How To Help Your Employees Grow Alongside Your Business

When it comes to growing a business, there are many options of what to invest in. From the service/product, employees and advertising there are many areas that need to be balanced in order to function successfully and progress. However, the one thing that is always worth investing in when you want to grow your business is your staff.

During the growth of any business, employees need to be supported and encouraged to grow alongside the business. Not only do you need to focus on your current workforce, you may need to look at recruiting new employees to keep up with the extra work that comes hand in hand with an expanding business.

Navigating a growing business can be complex, but you should never forget your trusted workforce throughout the expansion. As the culture and environment of your business changes, you don’t want your staff to feel left behind, or worse that they don’t fit in with your business anymore. So, how can you help your employees and future workforce as you begin to grow?

Be transparent and honest

Being transparent and honest with your staff can put their mind at ease about any changes and will keep them in the loop. Listen to their concerns and give them honest feedback about what changes will happen and if or how it will change the dynamic of their current role.

It could be as simple as a conversation, or you may want to hold a more formal meeting or even put out a survey to find out how your staff feel amidst the growth of the business.

Thank your staff

Don’t assume that your staff feel valued. Recognise their value to your business and let them know, whether that is with verbal praise or a reward, it will make your staff feel appreciated and grateful. Small gestures go a long way in the work place for staff morale and willingness to give their best each day.

Ensure the work environment is positive and happy

In order to grow and be a success, your employees must be happy. Create a positive work environment and encourage working relationships. Team meetings, group lunches, investing in your employee’s skills and ensuring they have the correct job title is important to promote a healthy and positive work environment.

Discuss career pathways

With the growth of any business comes new positions and roles. Discuss with your employees’ different job opportunities or career paths that they can work towards. Incentives shouldn’t always be based on pay rises but working towards a shared goal or a group of values. Growth doesn’t change the core values of your business, so embrace the change in a positive light and reward your best and most dedicated employees throughout the process.

The correlation between staff productivity and happiness is an obvious one and as long as you go about business growth in a positive and friendly way, your current staff should be excited about the growth too.

With growth comes the need to hire new staff. However, as the business changes, so does what you look for in an employee. There may be new areas of the business that you need a new set of skills for that your current team don’t possess. Ensure to analyse your business and the current skills your staff have before working out what you’re looking for during your search for new members of the team.

If you need advice about employee engagement, recruitment or any other areas of growing a business, contact Oculus HR.