Grow your people and your business will grow too

Simon Sinek, author of “Leaders Eat Last” writes, “It is not the demands of the job that cause the most stress, but the degree of control workers feel they have throughout their day. The studies also found that the effort required by a job is not in itself stressful, but rather the imbalance between the effort we give and the reward we feel. Put simply: less control, more stress.”

So how do we help reduce stress for our employees and give them the sense of control? We could start by creating a working environment within which people are engaged, motivated and confident in their capability; a place where they want to work. As a result, we can then improve productivity and reduce sick leave (according to the Office of National Statistics, in 2018 141.4 million working days were lost due to UK employees being absent).

Engaging with your employees makes them feel appreciated and valued. You shouldn’t just rely on your line managers to do this; it should come from all levels of the organisation. Create an inclusive culture than enables employees to feel empowered, respected and wanted. Demonstrate that the organisation wants to invest in its employees by providing capability development programmes that aid in not only equipping them to do their roles more effectively, but also aids in motivation, and retention. Research company, Gallup reported that companies with high engagement scores perform better than their counterparts in key operational areas like productivity, absenteeism, turnover, safety and quality incidents, customer metrics, and profitability.

Research also shows that people now rate the “opportunity to learn” as among their top reasons for taking a job.¹ So if you want to attract the best employees, ensure you have a capability programme to shout about. Providing training needn’t be expensive either. Virtual training for example can be very cost effective, as it avoids venue and travel costs. Virtual training can also enable your employees to access programmes or learning modules when it suits them. It is now more than ever the new norm. Technology development also enables training facilitators to engage with their participants easily and interact and deliver training methods as if it was in classroom with breakout rooms and whiteboards.

So, put your people first. Your teams can either make or break your business, so make sure you, develop and invest in them by providing a work environment where people can thrive, grow and be happy.

If you want to provide capability programmes for your teams, contact us at help@pureblueocean.com and we can help you release their potential.

¹ Josh Bersin “New Research” LinkedIn Nov18