As a business owner, you’ll often be confronted with where to invest for the most significant impact on your bottom line. Often your attention will be on enhancing or expanding the essence of your business.
While business owners regularly consider scaling their workforce in anticipation of growth, they may overlook investing in their current workforce.
As long as you’ve got engaged employees, expanding your workforce may not actually be necessary. High performers can do the work of two, three, and sometimes even four employees.
Why You Should Invest in People
Sometimes the aspects lacking in your business have less to do with processes and more to do with those performing the tasks.
Increase Productivity
Disengaged employees cost British businesses £150 billion annually, and small businesses will experience the severity of that most profoundly
Enhance Your Retention Rates
British businesses lose approximately £5 billion a year in unplanned churn. Investing in employees is the best way to avoid being part of this statistic.
Improve Profit and Performance
Your profit is, of course, linked to how well your team performs. Creative thinking, personal problem-solving and accountability can reduce wasteful expenditure.
How to Invest in People
There are several ways to invest in your workforce and you can use any combination of these methods based on your goals and budget.
Provide Mental Health Resources
Often employees’ performance takes a significant knock when they’re feeling stressed, burnt out, or dealing with other mental health issues.
Prioritize Professional Development
When employees have the opportunity to grow within their organization, they are incentivised to be more engaged and perform better. Also, consider offering “senior” roles within the company to offer vertical growth.
Respect Life Outside the Office
One thing business owners may not realize is how often they infringe on their employees’ lives beyond the office. Unlike C-suite executives and upper management, lower-level employees often don’t expect their lives to be overtaken by their jobs.
Use overtime sparingly, allow employees to come in later during emergencies, and avoid punishing during more challenging times.
Offer Bonuses and Rewards
Bonuses are an excellent way to reward good work and loyalty. Even if it’s not a four or five-figure bonus, the additional cash is the kind of thank you most employees will appreciate.
Encourage Feedback
Workers can quickly disengage when they feel ignored. Make them feel valued by encouraging feedback and implementing their ideas.
Often those at the helm may ask if they should invest in people first. In most circumstances, the simple answer is yes. Once you have these processes in place, recycling them ensures you’re constantly investing in people and improving your business
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