Tag Archives: Employee Health

 

Businesses across the nation are adjusting to slimmer profit margins. The Financial Times reports that price spikes, labor shortages, and supply chain struggles are continuing to eat into profits while consumers are spending less in response to inflation.

As a business leader, you can discover new levels of profitability and boost your bottom line by maximizing efficiency in the workplace.

This is particularly important today, as modern workers report that they are only productive for 2 hours 53 minutes per day. As a leader, reclaiming this lost productivity should be your top priority while keeping staff healthy and happy.

Cost Savings

Rising costs will undermine your profits if you fail to adjust. This is true regardless of what stage of business growth you are in today. Even well-established brands can suddenly go bust if they ignore rising costs and become overleveraged with debt.

Continuously re-evaluating your operations will help you discover costly bottlenecks and address fundamental issues. Adopting a process improvement mindset can help you respond to industry changes and remain relevant for consumers. Further cost-saving benefits of process improvement include:

Embracing process improvement can improve your firm’s ability to meet compliance requirements. This is helpful if you plan on growing your business and want to avoid fees and fines due to ineffective compliance protocols.

Employee Wellbeing

Your employees are the backbone of your business. Without them, efficiency would grind to a halt. However, many business leaders overlook employee wellbeing when profitability starts to decline.

If you want to enhance your operational efficiency, then keeping your employees healthy and happy should be a priority. Unhealthy, unhappy staff are extremely expensive, as you will be forced to pay for sick leave and will have to bring on new hires when they leave for greener pastures.

Stress can have a profound impact on employee well-being and health, too. Left untreated, chronic stress can increase the risk of musculoskeletal disorders, hypertension, heart attack, and stroke. Employees who are stressed are also more likely to suffer from oral ailments like gum disease, tooth decay, and cankers. This will sideline your employees and leave you short-staffed when you need employees the most.

Increasing Safety

Nothing will derail your business like an accident at work. In 2021 alone, workplace accidents and injuries cost a total of $167 billion. Injuries and accidents also resulted in 103,000,000 lost days of work, as many employees have to take extended time away after a mishap.

As a business owner, you should explore efficiency upgrades that improve safety. Even simple changes, like reducing workers’ workload, can significantly reduce the risk of accidents. Folks are far less likely to make a misstep when they are not overworked, burnt out, and fatigued by their workload.

You can improve worker safety and increase business efficiency by embracing the Internet of Things (IoT). IoT tech, like electronic logging devices, can improve safety and efficiency by tracking metrics related to employee safety. This is particularly important if you work in high-risk fields like delivery driving. Keep a tab on key data points like speed and braking. This reduces the risk of accidents and helps you retrain certain staff.

Customer Service

In today’s competitive business environment, you need to stand out from the crowd by providing excellent customer service. Effective, efficient customer service can improve brand loyalty, minimize damaging reviews, and convince consumers to make repeat purchases.

A recent survey of 3,200 consumers by Super Office found that 12% of all consumers expect a response time of under 15 minutes, while 46% say they want to hear back within 4 hours. This suggests that efficient, fast responses are key to heightened customer satisfaction.

If you cannot afford to employ a fleet of customer service agents, consider investing in automation software instead. Automated chatbots are capable of answering FAQs quickly and accurately. They can also send pre-generated responses to folks who get in contact during out-of-office hours. This can reassure customers that their query has been seen and that they will get a response soon.

Foregrounding efficiency in your customer service department can reduce the amount you spend on returns, too. US retailers predict that $761 billion of items will be returned every year. This can eat into profits and derail your day-to-day operations. You cannot avoid all returns, but you can mitigate many hasty returns with responsive, positive customer service.

Automation

Automating your business is not just good for customer service. Embracing the future of AI and automation can improve your efficiency and bolster your bottom line. Strategic changes, like automating your customer relationship management (CRM) software, can reduce the amount of time staff spend on menial responsibilities and free up time for creative, profit-boosting tasks.

