In this day and age, it pays to be loyal to your employees. Turnover rates are rapidly rising, and it’s no longer common for employees to stick with a single company for decades or more. Employees are jumping from employer to employer in as little as two years (or less!) and it’s officially a war to find the best talent.
How can you connect with your employees in a way that makes them feel valued? It all starts with communication. A startling 15% of employees across the globe feel engaged in their jobs. The rest are struggling with dissatisfaction and disinterest. It’s up to you as a business leader to combat these feelings and make a difference. Here’s how to connect with your employees through great communication.
1. Start With Better Hiring
As you might expect, communication starts before employees even start at a company. If you’re not working on a strong, efficient hiring process, you’re falling behind in the war on talent. Luckily, there are a lot of great new technological tools that make it easier to find the best members of your team.
Using an Applicant Tracker System helps you find better candidates in less time so you can focus on communicating with the top talent you’re attracting. Technology can and should work in your advantage. (Source: https://www.applicanttrackingsystems.net)
2. Build Personal Connections
When you build personal connections with employees, they’re more comfortable seeing you as a leader and someone to be respected. Everyone wants to feel valued and heard, not just like a number in the company’s productivity line.
How do you build personal connections without overstepping boundaries? Look for easy ways to encourage teamwork, even outside of workplace situations. For instance, hosting company events or team lunches are a great way to get to know your team outside of the workplace.
3. Be Transparent
Transparency goes far in the workplace. When decisions are made in secret, employees feel out of the loop and undervalued. Employees want to know what decisions and changes might affect them, and they want to know the logic behind these decisions.
This goes for both the good and the bad, large and small. Keep lines of communication open and remember it’s a two-way street. Be open to your employees coming to you and don’t be afraid to go directly to them.
4. Give Recognition
People want to know their hard work isn’t being overlooked. Employees want to receive recognition for the things they’re doing well. Remember productivity takes a lot of different forms. For example, an employee who coordinates other meetings is one that values their own work and teamwork. This deserves recognition just as much as the employee who reached a new sale’s goal.
5. Develop Leaders
You want your workplace to be full of leaders, not followers. Many companies make the mistakes of focusing on employees that follow when really they should be mentoring a new generation of those who lead.
Look for mentorship opportunities, leadership training, and more to show your team that you care about their development. When employees feel you’re invested in their career growth, they’re willing to put forward more effort.
Start Connecting Today
If you’ve failed to connect with employees in the past, it’s not too late to make a change. We’ve all experienced just how uncomfortable a workplace can be if you don’t have any human relationship with your managers and leaders. Don’t let this become the reality for your own workplace.
These tips above will make a difference in the war for talent. It’ll bring you closer to your top performers, and it will encourage more growth at all levels. It’s time to start a new conversation in the workplace.