Peter Boyd is an attorney and the Founder of PaperStreet. He has successfully helped 1,500 law firms with their websites and marketing.
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A business needs a rockstar product or service to succeed in the competitive marketplace. However, unless the company prioritizes creating a great culture and developing happy employees, most will be spinning their wheels in the talent department.
In the current environment, talent is not easy to find and not easy to retain. Businesses should treat employees, both new and existing, as commodities and cultivate them into an asset.
But how do you successfully retain and grow your workforce into your best asset? The truth is, business leaders and managers hold the key to any employee’s success. The challenge is that many leaders do not prioritize this task, especially in today’s world where we are constantly connected and rushing full speed ahead.
I have found the following principles essential for transforming an employee into an asset and empowering the entire workforce.
Provide Stellar Training
A properly trained and informed workforce is the gateway to success. Proper training improves performance, confidence, morale, productivity and quality.
Each employee is different, and it is essential to dedicate time to understand individual strengths and weaknesses, interests, style of work and personalities. This information will give you the tools to set your workforce up for success. Focus on onboarding everyone by utilizing an individualized approach and pair them with a strong and capable trainer.
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Pro tip: Make sure to develop an onboarding plan that will make your team feel welcomed and connect them with key team members. This will give them the tools to excel and perform their job.
Vision Means Empowerment
Provide clear guidance and deliverables. Employees can only be effective and successful if they truly understand the full scope of expectations.
Business leaders should prioritize providing a clear vision of the company’s mission, goals and individual expectations. Align the company vision from the top down — throughout each department and with individual team members. By including employees in your strategic vision, they can gain a sense of ownership in the company. You will accomplish trust, companionship, communication and empower your workforce toward success.
Develop a Culture That It Is Ok to Fail, but Learn
The true definition of failure is “lack of success.” However, from my experience, I would define failure as “the first attempt in learning and the first step toward success.”
I have found that employees learn substantially more from failure than they do from success. Failure makes you dig deeper and find ways to innovate and improve, making people feel stronger and more confident. Fear of failure often restricts employees from taking chances, which can prevent ideas and innovation from forming.
By effectively communicating this mantra as part of your company culture, employees will be less afraid to fail or of the consequences of failure.
However, it is important to ensure employees are learning from failure and not repeating the behavior. Your team will feel confident and empowered to take more risks and understand how to transform failure into personal and overall company growth.
Communicate and Collaborate
A leader creates unity, and a unified, collaborative environment is the key to a productive workforce. Collaboration brings out brilliance among us and helps identify tools for success.
An essential part of collaboration is also communication. Fostering effective communication will naturally develop a mindset to perform more collaboratively and eliminate siloed working. The outcome will be synergy among employees and, when done right, create an atmosphere of nourishment and growth.
Happy Employee, Productive Employee
Create a culture where employees can embrace a “work hard, play hard” mindset. This will give your workforce the freedom to find multiple ways to destress, improve employee efficiency, eliminate errors and create a more productive environment.
Encouraging this mindset will improve overall employee happiness, reduce stress levels and build friendships with colleagues. Your team will feel welcomed and part of something. In the end, a happy employee is a productive employee.
The Best Time to Start Is Now
It is critical to continually check in on your employees to ensure workplace satisfaction and embrace ways to implement empowerment and accountability. Some employees will require all of these methods for success, and some only a few.
The success of all employees impacts the legacy and success of any business. Business leaders should utilize these tools to enhance employee morale and performance and ultimately empower the workforce.
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Author: Peter Boyd, Forbes Councils Member
