In business, you’re only as good as your weakest employee. Therefore, it benefits business owners to spend some time making sure their staff is a group of high achievers who are committed to making the company is a success.
How do you create this type of workplace environment, where all of your employees are high-performing stars? Here are four strategies to consider.
1. Rework Your Hiring Process
Take a moment and think about your hiring process. Does it thoroughly vet new job candidates to ensure that they have the exact qualities you want or is it just a matter of meeting the right requirements on paper and they’re offered the job?
The more time you take up front to ensure that you only hire top-notch employees, the more likely it is that this is what you’ll get. What does this type of process look like?
According to a 2018 Gallup poll, it involves making candidates feel connected to your company from the very first interaction and being aware of their unique emotional needs. It also helps to let them know how you’ll help them meet their personal and professional goals.
2. Get In Touch with Your Inner Motivator
If you were to assemble all of your employees in one room, what would their level of motivation be on a scale of one to ten? If the number is lower than you’d like, the problem may lie with you and your management team.
“An employee’s motivation is a direct result of the sum of interactions with his or her manager,” says Dr. Bob Nelson, a leading authority in the area of employee motivation, engagement, and performance. Therefore, by increasing your own motivation, you’ll increase theirs by default.
A few of the ways to raise your own motivational level include setting small goals to work toward and celebrating when you reach them. Keep your motivation stoked by listening to music that inspires you and reading motivational works.
3. Encourage Your Employees’ Creativity
Another way to help all your employees become rising stars is to encourage them to think for themselves. To be creative when it comes to formulating new ideas or when trying to solve work-related problems.
The more room you give your employees to grow, the more you allow them to act and respond, the more you’re able to tap into their inner innovator. Though this may be scary at first, especially if you tend to be a micromanager, you may wind up pleasantly surprised with the results.
It also helps to have one central place where employees can share their creative ideas, which makes an innovation management system worth considering. This enables you to keep track of your staff’s creativity in a way where you can more easily identify the best ideas and act on them.
4. Reward Star-Level Performance
A little appreciation goes a long way with people in general. So, what are you doing to show your staff that you’re grateful when they perform like the star employees you know they are?
Though some business owners feel that the only way employees want to be rewarded is to give them more money in their paychecks or better benefits, research in this area shows that this isn’t exactly true. Yes, more money can be an incentive, but not all employees value the extra cash enough to make it worth the effort.
Instead, many desire a higher level of workplace satisfaction instead. This can be achieved by providing them the resources they need to do their job, having management that is easy to approach, and keeping them apprised of any important workplaces changes or issues.
Do these four things and watch your employees—and your business—soar.