Ensuring that your employees feel valued is one of the single most important things that you can do for your business. Employees who feel valued will not only be more productive as they go about their day to day jobs, but they are likely to be more creative in an environment where they feel nurtured, which has untold benefits for you.
An employee who feels valued will naturally foster loyalty towards you and your company which will shine through as they are interacting with your customers, and as they go about their lives. This can be hugely beneficial as it will help you to attract more talented staff members based on their endorsement. Finally, an employee who feels valued is more likely to continue to work at your business and not be lured away when a competitor comes knocking! High staff turnover is expensive and disruptive, and you can avoid it by making your employees feel valued.
Listen to Them
Not only is it important to listen to your employees, but it is also important that they feel as though what they are saying is of value to you, so when you ask for opinions be sure that you are ready to act on them. It’s also crucial that when you solicit your staff for feedback, that they feel as though they can be honest with you. That’s sometimes the tricky part!
When you are asking your staff for opinions and feedback, there are a few methods you can try to ensure honesty:
- Anonymity. Try online polls and even suggestion boxes where your employee can give their opinion without needing to leave their name.
- Leader lunches. Allow your staff to have a confidential and honest discussion with the leaders in your organization, in an informal setting. The leader needs to listen and be sure to thank the employees for their input.
- Third parties. Task a third party with gathering feedback and implementing suggestions.
- Be open. Nobody is going to give their honest opinion if they feel as though they are talking to a brick wall! Don’t be afraid to share some personal details about yourself to build rapport and encourage openness.
- Framing. Rather than asking employees to tell you what they don’t like, instead, ask them to envision their ideal solution or working environment. People will feel more comfortable coming forward with positive feedback like this.
Communicate with Them Frequently
Trust is a key part of ensuring that your employees feel valued. If they are left wondering what your motives are, or what you meant by something, then it doesn’t matter what else you do they aren’t going to trust you, and therefore they won’t believe that you value them.
Be open about developments in the organization and what the plans for the future are. Being transparent sends the message that your employees are trusted enough to be kept in the loop, whereas keeping secrets from them sends the opposite message.
This level of transparency applies to personal relationships with your employees too. You don’t need to tell them your life story, but be sure to speak on a personal level with employees at all levels and try to find some common ground with them that you can connect over like a hobby or favorite television program.
Recognition of Good Work
When an employee does something exemplary, it’s really powerful to recognize them for it. Not only this, but it’s important to have a mechanism where employees can recognize each other for the things that they do as this helps to foster a sense of community.
It’s worth taking the time to implement a reward and recognition programme to allow you to do this, as this gives the added bonus of clarity – employees will know why their colleague received a reward and won’t misconstrue it as favoritism. At the same, they will know what they need to do to receive a similar reward themselves.
Constructive Feedback
People take pride in their work, and if they aren’t doing something in the way that you would like them to, you must take the time to give them feedback so that they can improve.
When providing feedback ensure that you compliment the aspects of the job that they are doing well and provide actionable and achievable steps to improve on the aspects that aren’t quite as you would like.
Competitive Salaries
Your employees will get approached by your competitors, and if your competitor is willing to pay them a much higher salary than you are, then the offer will be tempting no matter how much they may like and respect you.
Plus, paying an employee less than a competitor is willing to offer sends the message that the competitor values the job they are doing more than you do, which is not a great message to be sending out!
Make it a regular task for your HR department to compare salaries against the market rate and ensure that you are competitive, as well as ensuring that you are compensating people for their hard work and experience.
Provide Challenging Work
We, humans, thrive with the exact right level of challenge. Too little, and we get bored. Too much, and we get overwhelmed.
Take steps to ensure that your employees are being challenged by their work. This means pushing them out of their comfort zone every so often and encouraging them to learn new skills in line with their career goals. Be sure that you create a culture where failure is part of the learning process so that your employees are not afraid to try and can come away from experience feeling that they have learned something.
Celebrate Work Anniversaries
Taking the time to recognize and celebrate work anniversaries, particularly milestone ones, tells your employees that you know how much time they have dedicated to your organization and that you appreciate it.
Invest in Their Development
Every one of your employees will have their own goals and aspirations outside of the job that they do for you. Take the time to talk to them about their goals, and where possible, allow them to develop skills in line with their goals through their work for you.
Invest in training courses, even those that don’t immediately seem relevant to the job they are doing for you. There is little more satisfying than learning about something that you are interested in, and if you are the one to give your employee that experience, then they will remember it! Plus, you never know what someone may learn on a course that will be of value to you.
Say Thank You
Simple and effective. Personally, thanking your employees for specific things that they have done goes a long way, because it lets them know that you appreciate them personally.
This was a great post on something that is so crucial to the success and long-term viability of any organization, whether cooperate, non-profit, or schools. People will almost always exceed expectations when they feel valued both in who they are and what they do. This is basic human nature. What I have found to be incredibly helpful is the timing of when leaders express appreciation. At the beginning of a project, during the project, and post-project. The consistency of “value-expression” helps maintain the motivation of others as well as authenticating the leader’s appreciation while cementing the feeling of value in others.
One of your key suggestions is in the details of communication. Leaders need to be proactive, in their timing, and authentic in style. If you want your people to buy-in give them the opportunity to weight-in. Authentic communication fosters a genuine connection. So when leaders communicate poorly or inconsistently, it not only hurts their ability to connect, it indirectly cause their people to feel devalued.
Such a good blog post, thank you for sharing your thoughts and insights. It’s very relevant, practical, and applicable for so many across the leadership spectrum.
Thanks Sean; glad you enjoyed it. And thanks for sharing such detailed thoughts on this piece.