I met with a client a few weeks back and I am hearing this more and more with small business owners that one of their biggest challenges is keeping their Employees happy and learning to adapt to their unique personalities. Many small business owners are not HR Experts. There are many tools out there to help with this challenge and a few areas you may want to focus on.
Communication in a work environment is crucial. But not everyone should be approached the same way. It is important about adjusting the way you approach employees based on their level of comfort and their personality traits. I had the opportunity to join the Women's Business Connection of Chester County and learn about using the DISC Assessment for Effective Communication. Some simple exercises will enable you to know more about your employees and adjust to their personalities.
Helping your employees identify their strengths is another area you can focus on. A great tool I have used in the past is the book "Now, Discover Your Strengths". The book shares how most organizations and leaders should focus on their Employee Strengths. It is important to use human resources efficiently by enabling every employee to build on his or her strengths. You should help your company hire, evaluate and develop talent by boosting strengths rather than addressing weaknesses.
Training your employees is also critical if you want to keep them happy. In many cases you have a new hire and give them a laptop and they just need to figure it all out for themselves. You need to have a Onboarding plan. Many organizations feel that they might be too small for this but a documented training manual goes a long way. Nothing fancy is needed just a process to follow and a reference point for your employees to look back on.
Are you doing all you can to maintain Employee Retention in your small business? Would love to hear more about your challenges and how MCA Consultants can help!
Margherita C. Amplo
President, MCA Consultants
Margherita@mcacs.us
