Owning a modern company is difficult, and making it efficient is even more complicated. Without a clear vision, the right personnel, and accurate workforce data, the task may seem impossible. No matter the size of your enterprise, surrounding yourself with the right employees and advisors can help you hurdle many of these pitfalls.
Business owners in the United States were recently asked to describe the most expensive mistakes they’ve ever made. While their answers were varied, many paradoxical ideas arose:
- Owners tried too hard to accomplish everything themselves while being too hesitant to entrust responsibility to others.
- Owners struggled to find a common purpose (or “rallying point”) beyond making money, yet failed to understand that cutting too many costs meant sometimes cutting corners as well.
- Some owners tried too hard to hire fast, manufacture fast, market fast, and get rich fast, all while ignoring a work-life balance that might have benefitted everyone.
Most of these issues can be solved by finding the right help. Here are six ways you can build and maintain an organization filled with hard-working and dedicated people:
1. Utilize Workforce Intelligence to Identify High-Quality Candidates
Finding the right personnel is the first step to building a long-lasting organization. Workforce data can help by identifying candidates with the experience and education needed to do the job. Using smart data, you can shorten the time it takes to market your job applications and eliminate the busy work that often comes with the hiring process. You’ll also be able to offer a competitive salary and benefits package to attract top talent.
2. Incentivize and Compensate Your Workforce Based on Real-Time Data
Once you’ve hired the professionals you need, the next step is keeping them happy and productive. Employee retention is a key part of maintaining a quality workforce. The latest trend in the U.S. labor force confirms this: the Bureau of Labor Statistics has named 2022 “The Great Resignation” due to the number of people voluntarily leaving jobs. The reasons for the exodus are varied, but poor compensation, poor leadership, and a lack of benefits are common ones.
With your workforce in place, real-time data can help you offer proper compensation for promotions that reflect industry norms. Don’t lose your star employees to unexpected changes in your industry. It may seem easy to simply replace employees, but companies with high turnover can suffer in unexpected ways, especially if you have no system in place to track the reasons people choose to leave.
3. Optimize Your Schedule… and Optimize Your Optimization
You’re likely familiar with the phrase: “if it’s not broken, don’t fix it.” Trying to fix perfection may be unwise, but no system is perfect, especially systems that deal with employee schedules. As your workforce grows, workforce intelligence can help you adjust scheduling conflicts. It can even help track trends that may be affecting employee health and performance. No matter what happens, workforce data can help your human resources department stay responsive and nimble in times of trouble.
4. Maintain Crystal-Clear Channels of Communication
The strength of a company’s culture and ethics can often be judged by the business’s ability to communicate with employees. From marketing to internal newsletters, always be clear and concise in your direction. Giving your employees a clear vision of your company’s goals can help keep your progress on track when difficulties arise.
When leaders try to hide the truth behind poor decision-making, it has a negative impact on employee morale. Don’t let rumors circulate. If bad news needs to be broken, share it openly. Employees will feel freer to do the same with leadership and management, leading to better cohesion and trust. An open door will always lead to more opportunities than a closed one, and this is true in all business relationships.
5. Recognize the Hard Workers
One of the best ways to keep your workforce engaged is by recognizing good results and effort. Employees can recognize when their efforts are truly valued, especially when the reward matches the level of effort. Workforce intelligence can help recognize when teams or individuals meet or exceed their productivity goals. Then it’s up to the managers and leaders to make the moment meaningful, and you can do this in a number of ways:
- Offer a training pathway or opportunity to lead
- Give an incentive, whether a monetary reward or a gift
- Recognize them in a sincere way
6. Foster an Environment of Inclusivity and Trust
Providing a positive work environment should not be an uncommon practice. Yet 63% of employees recently stated that they do not trust the leaders they follow. Just as clear communication is paramount to running any successful organization, a sense of transparency and accountability goes a long way in fostering good habits in the workplace. Your workforce will be more motivated to follow a leader if they recognize their fairness and responsiveness during rough times. If every team member feels valued, the likelihood of cooperation increases, especially if a good leader is behind the empowerment.
Let Workforce Data Do Your Heavy Lifting
Workforce intelligence provides accurate and dependable information for the business leaders of tomorrow. With real-time data at your fingertips, you can eliminate guesswork and make impactful and informed decisions about the direction of your business. Discover the difference workforce data can make on your and your investors’ bottom lines.
