As it has been noted many times before, the importance that you need to place your employees will rank above any data process or tech requirements, and it takes a long time to get the balance between employee productivity and efficient processes right. Instilling that one essential thing, trust, makes the day to day running of the business much easier for everyone involved, but what about the general welfare of your workers? Do you have their best interests at hand? When a small company is working hard to find its feet, it is very easy to neglect certain parts of their welfare, especially when the budget is concerned. What do big companies do to make sure that their employees are not only looked after but also are working to the best of their ability?
Adequate “Breathing Space”
Working in close quarters and excessive overtime hours where people are working on realizing your vision means that tempers are very likely to fray and there will be conflicts of interest. People sometimes clash and that is a part of any workplace culture, so you need to put in appropriate boundaries, and this includes giving people the space to breathe! Implementing a day where people can work from home or dedicating a space for breaks where the topic of work conversation is banned, you need to find a way to give your employees the breaks they need to function at their best. It is very common in the modern workplace to expect people to work 50 hours a week, and as a result, work-related burnout is a lot more prevalent now. When there is a workplace conflict (and these will arise), you need to get to the route of the problem as sensibly as possible. Part of your role as the leader is also to mediate when there are conflicts of interest. And as time is very much money in your position, it is in your interests to get to the root of the issue. There are techniques that are invaluable in this type of situation that you can learn, and not only will it benefit you now, but these are also skills you can take with you and develop as you get better at running your company.
It is also beneficial to give your workers some opportunities to express themselves with regular one to one meetings. Having some group sessions with the same intention helps everybody to be on the same page. There is nothing worse than when people are working for a company without the perspective of the final outcome, it can increase anxiety, and there is no motivation to work any harder. By showing your staff the fruits of their labors and keeping them in the loop about each process in what your intentions are with the company in a week, month, or year down the line, it helps to unify everyone. It will also mean your company has greater transparency, a big goal that many large companies are now trying to attain.
Making Employees Feel “Safe”
Safety covers many different areas, and employees need to feel that they are being supported and protected in equal measure. The startups that are building from the ground up where a handful of people are working with delicate information need to feel that the work is protected and that they are protected too. This could mean having proper antivirus programs or installing a new surveillance system on the property grounds. The precarious feeling that can be in the air during the early days of a startup company means that you need to take extra precautions to keep the work secure and to keep the staff secure. From security cameras to secure workstations with locks and password-protected computers, there are many approaches to take into account. And while this can be a lot of work to get right, it pays in dividends to know that everything is operating properly and safely.
A simple way to get this started is to place the ball of responsibility squarely in your employees’ court. Communicate sensible working practices that encourage them to handle their work in a secure manner. From teaching them how to spot virus-ridden emails to the importance of locking away secure information at the end of the day, it all has a positive effect on the business, and it takes the pressure off you when it comes to leading everyone and taking the bulk of the responsibility, which can be very stressful. It can be costly, but outsourcing to training companies that can give your staff the overview of health and safety as well as the most stringent ways to look after your work and sensitive data will go a long way. The repercussions of mishandling customer data can seriously dent your business’ credibility. So not only is it a box-ticking exercise, but the rules and regulations that surround the handling of data need to be adhered to and can lose your company money and custom if not handled in the right manner.
Make Sure They Have Faith In Your Abilities
Running your own company means you are operating on a heavy amount of doubt in your abilities a lot of the time. And you are only human after all, but it is so imperative to have your staff believe in the business, and by-proxy, believe in your abilities to get the company where you need it to go. This will forever be a work in progress, but many managers aren’t able to instill much faith in their employees, and this means it won’t be reciprocated. It is invaluable that you and your employees have a symbiotic relationship. And while you can integrate processes to make your workers feel more secure, such as money handling policies and procedures, it is your leadership style that will have the biggest impact on their belief in the whole system. Developing your leadership style is a similar process to developing a brand or corporate identity. When you begin the company, people will associate you with the business, and to an extent, it will live or die by your hand. The music streaming company Pandora, founded by Tim Westergren, couldn’t pay its employees for two years while they worked on creating a viable product! And while this is illegal in California and a very extreme example of tenaciousness of getting a company up and ready, this example clearly shows that the workers had some faith in Mr. Westergren and the business. Otherwise, they would have clearly jumped ship!
This is why trust is the one thing that will help everyone through and will give you what you need from your workers, productive people who have faith in the company. Startups can feel like they are running on fumes at the best of times and this will cause many people sleepless nights, but this is where you need to take one for the team. You cannot let them get to that point, and Mr. Westergren maxed out credit cards in order to pay his employees, and even when he paid his employees millions in back pay, it showed that he was true to his word. If you sense that your staff is feeling unsafe or concerned about the company, it is, bluntly, not in their interests to be concerned. It is your concern and yours alone. You need to develop coping strategies and figure out your own way of instilling a sense of calm in your employees. Whether this is meditating or running 5 kilometers every morning to remove the stress and get you in fighting mode, everyone has their own way of preparing for the challenges a company will bring. Faith in your abilities has to be earned. And this is where you will discover how best to lead a company. The older generations of leaders that are harsh but unfair does not work to inspire people to work harder, but makes them more fearful and reluctant to put any more effort than is deemed necessary. If you want to get your employees to work harder and give their all to the company, you have to come across as relatable, reliable, and human! It’s a tall order, but it is an achievable one.
Looking after your business and your employees doesn’t have to be difficult. As long as you are able to create the safe environment that people require to work well and to the best of their abilities, as well as putting across the best personal and leadership qualities you can summon, it will do two things for you. Firstly, it will inspire your employees to work for the sake of the business, and secondly, they are placing their trust in you. Workers can sometimes stay for the paycheck, but if they have a belief in the company and the processes, as well as like the environment they are in, they will be more inclined to stay. Money is an overriding factor for so many, but if they can attain that sense of fulfillment in a job role, it will filter through the company ethos, and it will reflect well on your abilities to lead.