there might be positive feedback, it sometimes gets lost down the chain of command. To avoid that, you could create venues for the employees to appreciate each other as well. For instance, you could create a public whiteboard where employees can write down each other’s workplace accomplishments. You could also implement an “employee of the month” reward system.
Trusting them with important tasks
Showing someone that you trust them is the greatest compliment you can give. Giving your employees a little extra ownership over their task shows them that they don’t need to be constantly supervised. An act of confidence doesn’t have to be too big. A simple “I think you can directly interact with the client without me looking over it” is good enough.
Trusting an employee with an important assignments tells them that you think their work quality is high. Such assignments assure employees that staying with your company will benefit them in the long run. For example, if you head a news media company, assigning a vital news story to one of your employees is a great way to show your faith in them.
Making yourself available
In a study conducted by Harvard Business Review in 2017, 46% of the respondents said that most good managers checked in with them frequently and consistently. Try to keep yourself accountable for regular one-on-one conversations with your employees. Taking out time to hear an employee’s plans for the weekend can make them feel valued and respected. Simply taking out a 15-minute slot every day to interact with them should do the trick.
Making time can be particularly crucial if you and your employees work remotely. Regular interactions make a remote worker feel included and acknowledged for their efforts. This is because remote working can make an employee feel constantly stressed about their performance and how they are perceived. Thus, to assuage an employee’s concerns, regular interactions are extremely important.
Celebrating with them
Parties and celebrations can make a workplace happier and also establishes a sense of loyalty between the company and its employees. When leading a team, it is important to remember that offices are not just places to work but to socialize as well.
One way of doing so is by organizing company-wide events. Taking your team out to a fun restaurant is a great way to help them relax and unwind at the end of a hectic day. You can also showcase an employee’s contributions to the organization by celebrating monumental workplace anniversaries.
The importance of caring for your employees
A study by Gallup found that highly engaged teams show 21% greater profitability. The main takeaway being that employee engagement is integral to the proper functioning of any organization.
If employees like their workspace, they will want to return to work every single day. The same study also found that companies who scored in the top 20% in engagement realize a 41% reduction in absenteeism. Before you expect an employee to care about the company’s success and its vision, show them that you care about them too. Once they realize you care, they will be personally invested in the company’s future.
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