Business support: What we can do to fix what has been broken, and to come out on the other side better than ever before?
The Covid-19 pandemic has had an impact on us mentally, financially, emotionally and physically. People have lost their loved ones, income, their businesses, their possessions, their hobbies and in essence, their freedom to live their lives the way they were used to.
As we approach winter, this is quite a challenging time in our industry as business gets quieter. As an Employer, this could be an opportunity to focus on investing in your business and staff. This could be an opportunity to see what can be improved to make sure that when the warmer seasons approach, and it starts getting busier in your business again, the business and your staff are ready to utilise and capitalise the individual and collective discoveries, goals, and visions during the busier seasons.
Utilise the quieter season by:
Getting to know more about the industry: Understanding the culture, the trends, and the target market where your establishment is based geographically.
Do some workplace renovations if needed?
Evaluate the services and products that you offer in your business, what can be improved and what can be reduced.
Engage with your staff. Take a coffee break with each individual to get to know them, get a better understanding of their mindset and personality. There is so much one can learn by just talking to a person one on one.
Share your vision and goals with your staff. Set collective visions and goals. This may help them to understand and align with your vision, to ensure that you share the same mindset to reach the ultimate goal of growing the business and their earning potential.
One of the best investments any Employer can do for his/her business is to understand and to invest in the emotional intelligence of staff and also to continuously define the knowledge and skills of Employees.
According to ‘Indeed.com’, some of the benefits of training include:
Increased productivity and performance
Uniformity of work processes
Reduced wastage
Reduced supervision
Promoting from within
Boosted morale
Improved knowledge of policies and goals
Better workplace environment
You may ask yourself why there are certain Employees that ‘outshine’ others, that have more clients or perform better in the workplace? We know that Employees ask themselves this question.
Granted that there are most certainly those Employees that work harder and smarter than others, that excel in certain skills and talents based on their strengths. However, one of the things that you may have to consider as an Employer is whether others have been given equal opportunity to go for training to improve on their skills or ‘showcase’ what they can do?
This is an excellent way of boosting staff morale and promoting uniformity in the workplace when Employees feel that they are seen and equally given the opportunity to improve their skillset.
Training of Employees may also include improved knowledge of policies and goals. You may want to have refresher training on the policies and procedures of your business/the workplace, to remind Employees of what is acceptable and unacceptable in the workplace. In essence, you may find that Employees will adhere better to the disciplinary codes and rules that have been implemented within the workplace.
When a person knows better, they do better. Once again, they may share the same vision to improve and grow the business.
The ultimate goal is to have a good working environment, where there is increased productivity and performance from your Employees. In addition, you deserve a business whereby supervision is reduced and trust is the cornerstone of your relationship so that when you are not available physically, that your Employee keeps to the policies and procedures, goals, and visions of the business.
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