Business owners must work continually to improve their business and bottom line. One way to do this that is often overlooked is by improving their employees. You do not hire them and then expect them to have the same knowledge and skills throughout their career. They will learn and grow on the job, but you can do more than wait passively.
By taking an active approach to the development of your employees, you can offer a healthy working environment that builds loyal, talented workers from the get-go. People who feel like they have no progression will leave, but with a thriving education and training program within the company they will:
- Be more likely to stay for long periods of time.
- Be the perfect hiring pool for new job postings.
Building such a company culture can take time, which is why you should focus your efforts on these tips:
Increase Health and Wellbeing
A happy, healthy employee is one that works more productively. They will think more clearly, come up with better ideas and generally work better with others. Though a lot of their health and wellbeing will be their responsibility, you can help by:
- Improving the Break Room
- Have a Cycle to Work Scheme
- Provide Discounts for Gyms and Exercise Classes
- Organize Employee Running Groups
Enhance Skills and Knowledge
Improving the skills and knowledge of your employees is one of the best strategies towards collectively building a business from the ground up. You cannot teach everyone what they need, and new skills and theories arise every day. But by sponsoring employees, you can provide them an excellent benefit that will keep them loyal and hard-working and boost your business’ performance.
Sponsor Employees for Skill Development
There are entire organizations that have created in-depth courses for their students to learn the skills they need in as little as two weeks, like Six Sigma. You can have some lower-level employees work towards their Lean Six Sigma Green Belt, and others go for their Black Belt at the same time. It makes for effective skill progression and your business, in turn, will become more lean, streamlined and effective.
Create Newsletters of Information
Subscribe to valuable sources of knowledge in your industry. This could be official reports; it could be a magazine, the news, or even academic journals. Spread the workload and have everyone involved create a short newsletter that goes over the concepts advocated in the material. This way everyone is more up to date with the industry and you can all work together towards a more efficient business model.
Encourage Horizontal Learning
Allow your employees to shadow different departments and learn directly from them. Rarely will entry-level employees know exactly what they want or what skills they excel at. That is gained through time. By allowing these new hires to try out different departments in your company, you can help them find their talent and put them where they will be most effective.
