You’ve just launched your first business. Your team is your biggest asset. Without hard-working teams, the most successful brands wouldn’t have made it onto the market. Brands such as Apple, which we continue to associate with Steve Jobs, are made by talented individuals (plurals). It’s never just one person. Together, we are stronger and better. A brand without a team dies out.
Therefore, it makes sense to look after your team. A lot of businesses fail to understand that there’s a high cost to pay when you neglect your team. Every month, 3.6% of workers leave their company. While this may not seem like much, employee turnover affects recruitment costs, productivity, morale, understanding customer acquisition cost, and overall team knowledge. To put it into perspective, a 500 employees company that loses 90 employees in a year, all with an average salary of $65,000, experiences an annual employee turnover cost of approximately $3,000,000. If that is a terrifying thought, you want to find ways of caring for your employees that boost your business budget.
Create a positive environment
At a time where most companies have moved to virtual offices, you can save a lot of office-related costs when you encourage your team to work remotely. Working from home can feel isolated. Therefore, you need to make every interaction count. However, even at Zoom meetings, you can build a persona that makes your employees feel engaged and cared for. Arrange a time for one-to-ones to touch base with your team.
Making a point to be presentable even though you’re at home can send the right message across. What does it mean to be presentable in an online meeting? It means being organized about your time and your employees’ time, ensuring there are options in place to capture information for people who are double-booked (recording), and using the best equipment for the job. Remote meetings can get unnecessarily draining when employees struggle to understand what’s being said!
Make healthy employees your mission
Not every business provides health insurance perks to their teams. But, saving costs on insurance plans is a false economy. Sickness and absenteeism come at a cost. Additionally, employees who struggle with health invoices are likely to accumulate side hustles to pay their bills, making them less productive in the team. You can save yourself and them some troubles by choosing a budget-friendly plan, such as the MEWA health insurance plan, that has them covered. This will reduce stress and uncertainty for your team.
You can also create a health-focus environment. Encouraging employees to take regular breaks during the day can alleviate stress and burnout risks. It also makes it more manageable for your team to keep their work/life balance and carry out errand tasks without needing to take time out of work.
Be a mentor to them
Everyone has a professional goal. When you hire someone for a position, you need to consider where they want to be in a few years and what they want to learn. For small businesses, training costs can be challenging. However, mentoring programs are free to set up and can contribute to professional development in a positive way. Listening to your team contributes to their professional development and ensures you can keep growing talent in-house.
We get it: Managing a budget is tricky for a small business. However, you can’t afford to cut corners when it comes to your team. Putting your team first doesn’t have to break the bank. On the contrary, it can save you a ton of money!
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