Improve Your Bottom Line, Benefit From Employee Ideas

Customers want our products and services to be better, delivered faster, and produced less expensively. This means that everything we do needs to be improved. To stay competitive in this world we have to be better then we were last year and we should be prepared to be better next year. We must continuously improve. Engaged employees can show us way. All employees can be thinking about how to reduce costs, looking at safety issues, reducing wastes and improving environment, while at same time developing skills to identify, articulate and communicate those kinds of things.

The Gallup Organization has studied thousands of companies and surveyed millions of employees. Their research has shown that very few employees are engaged and that a relatively small increase in amount of engaged workers can reap great benefits for a company.

At lowest level, engaged employees help a company stay in business and at a higher level employees start thinking about how they can improve themselves. They can take some ownership over their job; and also over their own development. It starts people thinking in new and different ways about things they do.

In book, “First, Break All Rules” by Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman from Gallup, it is noted that manager, not anything or anyone else, was most critical in building a strong workforce. A lot of companies struggle with leadership skills, communications interaction, and improving management skills. We are now undergoing a paradigm shift as many organizations are beginning to realize that management’s job is to support people doing work as opposed to dictating how to do work.

Employee Motivation - Get The Basics Right First

To motivate your people, it is vital that you start off with understanding that there are some things that need to be fixed first, before you can get on with above line actions which develop a strong and engaged culture.

There are eight things you need to do.

Building a team of motivated people in your business is vital to get very best results, but so many managers focus on 'ra-ra-ra', rather than important things - things that make people feel comfortable in their working environment. Here are eight that you might want to have a think about:-

1. The Weather Is it too hot, or too cold. Your people need an environment which is, like Goldilocks said, 'Just right'. So is office too stuffy in summer? Or too icy in winter? Is it draughty? Do people get wet when accepting deliveries, because outside roof leaks? Literally make sure that external factors are as they wish.

2. The Breaks Sometimes working in a day-to-day job can get boring and exhausting. So people need to know when their breaks are and that they wil be able to take them - it's not that complicated. Yet often, they just aren't able to have this basic courtesy in place. Planning and caring for your people's needs is vital. It's what you would want for yourself, isn't it?

3. Holidays And vacations/holidays are important too - some would say it's the most important thing on working year calendar. So enable this to happen, when they need to know, so that they can plan their invaluable time away from business and refresh.

4. Being Heard You people need you to listen to then and hear them - really hear what they are saying and respond with action and/or acknowledgement. Be out there creating good, open relationships with your people and take in what they say - what's important to them - and deliver solutions to make conditions great.