Image by Peggy und Marco Lachmann-Anke from Pixabay

By Henry Brown

If you run a business, there will come a time, assuming you want to grow that business, when you need to hire someone. One person will become two, and then a small team, and before you know it, you’ll be a manager and a boss. This is a great feeling; it means your business is going well since you can pay salaries, and it means there is enough work for everyone to do. All in all, hiring people is a great measure of your success.

Yet the hiring process is an expensive and time-consuming one, and once you have put your ideal team together, you won’t want to have to do it over and over again. Ideally, you’ll want to keep your employees happy and loyal, so they stick with you, and you never have to replace them.

This might be a little bit of idealism since people will leave their jobs for a variety of reasons, but if you can do everything you can to make them feel good about where they work and their jobs in general, they will be more likely to stay. Here are some ways to do it.

Training 

To inspire great loyalty within your team, you should always ensure you give them enough training. Whether you do it yourself or you outsource the training to a specific company outside of your own, an employee who is given plenty of opportunities to enhance their knowledge and advance their career will always feel more loyal to their employer. Not only will they gain this extra knowledge, making them more grateful, but they will also understand that you are helping them and encouraging them to do more with their skills. They might even discover they can do a lot more than they thought they were capable of.

Of course, this will help your business too. The more skills an employee has, the more they can do for you. However, since it will benefit the employee and the employer, it’s a great way to show that you care and help create a sense of loyalty within the team.

A comfortable working environment 

No matter how much an employee might love their work, or how much training they get, or even how much they like you as a boss, if they aren’t physically, mentally, and emotionally comfortable in their working environment, they will never be one hundred percent loyal, and they may well want to look elsewhere for work; they may want to look at working somewhere just that little bit more comfortable.

If you have an office where people come to, that office must be kept clean and tidy. Personal belongings should be allowed, and perhaps even casual clothing (although this will depend a great deal on the kind of work you do and the sector you are in.

Ideally, you will need to have as much natural sunlight in the office as possible, and during the winter, you must have the furnace parts checked over and serviced to ensure that everyone is going to be warm enough; productivity will dip significantly in the temperature of the office isn’t kept comfortable and stable.

An alternative to making sure your office space is as comfortable as possible and trying to cater to a variety of different people’s needs is to allow home working. This could be on a part-time basis, one hundred percent of the time, or as and when the employee needs it. Flexible working hours can be helpful too. All of these things will help to keep your employees much more loyal.

Foster a great company culture 

Having a great company culture is something that will also help when it comes to loyalty. If the workplace is a great one to go to, full of rewards, positive interactions, personalities that mix well, and hard work with added fun, who will want to leave?

It can be hard to determine your company culture, and the best way to start is by watching your employees. They may well create the company culture for you, and you will simply need to foster it. Some cultures will be more nurturing and caring, others will be in the ‘work hard, play hard’ vein, or perhaps yours will be a culture of mutual respect and trust. Make it a good one, and people will stay in it much longer.

Avoid micromanagement 

What was the reason you hired each member of your team? Although it may differ slightly from company to company, the main reason was most likely the fact that they can do the job you want them to do. They have the skills, experience, and knowledge you were looking for. If not that, then they displayed the willingness to learn that meant you were able to give them training.

If the training has taken place (assuming it was needed), then why micromanage? By standing over your employees (sometimes literally) and watching what they are doing, they won’t feel very valued. They won’t feel as though you trust them to do a good job. They may even feel anxious, perhaps scared, of trying anything different or coming up with any new ideas because they know you want them to do their work in just the right way. Otherwise, why would you be watching them so closely?

To keep your team loyal, you should avoid micromanagement where possible. Although this might be difficult to ask, especially if you are new to having employees and have always done everything yourself in the past, you’ll get a lot more out of your team. They won’t feel so worried about being watched, and they’ll be able to come up with their own routines that work for them, rather than you. Working autonomously, but knowing there is somewhere they can turn should they need assistance, is ideal and will foster a great sense of loyalty.

 Act on feedback 

Your employees are the ones who are actively doing the work in your company. That’s why you hired them. So if they have any feedback for you, whether it was solicited or not, it’s worth listening to. The more you listen, the more valued your staff will feel, and the more loyal they will be.

This feeling will be increased if you act on the feedback you receive as well. Of course, if you don’t think the idea will work, you don’t have to include it or implement it at all, but if it is a good idea and it can help your business, acting on it will definitely keep your team loyal. They will know you listen to them and many any necessary changes to help them.

______

Henry Brown is an online marketing executive. When he isn’t talking shop, he’s roaming the streets of London, uncovering the extra-ordinary in the ordinary.