Traditional wisdom says that the customer is always right. But Executive Richard Branson famously said, “Clients do not come first. Employees come first. If you take care of your employees, they will take care of your clients.” What if the best way to grow your business is investing in your employees?
After all, happier employees make for happier clients. In “State of American Workplace,” Gallup reports that employees who are engaged are more likely to improve customer service, resulting in a 20 percent increase in sales.
In this post, we’ll cover how you can invest in your employees to up employee engagement, improve retention, and attract top talent.
- Invest in Your Employees
- How to Invest In Your Employees
- Companies Investing in Their Employees
- Benefits of Investing in Employees
- Grow Your Business
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Invest in Your Employees
When you invest in your employees, you invest in the future of your business. This will look different for each organization, but the important part is making sure that employee needs are being met. For example, improving communication, reducing micromanagement, and offering training and career opportunities are all investments that employees could benefit from.
Be sure to consider short-term investments by appreciating employee’s hard work on a regular basis. And don’t forget long-term investments, like giving employees time to explore passion projects and innovative ideas.
How will this help to grow your business? Investing in employees increases employee satisfaction, productivity, and retention. Remember, the true cost of replacing employees can be twice their base salaries depending on their wage, role, and experience. By encouraging employees to stick around, you’re saving money in recruitment and training, not to mention benefiting from your employee’s accumulated experience.
When it does become time to hire someone new, your organization’s sky-high employee engagement will attract top talent.
Examples of Ways to Invest in Your Employees
What is the best way to invest in your employees? Here are three techniques that will grow your business.
Create Training Opportunities
Employees want to work for a business that values their work and prioritizes their growth. In fact, 89 percent of Millennials say that learning and growth opportunities are extremely important to them. Further, an IBM study showed that employees who feel they are not developing in a company are 12 times more like to leave it. If you want to attract and retain the largest cohort currently in the workforce, your business needs to offer training and upskilling. Offering employees with personal development plans can also show them that their progress is important to management.
Open Communication
Put your money where your mouth is! One survey of 400 companies showed that poor communication can cost companies tens of millions of dollars. Investing in employees for many companies may simply mean giving employees the tools to communicate. That entails developing workflows for efficiently managing time-off requests, payroll questions, and expense reports. It should also include developing a culture of regular feedback and check-ins. The easier it is for employees to communicate their needs, the easier it will be for management to meet them.
Offer Perks and Benefits that Matter
Compensation doesn’t just come down to hourly pay. Your organization shows employees they matter in a variety of ways. Consider offering benefits and perks like great healthcare, flexible hours, childcare, or office snacks. The best way to make sure that employees have access to the resources they need is to ask them.
Companies Who Invest in Their Employees
You don’t have to reinvent the wheel to grow your business. There are companies that have been successfully investing in their employees for a long time. Here’s how some of the best businesses are prioritizing employee satisfaction.
Virgin: Listen to Your Employees
You remember Richard Branson, founder of the Virgin Group which today controls more than 400 companies in various fields? His secret to success is listening to employees. Virgin regularly seeks feedback from workers and implements their ideas wherever possible. This has led to improvements in office organization, customer promotions, and technical innovation across Virgin. Businesses need input from workers on the frontlines. It’s vital to invest in communication systems in order to open up dialogue.
TargetProcress: Give Employees Time to Think Outside the Box
In 2013, TargetProcess, a project management software company in New York, decided to implement Google’s infamous 20 percent time rule. According to this unique policy, Googlers (and now, TargetProcessors) can use 20 percent of their time working on projects outside of their usual scope that will benefit the company. Allegedly, this policy is responsible for projects such as GMail and Google Maps. Once they implemented a similar program, TargetProcess saw great results and a flourishing culture of innovation.
Adobe: Challenge Employees
Adobe is well-known for offering employees generous perks, holiday pay, medical insurance, retirement plans, and education reimbursements. But did you know they also invest in employee potential through their Kickbox program? Adobe gives any employee that requests it a box of stationary, snacks, and $1,000 per-paid credit card to explore a new idea, no questions asked. Of the 1,000 employees who have taken the challenge, 23 are pursuing further development with their ideas. While not every business has the resources to spend like this, all businesses can implement the spirit: supporting employees, however possible, and their ideas.
Benefits of Investing in Your Employees
It is well known among HR professionals that nvesting in your employees will grow your business in many different ways. Here are some of the key areas where you can expect to benefit from giving your employees a boost.
Attract and Retain Great Employees
Having a positive culture that prioritizes employee development and innovation is sure to win your brand a great reputation. Take this reputation to the bank when your happy employees are more productive than ever. Further, a great brand reputation is sure to attract top talent when it’s time to hire.
Increases Innovation and Performance
Offering employees training and upskilling opportunities increase employee satisfaction because they feel valued. But a well-trained workforce won’t just be happier! They’ll be more skilled and therefore more able to complete their tasks efficiently and effectively. Talk about a win-win!
Encourages Looking Forward
You want employees that are invested in the future of your business. Investing in your employees lets them know that they are an integral part of it— and they’ll be eager to help grow your business.
It’s Time to Grow Your Business
In short, investing in employees means giving them the tools they need to do their jobs well. Software like Factorial streamlines HR processes so that your HR department (and your employees) can spend more time focusing on work that really matters.
Rather than back-and-forth emails negotiating days off, shift changes, or expense reports, employees can make requests directly through the platform. Managers and HR can accept or deny these requests on their own time. In this scenario, everyone saves time, energy, and effort.
Managers can also use Factorial’s performance management software to check-in with employees and offer opportunities for feedback or reflection. Opening up dialogue makes it easier to touch base with employees and see that they have the tools they need to succeed.
Using software to streamline HR functions is an easy but effective way to invest in your workers, boost employee motivation, and grow your business.
