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A business’s staff are the heart and soul of the business. Your staff are the people who talk to all your customers, generate sales, create your products and write your marketing material. If you do not find ways to create a team of motivated and engaged employees, then you will get downtrodden, bored and depressed employees. This is not good for your business. Staff who are not engaged do not produce as much as they would if they were engaged. They are far more likely to have sick days and slack off during the day. It is up to you to find ways to motivate and encourage your staff to do their best possible work. So, to help you out, here are a few ideas to help you create a much more engaged workforce.
Your Brand
One way to ensure that you have a motivated team is to create a fantastic image for your business. Imagine is everything, meaning you need to work on your brand. These days the brand concept is loaded with meaning. You need to create an entire philosophy with a vision of the future and something to believe in. If you can give your staff a mission, that you are all striving for a more idyllic future, then you will have more motivated and engaged staff. A belief is so much more powerful than money. It will also help you in your onboarding process too. You will find it easier to attract and empty the right people. Your brand is basically your image. You want to create an emotive response to seeing your brand logo. It has to be loaded with concepts. So, consider why you opened your business in the beginning. What problem in the world were you trying to solve other than lining our own pockets?
The Workspace
If you are trying to create engaged staff and you have given them an awful, smelly, dingy workspace, then you are not going to get what you want. You need to invest in the work area just as much as you would in everything else. How your workspace looks and feel will impress upon your staff and create a with ethic all in itself. So, you need a lot of natural light, meaning big windows. Consider having walls with windows and doors; how about a skylight? Also, consider the colour you paint the walls. Some colours are great for calm and others for productivity, so investigate the use of colour. How about some artwork on the walls, and you need to get some plants too. Plants not only look good, but they make the air purer and healthier. Other things to consider are ergonomic chairs, adjustable desks, free tea and coffee, a relaxing break-out room, etc. the more comfortable you can make your staff the better the atmosphere and the more they will produce.
The Right Tools
Imagine you are trying to do your best possible work, but the tools you have been given keep breaking and ruining what you are working on. This can be extremely frustrating. It is enough to make you lose your best staff. So you need to invest in the right tools. This goes for software and physical tools. You cannot expect to remain competitive if you have software from the early 2000’s. Software has advanced so much over the past few years. There are so many enhancements and a lot more features. You are able to capture a lot more data, and it is far less likely to corrupt. This gives your staff a much better ride; they will feel that they can show off their skills more, and things will run so much more smoothly. This offers the customer a better experience too. So, you must investigate your tools and discover what is on the market to improve your business types.
Communication
If you want the best, then you need to put time and effort into how you communicate with your staff. Staff need individual attention. So, you need to ensure they all get one-to-ones, where they can talk about their work, discuss their performance etc. This gives them a chance to air any issues that they may have. Consider also your remote staff and perhaps develop ways to have virtual team bonding sessions. It is also a good idea to bring your staff into some of the business decision-making. Why not have team meetings and advise them where the company is headed and request feedback and ideas? The more valued you can make people feel, they will be more engaged.
