3 Things You Can Do to Improve Your Workforce

Your workforce is the lifeblood of your business. Without them, you wouldn’t be able to provide your customers with the level of service that they want and expect from you today. It is absolutely essential, then, that you never rest on your laurels when it comes to training your employees and honing both their industry attributes and soft skills. Remember the investment your business makes in staff education is returned with their retention and higher value engagement in your business.

To find three things you can and should be doing to improve your workforce, be sure to read on.

Delegate effectively

Delegation doesn’t come easy to all managers. Business owners who have built the company from the ground up, are particularly vulnerable to believing they need to do everything or that only they can do a job well. However, the business is more than that the owner and for it to survive all staff need to know their role and perform to the best of their ability. If you want to get the most out of your employees on a day-to-day basis, you have to delegate tasks to them in a highly targeted manner. Anything less, and your workforce may begin to question your leadership qualities and, subsequently, their productivity levels will be liable to drop.

To delegate effectively, you must:

• Know your employees so that you are capable of choosing the right person, for the right job, at the right time
• Make an effort to explain to your individual employees why you are delegating them certain tasks
• Give clear, concise, and coherent instructions
• Provide your staff members with the resources and training they need to operate in a highly optimized manner
• Don’t be afraid to hand responsibility and authority over to other people
• Keep a track of work progress and provide feedback regularly
• Show your appreciation whenever a task is complete

Incentivize your employees

Your employees are only going to work hard for you if they have a reason to do so. Unfortunately for you, their monthly pay packet is no longer going to be enough of a reason in this instance. Work-life balance is more than a fad or faze, workers really are motivated by more than their wages and as such, they need other incentives to up their motivation levels and productivity. Here’s a list of staff benefits you can offer your workforce in return for their hard work and commitment.

• Make additional paid time off available to them
• Take your employees out for meals
• Send hardworking staff members handwritten notes that express your gratitude
• Allow employees to arrive late on a Monday morning if they worked hard the week before
• Implement a wellness program into your workplace

Track their progress

As a manager and leader, you need to lead by example and that usually is achieved through sharing your own productivity. Be visible and contactable on the various progress reporting apps used in your business. Make sure there is regular team meeting once a week to where all attendees present their progress.

Each and every working day, your staff members should work in a highly productive, proactive, efficient, and targeted manner from the moment they clock in of a morning to the moment they clock out of an evening. Anything less, and they’re going to hold your business back from reaching the true pinnacle of its potential.

How To Manage Performance

These days there are management tools for just about everything including managing staff and their achievement. Use performance management software to document and manage each employee’s progress with goal setting and achievements. You won’t be relying on hearsay, and emotion will be removed from any action taken. The software can also be useful for 360-degree feedback and compensation planning and much more.

If you want to take your business to the next level, it is essential that you put all of the above advice into practice and use systems to help your staff track their own development. When you investment in strategies that improve your workforce, other areas of the business miraculous benefit too.