As the owner of a business – start-up or established – working out how to get the most out of your employees is an essential task to get the most out of your team, ultimately realising the potential of the business. No two members of staff are the same, with everyone having their own goals and aspirations, interests and way of thinking.
Commonly a job that finds its way onto the desk of the HR Manager, as the leader of the team it is your responsibility to take an interest in your staff. After all, if employees feel as though their manager doesn’t have any interest in their personal or self-development, they may not feel as motivated to work for you or the company.
Understanding Your Employees
To know what makes your employees tick you must understand them as people. That doesn’t mean you have to socialise with them outside of the workplace, but it does mean that you should be making more of an effort to get to know them and see what the bigger picture is.
Ask about the family, any hobbies they have, or just what they got up to over the weekend. Show that you have an interest in them as people and not just as an employee. When you do this, you will better understand where they wish to progress to, putting you and the company in a better position to offer the development opportunities and how to deliver tailored to their own learning style.
Analysing Your Team Without Micro-Analysing
As the leader of a team, you do need to be aware of what each person offers and their productiveness in the workplace. There are ways and means of recording and analysing the contributions of each member of the teams without putting them under the microscope, which is a mistake that so many employers make.
Generally, people do not like to be questioned and/or told what to do. If you approach this in the wrong way, in an accusatory manner that may come across completely the wrong way, it can have a negative effect that could be irreparable in the long run.
Make a point of observing what is being achieved on a day-by-day and week-by-week basis or, if you are not regularly in the thick of the action, liaising with a senior member of staff that can offer insight.
Offer Extra Responsibilities
By offering employees extra responsibility and, with that, accountability you will soon learn about their work ethic and what makes them tick. Organise a catch-up with your member of staff and ask them what their interests are and where they want to be in the future. Line this up with extra responsibilities that you can offer them – something of a project – that they can take on and call their own.
In a small business setting especially, delegating responsibilities not only takes away some of the burden carried by senior members of staff but helps the team to grow, extending the capabilities of the business. The employees that you want in your business see new responsibilities as an opportunity to prove themselves within the company, ultimately climbing the corporate ladder.
Offering such an opportunity to deserving members of staff will show what makes them tick, as well as proving valuable insight as to whether you should invest time and money into them or whether their long-term future lies elsewhere. It may be that you find a member of staff is happier without taking on the extra responsibility whilst remaining a valuable member of the team, which is completely fine, too.
While some aspire to be leaders in the workplace, others hold other aspirations that aren’t career-centric. By unearthing which employees fall where you can build the future of your business around the right people for the job.
