When you run your own business, perspective is one of the most important things to retain… Yet it’s also one of the easiest things to lose. After all, your career, your livelihood and your financial and physical wellbeing are all inexorably tied to the fate of your enterprise. As such, it’s all-too easy to maintain a myopic focus on the bottom line, spending your every working hour in your office trying to pre-empt and outsmart statistical trends. Nonetheless, while a strategic focus is important, it cannot come at the expense of the employees who help to make your business everything that it is.

Your employees are not numbers in a spreadsheet column. They’re human beings with needs, desires, skills and passions. Take care of them, and they’ll take care of pretty much everything else. Show them that you value and care about them and they’ll rewards you with their loyalty. Take them for granted and your competitors could be the ones who benefit from their skills and expertise. Here are 5 ways in which you can make your employees feel more valued...

Create a culture that keeps them safe

Your commitment to your employees’ wellbeing extends way beyond your health and safety obligations. Perth City Legal are Workers' Compensation Lawyers and as you can see from their website there are many different kinds of workplace injury. Aside from ensuring that your workplace is safe from environmental hazards it must also be free of harassment and bullying. Even an excess of stress can impinge upon your workers’ wellbeing. As such, it behoves you to create a culture that challenges and rewards employees while also safeguarding their physical, psychological and emotional wellbeing.

A workspace that’s conducive to wellbeing and productivity

As well as the culture of your workplace, the physical workspace can also have a significant impact on employee productivity and wellbeing. After all, your employees spend a significant proportion of their waking hours there, and it has huge implications on their physical and psychological health. Ideally, your workspace should afford employees natural light, the opportunity to interact and collaborate with one another, a well-maintained space where they can go to relax and let off steam and plants, flowers and other vestiges of nature.

If your current workplace isn’t giving them that, it may be worth relocating to a facility that does.

Benefits and incentives that matter to them

Employees arrive every day motivated and ready to take on the challenges of the working day. Nonetheless, if you’re to get the very best out of them day in and day out you need to offer an incentives program that gives employees the rewards that matter most to them. These rewards may not necessarily be monetary. Some employees may value greater flexibility in their working hours or time off work above more pay.

A suggestions box

Employees need to be heard. They benefit enormously when they can see that their ideas and suggestions play an active part in shaping your business. As such, a suggestions box in which employees can donate ideas (anonymously if they wish) that could improve your operation should be a permanent fixture in your workplace.

An open door

Finally, perhaps the most valuable thing you can offer your employees is an open door. If they feel that they can come to you directly to air their issues, grievances and ideas this is a tangible demonstration of your trust in and commitment to them!