Building a team that is aligned with your vision
1. Create meaningful interactions
Continuous and meaningful interaction with employees is necessary; it ensures that both parties know what to expect from one another. And, the truth is that such conversations don’t have to be painful. A simple yet effective way to communicate internally is through videos. Videos help break down communication barriers and foster teamwork. For instance, if one of the employees within your company is constantly late to work, the HR department can make a light-hearted video depicting a scenario wherein a staff member that comes in late constantly is letting down the team and can eventually be fired. This enables the message to be sent across in a subtle way while still positively engaging your employees. Training videos are also useful in the case of complex subjects such as an advanced software; employees have the option to refer to these videos as and when required without having to re-visit the trainer.
2. Design your company’s culture
This is an area that has been largely assessed in the recent past and will continue to be a priority for HR leaders. Your organisational culture is key to how you engage your employees. It is critical that you evolve it as the company grows. Just like you’re not the same as you were in 2000, your company isn’t the same today as it was when it was founded. . It shouldn’t be set in stone. Moreover, it needs to be unique to your company and its core values.
3. Provide medical cover
Making basic health services available to employees will work in the favour of your SME. Let’s take the example of an employee who has been constantly sick due to lack of appropriate medical attention. He logs in several sick days over the month leaving a huge pile of pending work. Eventually, the job must be either passed on to one of his peers – who might not be able to handle the added workload – or has to be completed by the manager himself. Moral of the story is that healthy employees are happy employees that enhance the overall productivity of the business.
4. Re-define your business objectives – and set KPIs accordingly
Taking your long-term vision and simplifying it into smaller targets can help your employees stay on track in addition to making it easier to measure their performance over short periods of time. Another crucial aspect to bear in mind is to identify the right KPIs and linking them with incentives can work wonders for your business. These incentives could range from monetary benefits, profit sharing, awards for excellence, enrolment into a recognition programme, to additional training initiatives. By implementing such a system, you are now able to tie performance directly to employee incentives.
5. Mobilise your workforce
Apart from connectivity – and the ability to speed up business processes – mobilising your workforce to be truly ‘on-the-go’ can have terrific benefits. It enables your business to effectively lower its costs, sparks creativity within employees, improves operational efficiency, enhances collaboration and puts you in a position of complete control.
6. Understand the needs of your employees
PwC Research stated that millennials will account for nearly half the global workforce by 2020. This requires that organisations understand and cater to the needs of the new generation. Too often, organisations try to treat all millennials the same. Try to connect with your employees as individuals instead of bucketing them into age demographic groupings. What motivates a Gen X employee might be the same as a millennial but that doesn’t mean all Gen X and millennials want to be treated that way. Connect with your employees so they feel that you care about them and their opinions. This will drive your business growth.
7. Invest in technology
Sophisticated project management software, productivity apps, cloud computing and several other data-sharing mechanisms have made employee engagement and collaboration much easier. Incorporating these within the day-to-day operations of your business can be a huge advantage. It gives you, and your team, flexibility and mobility. More importantly, HR analytics is an evolving concept that enables companies to use data-driven mechanisms to assess an employee’s performance, decide compensation packages and understand behavioural patterns. In fact, a report by Deloitte found that 35 per cent of survey respondents said that HR analytics was “under active development” within their organisations.
8. Start a mentorship programme
In their article on the UPS content platform, W. Brad Johnson and David G. Smith explain: “Creating a mentoring culture and enlisting a robust cadre of mentors of the moment also leads to better retention, more loyalty and commitment among employees, stronger succession planning, more organic mentoring and strengthening of resilient developmental networks or mentoring constellations in the workplace. Rather than a single assigned mentor, junior employees are more likely to construct a web of supportive relationships.”
