Building and maintaining positive relationships with your staff is important for many reasons. It has a positive impact on staff loyalty, it improves staff morale, and it helps you to gain an understanding of how the business is functioning at all levels. In short, it is an important part of running a successful business. It is however one which is all too often neglected. From conducting an employee survey to simply spending more time with your staff, there are plenty of ways that you can look to improve in this area. Here are a few ideas to get you started.
Be visible
Do you spend most of your time locked away in a private office or away from the workplace completely? If so, you are probably building barriers and creating a sense of separation from your employees. It might sound trivial, but simply being more visible to your employees will have a big impact on how they view you. Could you consider working with your staff in an open plan environment? If you do this, your interaction with your staff will increase enormously and they will become more comfortable around you, which can only be a good thing. If this solution is too radical, then at least you can make a point of regularly spending time in the office or on the shop floor with your employees.
Collaboration
Everyone wants to be valued at work and to feel that they belong to something important. Team working encourages this sense of ownership and is an important part of building staff morale. If you extend this collaboration to the top of the organisation (and genuinely encourage contributions from your employees) you will strengthen your relationships with your staff and increase their loyalty to the business.
Leadership
As much as it is important to work together with your staff, it is still important to show leadership. Leadership manifests itself in a variety of ways. You need to be decisive and inspirational. And you need to be prepared to take responsibility for both the successes and failures in the business. You also need to show great understanding of the various needs of your employees. If you get this balance right, your staff will respect you and want to work to the best of their ability for you.
Empowerment
A common cause of staff dissatisfaction is a perceived sense of impotence in the workplace. Too many bosses are reluctant to trust their staff with the authority to make important decisions, but keeping all the power at the top makes for an inflexible organisation with resentful employees. Empower your staff and you will increase both the performance of the business and your relationship with your team.
Survey
If you want to improve relationships with your staff, then you need to know what they think of you, what is working and what is not. Once of the most effective ways of doing this is to use an employee satisfaction survey. Once you have armed yourself with the information from your staff's perspective, you can set about making any necessary changes from a position of strength.
Be visible
Do you spend most of your time locked away in a private office or away from the workplace completely? If so, you are probably building barriers and creating a sense of separation from your employees. It might sound trivial, but simply being more visible to your employees will have a big impact on how they view you. Could you consider working with your staff in an open plan environment? If you do this, your interaction with your staff will increase enormously and they will become more comfortable around you, which can only be a good thing. If this solution is too radical, then at least you can make a point of regularly spending time in the office or on the shop floor with your employees.
Collaboration
Everyone wants to be valued at work and to feel that they belong to something important. Team working encourages this sense of ownership and is an important part of building staff morale. If you extend this collaboration to the top of the organisation (and genuinely encourage contributions from your employees) you will strengthen your relationships with your staff and increase their loyalty to the business.
Leadership
As much as it is important to work together with your staff, it is still important to show leadership. Leadership manifests itself in a variety of ways. You need to be decisive and inspirational. And you need to be prepared to take responsibility for both the successes and failures in the business. You also need to show great understanding of the various needs of your employees. If you get this balance right, your staff will respect you and want to work to the best of their ability for you.
Empowerment
A common cause of staff dissatisfaction is a perceived sense of impotence in the workplace. Too many bosses are reluctant to trust their staff with the authority to make important decisions, but keeping all the power at the top makes for an inflexible organisation with resentful employees. Empower your staff and you will increase both the performance of the business and your relationship with your team.
Survey
If you want to improve relationships with your staff, then you need to know what they think of you, what is working and what is not. Once of the most effective ways of doing this is to use an employee satisfaction survey. Once you have armed yourself with the information from your staff's perspective, you can set about making any necessary changes from a position of strength.
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