We all know that a highly motivated and engaged team will be significantly more productive than one whose members are ambivalent or apathetic about their employer.
So, how can you set about creating a working environment that has staff singing your praises and raring to go each morning?
These are my top tips for building a better workplace, by helping every member of your team feel supported and appreciated.
Allow employees room to grow
Employees are far more likely to stay positive and stick around if they don’t feel boxed into a role, or limited by a job description. I encourage my team to take on different projects and to spend a few days each year upskilling and exploring other areas of the business. This is a great way to ensure you attract and nurture innovative, creative employees who are keen to grow with your organisation, not away from it.
Be responsive on feedback
Taking the pulse of your organisation as a whole is a great way to identify emerging issues and deal with them promptly before they begin to fester. Conducting an employee satisfaction survey every six months gives workers the opportunity to share their thoughts about the good, the bad and the ugly. Following it up three months later with an update outlining the actions you’ve taken as a result allows them to trust you more than before. It reinforces the fact that you’re a genuinely consultative organisation that cares about how they think and feel about working for you.
Foster flexible collaborative work environment
If the nature of your business supports it, embracing a hybrid working model will make it easier for your employees to balance their professional and personal responsibilities. That’s a big contributor to loyalty and contentment in the long term.
One-to-one interactions
How often do you sit down with your employees one on one, for a chat about how they’re doing, professionally and personally? Chances are, it’s not as often as they’d like. The last couple of years have been particularly gruelling and finding the time to “chew the fat” regularly can be tough. But it’s well worth doing. Having open, honest feedback conversations – I do so once a week with each of my 10 direct reports – means you know exactly where they’re at and how you can support them to build their skills and develop their careers, which creates a positive culture.
Get social
While individuals may relish the hours spent working quietly at home, the camaraderie and connections that are created by regular in-person catch-ups with colleagues can do wonders for morale too. Looking for opportunities for your team to connect meaningfully on the job, and after hours via coffee catch-ups, informal dinners and the like, will contribute to a strong sense of belonging and inclusion. If it’s been a while since your business had a pizza night or potluck, it may be time to get cooking. Community development programs should be encouraged, which enables employees to give back to the communities.
Celebrate diversity
Lastly, I believe you can’t have a truly great workplace unless everyone on the team feels like they belong. At Jamf, we strive to ensure that they do. Our employee resource groups – Women of Jamf, Shades of Jamf and Pride at Jamf – are forums for women, individuals from multi-cultural backgrounds and people from the LGBT community to come together to share stories and celebrate one another. It’s also vital to encourage diversity of thought and opinion, in open debates and discussions.
Foster an environment in which people feel safe speaking their minds openly and honestly, to colleagues at all levels of the organisation, and you’ll likely find you’ve created a workplace where they genuinely want to be.
