By Hannah Thomas

Business in every company is constantly changing, whether it’s making progress or experiencing setbacks. As your business doesn’t stand in one place, neither should you. Whether you are the company’s owner or one of the managers, there are always things that can be done to help the company thrive. Among these numerous things, the employees are the moving energy of any business, one of the main sources of success or failure. By making your employees better, you will make your business better, too.

Why should you focus on the employees?

One of the manager’s responsibilities is to help employees develop at what they do. Unfortunately, most managers ignore this role, even though it’s one of the most rewarding things a manager is enabled to do. Their leadership means helping others achieve their professional goals and improve themselves. But also note that being at least partially responsible for somebody’s success makes you look good. Also, it enables you to keep the best employees, which actually makes your job a bit easier.

So, if you really want to make a difference in your employee’s lives and the business, here are several things that can be done about it.

– Set up quarterly goals instead of annual ones

It’s not really productive to sit with the employees and discuss goals that should be achieved on an annual basis. It’s better to set quarterly goals for two reasons: First, quarterly goals are a lot easier to achieve, but they are also easier to be seen, too. This is how every employee can determine where they really are when it comes to doing his/her part of the task. Second, many times some plans and goals need to be updated, changed or omitted completely. That’s why it’s better to have a meeting every three months on average – the need for any changes will be noticed and addressed really quickly. Every employee will know just how to adjust to changes and give his/her best in the process.

– Set up review meetings more often

There’s a similar problem with review meetings in companies – they are usually held once or twice a year. How can you expect from your employees to keep up the same level of good work if they aren’t frequently given precious feedback on their performance? Review meetings shouldn’t be something that the employees are concerned about – it shouldn’t be an opportunity to complain about somebody, but rather to help them develop and do better. If you set up casual review meetings every once in a while, it will soon come to be a useful time when you can ask the employee if there’s something you can help them with, solve a possible problem or put them into the right direction of improving themselves.

– Provide opportunities for individual growth

Most employees have the need to learn more, to upgrade their knowledge and to be more efficient. This can be achieved in several ways. Firstly, a great way of improving employees’ performance is to organize a mentorship program. More precisely, new employees will be teamed up with more experienced and skillful employees who will help them overcome the challenges and master their skills much faster. Also, specific training programs inside the company give the employees the opportunity to work on the skills they feel they should. Of course, you could also suggest various courses outside the work – for example, just put a catchy title “Sydney College of English” on the bulletin board with all the information provided – there are always employees who will appreciate the suggestion and effort.

– Don’t neglect soft skills

These skills have been unfairly neglected in many companies, which is a real pity, as emotional intelligence, for example, is equally important as practical skills regarding the actual job. Motivation, empathy and self-awareness are skills that don’t come as naturally as you may expect. It would be smart to bring in a professional who can teach the employees how to properly “read” body language and accomplish nonviolent communication. In the long run, these skills are extremely useful for the general benefit of the company.

Conclusion

Each of these steps greatly contributes to your company’s welfare. The secret is in the employees – the happier and more skillful they are the more benefit you’ll have.

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[amazon_link asins=’1562868004′ template=’ProductAd’ store=’succeedingin-20′ marketplace=’US’ link_id=’cb24862d-d760-11e7-8ab0-ab7b06f381ef’]Hannah Thomas is an expert in business innovation and management with a love for writing. She is always eager to learn new things and to share the knowledge she acquired along the way.