Protecting your brand reputation is immensely important to your bottom line. And one of the most cost-effective ways to protect it is also one of the most overlooked: appreciate and support your employees.
The satisfaction of your employees matters because it affects your brand reputation. A study showed that out of about 1000 participants, half of them said they wouldn’t work for a company if they had a bad reputation, even if it was an incredible offer.
Just to be straightforward: a high turnover rate is expensive and can contribute to low profitability. If you are constantly losing employees and having to hire new ones, you’re spending a lot of time and money training people, and you’re losing the employees with experience. Take steps to give your employees a reason to stick with you—and a reason to feel good about whom they work for.
That’s why showing your employees that you care about their well-being and appreciate their work is an incredibly important business strategy. After all, your employees represent your business and if they’re overworked and under-appreciated by their employer, they’re not going to go above and beyond for your business or brand, and your customers will at the very least receive worse service.
Not only that, but research shows that when employees feel content, their productivity increases by 31%, causing sales to also increase by 37%. It literally pays to keep your employees feeling fulfilled, appreciated, and respected.
Here are a few things that you can implement to show your employees you value them, and in turn improve your business.
Provide Employee Benefits
Obviously increased pay is a major motivator for most people but if that’s not currently an option for your business, there are other ways to show your employees that you value them. Benefits are a big incentive for keeping current employees happy while also encouraging new faces to apply.
Offering options like a 401K, health insurance, and dental and vision insurance is a big deal. If your company lacks benefits, it could cause you to miss out on potential great employees or even worse lose the ones you already have!
Ensure Paid Time Off
Offering compensated days off is an essential yet overlooked perk. Many employees actually value time off over salary increases. You don’t want your employees avoiding crucial things like going to the doctor because they can’t afford to take a day off. Having employees without paid sick leave can not only increase the spread of viruses, but will also make your employees feel run down and dissatisfied.
On the other hand, maybe you offer paid days off, but you don’t respect their time off. This can include things like preventing workers from using their days off by guilting them for causing you to be understaffed, refusing to approve their time off even though they have plenty of leave left, calling them in on their days off, or even threatening to terminate them if they don’t come into work.
Offer Business-Related Exclusive Perks
Offering perks is just one of the many ways you can show your appreciation. For instance, if you run a clothing store you could offer clothes/merchandise from past clothing launches, large employee discounts, or even work with other local businesses to secure benefits with them. This could mean working with a local gym to supply them with your products and in turn they can offer your employees a membership.
Give Incentives
A good way to ensure that you have a low turnover rate is to offer retention incentives. For example, you could offer a raise for every year they stay with your company—or increased vacation time. If this isn’t an option for your business, maybe show them you value their loyalty through recognition and awards. This could be something as simple as employee of the month, and a gift card—just something to show you see and value their hard work.
Another way to incentivize is through commissions, small or large. For instance, maybe you encourage your employees to make more sales by offering a $10 gas voucher for every 100 sales they close on. This won’t be too pricey on your end, but it will make a difference on their gas tank.
Offer Employee Recreation
Offering optional recreational activities such as an annual company picnic gives employees an opportunity to get to know their coworkers better. When your employees are friendly with their co-workers, it can increase productivity. A strong relationship between your employees is important to encourage good working relationships and increase morale.
Improve employee interactions by giving them a way to interact with each other on the daily that doesn’t just involve work related issues. For instance, have card and board games available, or even install a ping pong table, in the rec room/office that staff may use during breaks or lunch time.
Building a good team all starts with a good work environment. If you don’t value your employees, then they won’t value their jobs and your business will suffer. Happy, hardworking employees are going to do everything they can to help your business succeed.
Properly valuing your employees is genuinely the most cost-effective way to protect your brand reputation and improve your business profitability. Offering benefits like paid time off, perks, incentives, and recreational opportunities will not only pay for themselves in retention, but will also make your business a pleasant place to go to work for YOU as well.
After all, it doesn’t matter how wonderful your visual branding looks if your brand is suffering from a reputation for having surly, unhappy employees, high turnover, and being a poor place to work.
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