If you are new to the idea of automation, start with low-hanging fruit like:

As your firm grows, you can explore more complex automation strategies. For example, if you currently run an e-commerce business, you can use automated software to keep stock of your inventory and automatically order new materials when supplies run low. This reduces lead time at your firm and ensures that you are always ready to take on new orders.

Communication

Effective communication keeps internal and external stakeholders happy and can maximize your operational efficiency. This is crucial when trying to boost your profits, as you’ll need buy-in from investors and employees alike.

As a business leader, you can guide your firm to higher levels of profitability and productivity by improving your own communication skills. Ask plenty of questions when conversing with other employees and focus on listening to them without interruption. If you struggle to listen without jumping in, consider taking notes to channel your thoughts and show your staff that you care about their insights.

You should review your communication strategy on an annual basis. This will ensure that your firm is up-to-date with the latest communication tech and can help you identify potential issues in your current strategy. A well-planned communication strategy improves collaboration in your company, too. This reduces the risk of costly oversights and helps you get more out of your most talented employees.

Conclusion

Boosting your bottom line is about more than cutting costs and raising your prices. Spark a period of profitable growth at your firm by embracing an ethos of process improvement. Continuous process improvement also helps you take advantage of breakthroughs in business tech like CRM automation, IoT tracking, and customer service chatbots. In sum, process improvement isn’t just ensuring short-term solutions, it’s ensuring the long-term success of your company.

*This article is written by Ainsley Lawrence. View more of Ainsley’s articles here.

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Managing employees in the workplace is a huge responsibility and one that can have both positive and negative effects on all aspects of an employee’s life.

Learning how to effectively manage is vital for professional leaders looking to transform their work culture for the better.

In this article, we will discuss effective employee management and the impact this can have on individuals and the organizations they work for.

What Does it Mean to Manage Employees Effectively?

Everyone is new to management at some point in their careers. Certainly, the transition from employee to manager or team leader can be very exciting. It often comes with a pay rise, heightened responsibilities, and an opportunity to have more say in a company’s direction.

However, great business leaders also understand the heavy responsibility of managing other people – whole teams in fact – and doing so in a productive, empathetic, and professional manner.

Signs of Poor Management

Too often, managers fail their employees by demanding too much and having unrealistic expectations. This can lead to all sorts of problems for your employees and organization as a whole. Here are some of the signs that your employees are struggling under poor management:

Let’s take a look at some of these in more detail and discuss how effective management can help combat these issues.

How to Manage Employees Effectively

Managing employees well means putting people first. A people-first approach to management will ensure you manage effectively and this in turn will help your organization thrive.

Address Employee Burnout

Employee burnout is directly related to management style. According to research carried out by AMH International, there is “a significant relationship between burnout (personal accomplishment) and leadership styles (autocratic, democratic, and laissez-faire) toward job performance.”

When people think of burnout they often assume it is self-inflicted. However, this is rarely the case. More often than not it is a build-up of stress and pressure (typically in the workplace).

Employee burnout can be caused by numerous factors, however the most common include: unrealistic expectations from management, unmanageable workloads, unsociable working hours, poor working conditions, and lack of support in the workplace.

Burnout is becoming increasingly common in today’s society, as it is a condition that is caused by persistent stress. LuxuryRehabs.com explains that ‘In modern-day “hustle culture,” the pressure to work harder can be overwhelming. And even if you love what you do, working too much can drain the joy right out of your life. But there’s a bright side—burnout doesn’t have to be permanent.’

As a manager, it is your job to properly address and manage employee burnout so that people can not only function in their job but thrive. There are two ways you can achieve this:

Offer Flexible Working Hours: the traditional 9-5 working model doesn’t work for everyone. Whether your employees have school pick-ups to deal with, a car service booked, or a doctor’s appointment to get to, it can be difficult to fit everything in. Offering flexible working hours is a great way to show your employees that you care about their work/life balance. Choosing when they work also gives employees more control over their job, which in turn increases productivity and satisfaction while at work.

