Employees are your biggest asset in any business. Keeping those employees happy means you get the most productivity possible as happy employees drive innovation and adoption of new ways of doing business and contribute to keeping customers happy, especially in contact positions.
Happy employees spend time helping build your business rather than looking for ways to sabotage your progress, stealing from you, or trying to get away with doing as little actual work as possible. But, keeping employees happy isn’t easy and things inevitably go wrong since you’re dealing with people, not machines. Today, we’ll discuss how to keep employees happy when something goes wrong.
Ways for keeping employees happy
Keeping employees happy is critical for marketing success, especially in customer-facing roles, where poor customer performance or a bad attitude generate customer dissatisfaction. Dissatisfaction then spreads quickly through word-of-mouth both online and in communities.
Often, keeping employees happy means being proactive to eliminate problems before they arise. But, despite your best efforts, sometimes things go awry and you end up with unhappy people working for you. The solution to this problem is to fix the problem quickly, communicate your solutions, own your mistakes, and install new procedures to avoid making the same or similar mistakes again.
Develop employee contracts and stick to them
Good employers develop employment contracts in consultation with HR professionals (whether internal or through a 3rd party), management, legal experts, and may even involve early employees in contract development. The contract spells out the rights and responsibilities of each party (employer and employee) and sets remedies when one party fails to uphold the contract.
But, you can’t stop there. First, contracts are a living document and it’s not something you create and forget. Over time, modifications are required as your business evolves and as best practices in employment change. Ensure you keep your contracts up-to-date with these changes and openly communicate the impact of new contracts to employees. Involving them in some aspects of the evolving contract helps ease concerns and ensure your keeping employees happy.
Next, enforce the contract. Without enforcement, you’ll find your organization slowly drifting into chaos. If employees don’t live up to the conditions established by the contract, you’ll soon find these negative behaviors adopted by other employees, for instance. If a manager fails to live up to the requirements established in the contract, you’ll find employee dissatisfaction creeping up and may face costly lawsuits when there are clear violations of the contract.
Speak up if something isn’t right
If you feel like you’re being taken advantage of within the workplace or within your role, then it’s important to speak up. Maybe you’re treated unfairly as opposed to others within the company or perhaps it’s a serious problem that’s affecting your mental health or enjoyment within the business.
Unless you let someone know what’s going on, the problem persists and grows like a bad weed within a lovely garden until it takes over all the beauty. Encourage employees to speak up when they feel mistreated by the company, other employees, or managers. But, don’t stop there. Ask for feedback to actively gain an understanding of how employees feel about the business and their roles within the business. It’s critical that these sounding sessions remain constructive, however, and that employees feel free to be open about their experiences without fears of retribution.
It’s also important to speak up for other people in the workplace. Having a positive working environment is essential and so it’s good to be vocal of others when they’re going through a tough time. Good communication reduces the chances that the problem escalates and works toward keeping employees happy.
Having the right people on your side
When it comes to getting support in the workplace, it’s always good to have the right people on your side. You don’t want to upset people who might be able to help you but you also don’t want to be taken advantage of by those same people. Ensure you have a good support network that can help you in situations where it might be needed.
With work colleagues, there are people you’ll get along well with and, likely, people you won’t get along with as well. A manager’s job is to ensure a productive workplace where the conflict between employees is minimized. Sometimes that may mean adjusting work assignments or rearrange work teams to ensure individuals support and work well together. Your colleagues don’t have to be your best friends, but you should maintain a cooperative relationship across the entire team.
Offer legal representation when necessary
There are times where things go so wrong that you require outside intervention as an employee or a manager. If that’s the case, you might well need legal representation. However, choose the least confrontational means possible. For instance, encourage mediation or arbitration to resolve problems between employees or management and employees. These less confrontational means of resolving problems leave a path forward for everyone.
If the problem isn’t resolved through these means, you may have to escalate to involve courts, lawyers, and judges to find a solution. Often, these solutions are costly for everyone and don’t offer a path forward. Hiring lawyers familiar with the specific type of business often reduces costs and the lawyer has a better idea of norms within the industry and can ask the right questions. Thus, approaching qualified mining accident injury lawyers, for example, is a better solution if your business operates in that industry.
Conclusion
Keeping employees happy is crucial for your long-term success. Try employing these tips to improve your efforts to keep employees happy.
I hope you enjoyed this post. Feel free to add your own ideas to the comments section below. Also, feel free to suggest ideas for upcoming content.
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