Great leaders understand that the success of their business depends largely on their employees, and how they perform and grow within the company. The hiring process is only the first stage to running a successful business and retaining high performance employees.
In order for a company to grow, employees need to grow as well. Fostering growth increases worker satisfaction and builds a stronger company culture. Here are a few proven ways to foster growth to keep your talent talented.
Defining Expectations and Setting Goals
Setting expectations should be at the core of management and the key element to combating attrition and having satisfied workers. It is the manager’s responsibility to engage a discussion with each team member to set clear, actionable, personalized, and realistic goals. Defining expectations and setting goals must start with executive management, clearly communicated to managers and team leaders, and finally conveyed to employees.
Employees need to know exactly what is expected of them if you want them to accomplish the right tasks and have them work together towards attaining their goals. In order to effectively set goals, managers and team leaders need to identify the unique abilities, strengths, and weaknesses of each of employee. Only then can realistic expectations be set. Once those expectations are set and the goals are clear, employees can measure their own performance without needing to be micromanaged.
Offering and Soliciting Feedback
Feedback, both to and from employees, is crucial to maintaining a high level of performance within a company. Since feedback is often synonymous to criticism, soliciting it from team members is a great way to lower the tension and create harmonious relationships.
Performance Reviews
No matter how often you decide to complete performance reviews, you should encourage employees to think about their work and what they’ve accomplished since the last review. If your company currently does not conduct performance reviews, it may be time to think about instituting yearly reviews to keep everyone on the same page. The 3 keys to effective performance reviews are accuracy, documentation, and following up:
· Accuracy: simply making sure that the data an employee is being reviewed against is accurate and up to date will go a long way and will instigate trust.
· Documentation: to track the progress of employees and avoid surprises, each performance review should be well-documented and new goals and expectations should be set.
· Following up: while yearly reviews are great, it’s easy for employees to lose track of long-term goals. Instituting quarterly reviews will ensure your team is meeting expectations and working through any issues as they arise.
Learning New Skills
Learning fosters creativity. A creative employee is worth gold in today’s market and economy. For a company to grow, employees also need to grow. Many companies offer their employees what is called a ‘skills enhancement program’, which can guide them to better their skills and meet personal and career goals. Offering employees the chance to improve their skills with classes and workshops will help them become better at what they do.
In addition to offering supplemental education to employees, many company ‘skills enhancement programs’ offer the chance for team members to attend industry conferences.
Inc.com gives 4 great reasons for sending your employees to conferences and industry events:
· Learning: this is the most obvious motivation for people to attend conferences. Simply make sure that the event they’re attending meets their needs. You are paying for it and your employees should make the most of it.
· Networking: who doesn’t like the opportunity to get to know and meet new people who work in the same industry?
· Content: your employees attending a conference or event can distill the information they’re gathering via social media websites to get their names out there.
· Sharing: your employees can bring something back from an event and share it with other employees who didn’t get to attend the conference. Everybody wins.
Benefits and Perks
After salary and company culture, offering an employee benefits package is one of the most effective tool for attracting and retaining key employees. It’s not just about the money. Even though a competitive salary alone will help attract great workers, benefits such as vacation time, sick time, health insurance, and a retirement plan will help a great deal.
Some companies offer their employees perks like a free computer, free haircuts, on-site medical staff, or free Friday lunches. Some of these might sound a little much for your company. Regardless of whether it’s a big or small perk, your employees will appreciate the “little things” that you offer to them. And appreciation and excitement can yield some excellent results for your company.
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