Employee relations can have a significant impact on your workplace culture, and if said relations are positive or beneficial for both employees and the business, there is likely going to be a massive breakdown in relationship productivity, which can impact your ability to get work done each day.
However, striving to improve relations, get your employees on board, and create a harmonious working environment is something that should be worked towards constantly to provide an atmosphere that facilitates productivity and efficiency every single day. These tips can help you get there.
First Day Matters
You need to set the tone from the very first day. If the first experience your new employees have of working for your company is filling reams and reams of paperwork and is honestly dull, then this will set the tone and be the standard that they are mostly to pin against you. Instead, welcome them and introduce them to their co-workers, let them get a feel for the workplace, and be as inclusive as possible from the beginning. The paperwork can wait for a little while until they have gotten a feel for it; you might find it better to do introductions and shadowing in the morning and then leave paperwork until the last 2 hours to finish off the day, for example. But starting as you mean to go on in a positive manner will help you build a better relationship with all employees.
Fair Scheduling
Not all workplaces are equal when it comes to scheduling, and if you want to ensure that everyone gets the right mix of shifts or days off are honored and PTO requests are submitted and adhered to, then you need an effective scheduling system in place. If you want to avoid being surprised at an employee’s absence because you forget they are off, or you want to improve flexibility or fitness in swift destruction, having a scheduler that can help you easily assign shifts and adhere to the availability of each staff member, avoid schedule conflicts or assigning work when someone is supposed to be off, will drastically improve relations as each person will know that you are on top of scheduling and are in control of everything. For example, you can use a schedule maker by Sling to help you improve scheduling for increased efficiency and a better workplace culture.
Let Them Know Their Value
It’s important to acknowledge the value of your employees. They are the backbone of your company’s operations. They are more likely to perform at their best when they feel their contribution is recognized.
Recognizing and appreciating your team’s efforts is a powerful tool in boosting employee morale. Take the time to assess everyone’s performance, recognize a good job done on a team level and individual level, and show appreciation where it is due. This simple act can significantly boost employee relations and make each team member feel valued and integral to the company’s success.
Support Them
The type of support you can offer can vary greatly depending on the needs of each employee, the business, and the team as a whole. But, being able to provide some level of support and understanding is vital if you want to improve your employee relations.
Different types of support can include ongoing training to fully equip them with skills and knowledge to carry out their job roles. It can offer flexible working arrangements to help form a better work-life balance, such as allowing remote working to cut down on commute times or offering training and support to climb the ranks. But the more you can provide that benefit for your employees, the greater the chance they will repay this support and understanding and give you their best each and every day.
Improve Communication
Effective communication is key to maintaining harmonious working relationships. When everyone is on the same page, it fosters a sense of unity and understanding.
You need to improve your direct communication and company-wide communication producers to help you ensure that everyone knows everything they need to know when they need to know it. You need to be approachable and able to communicate your needs and instructions clearly; you need to be visible within the company, involve employees in decisions that impact them, ask for input and feedback, and be proactive in acting on anything you need to address.
Did you know that employees who feel their management is open, honest, and trustworthy are over 90% happier than those who don’t display these qualities? As a manager, your role in maintaining effective communication is crucial. Happier employees lead to improved relations, greater levels of output, and higher quality of work being produced, making your role in maintaining a positive work environment significant.
Know Your Team
While this isn’t possible for multi-branch/location/international companies, you can empower your management teams to know their teams and so on. Knowing your employees as much as possible can be instrumental in ensuring they’re set up or successful, and if they are set up for success, this, in turn, sets the company up for success.
Take the time to ensure that you or your managers know their team, understand what makes them tick, know their lifestyle, working needs, and anything essential to like juggling, such as chronic health issues that can impact their working ability, whether they have children, they need to be home for or pick up from school, extra-long commutes, etc. and any clubs or organizations they are a part of. The more you know, the more you can understand what drives them, and you can use this to your advantage to ensure their work-life fits harmoniously with their home life and company’s needs and remove any blocks that might impact their ability to get the job done.
To improve employee relations, you need to step away from the dress-down Friday mentality, stop rewarding good work with a slice of pizza at lunch, and start to give your team exactly what they need to enable them to do their jobs role better.