Lead by Example: One of the primary aspects of effective leadership involves leading by example. Whether they want to impress you, are worried about maintaining job security, or want your job one day, your employees will follow your example. So, it’s important that you lead well. A few simple ways to do this include; taking a lunch break, avoiding working late, taking time off once in a while, showing compassion and understanding to others, and having integrity.

According to Forbes, “Leading by example will build up your team members and prepare them for more prominent roles in the future. Ultimately, that results in your team being more productive, more effective and more efficient while feeling more satisfied in what they’re doing.”

Address Mental Health and Provide Support

As a manager, it’s important to be aware of the mental health struggles your employees face and be equipped to manage these in a productive way. Around 280 million people worldwide experience depression alone and this can have significant effects on people’s lives.

Addressing the range of mental health struggles that your employees might struggle with is an important part of being an effective manager, and this can help to mitigate burnout in the workforce. It will be vital for the success of your employees and your organization. Here are a few ways you can address mental health struggles in the workplace:

Create an Open Door Policy: one of the best ways to combat mental health in the workplace is to establish positive connections with your employees. This is best achieved through open and honest communication.

Establishing an open-door policy is a great way to connect with your employees. It lets them know you are available to talk and separates the feeling of ‘us vs them’ that is often prevalent in the workplace, particularly between managers and the people they manage.

Provide Mental Health Support: addressing mental health problems directly is essential for managing your employees well and supporting a healthy, thriving work culture. Providing mental health support in the form of counseling, therapy, rehab, and mental health training days are all great ways to go the extra mile for your employees.

According to The American Psychological Association, “Organizational leaders are well-positioned to influence a positive culture shift and normalize mental health in the workplace. These positive and supportive workplace practices can boost employee mental health, company morale, and your bottom line.”

Help Employees Feel Valued

Employees who feel valued by their employers are more likely to work hard and perform better. If you want to manage effectively, you must help your employees feel valued. This is achieved through all of the points mentioned above as well as the following:

Offer Development Training: properly training your employees isn’t just important for development, it helps keep employees motivated and like they’re working towards specific goals. Providing the right training and development opportunities is essential for this.

According to our article Supervisor Training: Insider Tips for Management Skills Development, “It has been proven time and time again that companies that invest in employee training see an increase in morale and motivation to do the job[…] It’s more important than ever to do everything you can to keep employees happy, make them feel valued, and show them a path forward with your company.”

Prioritize Open Communication: as we mentioned above, leading by example is integral to management success and one of the most important parts of this is open communication. Taking the time to talk with your employees and be honest about the state of the business and the challenges it is facing sends a message that you value their opinions and the roles they play. Involving employees in open conversations is great for encouraging team collaboration, establishing trust, and helping employees feel more engaged in their roles.

But, how do you communicate with your hourly employees who do not have access to email? TeamSense breaks down effective communication methods for improved engagement and productivity with your team on the shop floor.

Keep Employees Safe: it is your responsibility to ensure your employees can work safely. This means carrying out health and safety risk assessments, providing quality work equipment, and offering the relevant training.

When you are committed to health and safety in the workplace, it shows your employees that you care. Workers are more productive when they can work safely and safe working environments reduce illness, injury, and accidents – saving your business money and protecting your people!

In Summary

Taking on the role of manager in the workplace is a huge responsibility. It’s a chance to make your mark on a company, to support its direction and growth, and to have a lasting impact on the lives of its employees.

We hope this article has highlighted the importance of a people-first management approach for an effective management strategy. If you prioritize your employees’ needs and take the time to listen to their concerns, you will help shape a team that is committed, driven, and thriving now and into the future.

*This article is written by Sophie Bishop. Sophie is an experienced construction writer with a passion for sharing insights and her experience within the health and safety sector. Sophie aims to spread awareness through her writing around issues to do with healthcare, wellbeing and sustainability within the industry and is looking to connect with an engaged audience. Contact Sophie via her website: https://sophiebishop.uk/.

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