Gone are the days when people took a job upon leaving education and stayed there for life. In the world of work today, a job is seen more as a job for now and rarely for life. There is a strong propensity to job hop—and it’s a trend that’s becoming more and more apparent with each new cohort of education leavers.
Given that 30% of new hires leave within 90 days, employers need to get it right from day one. For many, the difference between staying and going has to do with employee relations. And, it’s not just about employee retention.
Positive employee relations also mean better productivity. It’s something that employers simply can’t ignore. In this article, we’ll uncover five key strategies to build and maintain proactive employee relations to create a positive work environment where productivity is boosted as a result.
1. Create Open Communication Channels
For employees, open communication is key to feeling valued and heard at work. Communication works both ways: employers should have good lines of communication with employees so they feel up-to-date about things that matter to the business and their work. Equally, business leaders need to be open to constructive employee feedback and communication from employees. With open communication, both parties will be happier—and more productive.
Actionable Tips to Create an Environment of Open Communication
Companies that embrace open communication are more successful. Not only that, but employees are happier and have increased job satisfaction. Here are some strategies that work:
- Scheduling regular one-on-one meetings to connect individually. These don’t have to be formal, minuted meetings; they can simply be a catch-up over coffee. The point is that they’re scheduled and in the diary so that employees feel valued. If they’re a regular, well-publicized occurrence, employees won’t feel negative towards these opportunities–or worried by their potential content either.
- Gathering honest feedback through anonymous tools. Most employees are wary of giving honest feedback if it can be linked back to their name in some way. By creating regular surveys and opportunities for anonymous feedback to be given, employers and leaders can learn about how they can improve and how their teams feel. These must be done cautiously, however, so as not to be identifiable in any way.
- Maintaining an open-door policy to encourage approachability. An open-door policy encourages employees to share what’s going well and what isn’t with their seniors. It helps to create a culture of trust, responsibility, and transparency that works both ways.
- Having appropriate means of communication and communication policies. Do you message on Teams, send an email, visit someone in their office, or call them? Having a clear communication policy means employees and team leaders know what’s expected of them and how things should be communicated. Having practical tools like automated dialers can streamline internal communication for large teams so it’s worth considering how these fit into the communication and employee relations policies too.
The benefits of having policies, procedures, and tools that create open communication are numerous: it minimizes misunderstandings, improves trust and collaboration, and encourages the flow of new ideas as people bounce off one another.
2. Build a Culture of Recognition and Appreciation
Alongside good and open communication, the most productive businesses typically have a culture of recognition and appreciation. Though this may take some time to establish, once it is there and well-maintained, it boosts morale and employee engagement while also reinforcing positive behavior and contributions.
Tips to Build a Culture of Recognition
While you can’t simply create this overnight, over time, a culture of recognition can be built up well with a few key ideas:
- Make recognition specific and timely: When employees achieve something, it’s important to recognize it soon after. This means praising the action publicly but also being specific about what they did to earn the recognition. For example, instead of just praising the employee with the highest number of sales in a given week, team leaders could specify that it was their skilled sales prospecting techniques that led to these results.
- Personalize recognition programs: Not all employees like to be recognized in the same way. Get to know how they like to experience recognition and make it personal to them.
- Encourage peer-to-peer recognition: Build a harmonious work environment where employees of all levels can recognize someone else’s efforts publicly. This can build respect and camaraderie throughout the organization.
3. Invest in Professional Development Opportunities
Employees value being valued, and when employers provide opportunities for skill growth and career advancement, it means they feel respected and give more back. Investing in these opportunities means investing in employees—and you can guide them so their personal goals align with your organizational objectives.
Tips on Investing in Development Opportunities
There are several approaches to be considered and not all of them are as costly as others:
- Offer training programs and workshops using employee experience: Lots of training can be done in-house, which reduces costs and makes the learning more focused on the specifics of your organization. Upskilling staff in areas outside of their expertise can also help create appreciation among workers but also help plug short-term gaps.
- Provide mentorship programs: In a similar way to training by experienced staff, larger organizations can develop mentorship programs where employees can learn from their seniors. This can help with career advancement as well as succession planning. Leaders can focus on introducing others to sales intelligence, for example, to enhance decision-making and performance.
- Support flexible schedules and more formal education: Depending on the nature of the business, it might be appropriate to fund formal qualifications or further education. This might also require a more flexible working schedule as employees balance their work commitments with learning opportunities.
4. Promote Work-Life Balance
It seems like the phrase “work-life balance” has become a buzzword in recent times, but it’s more than that. Work-life balance has become massively important for modern workers, especially following the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. For employees, a healthy work-life balance means less chance of burnout. For employers, it means less turnover. When employee mental health and well-being are better, so too is their productivity.
Tips to Promote Good Work-Life Balance
Most business leaders have a good idea of what’s needed for a good work-life balance but they’re not so good at encouraging it. Here are some tips:
- Offer flexible working arrangements: Trusting employees to get the job done is important. This means providing opportunities for remote or hybrid work and flexible hours.
- Provide generous leave policies and benefits: Employees are more likely to stick around if work policies are competitive with regard to leave entitlement like vacation or parental leave. Organizations that offer gym memberships are also highly sought-after.
- Encourage disconnecting from work after hours: Employees should be reminded to switch off after work hours to recharge. Discourage work emails being on phones or notifications for communication apps like Teams after hours.
- Reduce workload through automation: If routine tasks can be automated, employees can focus on other work activities. In sales, for example, inbound marketing strategies like automated workflows can free up employees’ time for other tasks.
The benefits of a good employee work-life balance are that employees will likely have increased job satisfaction and loyalty to the organization. Downtime is also important for creativity. Employers often find that the most creative and productive workers have the best balance. Ultimately, though, a good work-life balance creates a healthier and happier workplace environment, which gives productivity a huge boost.
5. Have Transparent and Fair Policies
One of the most important aspects of a harmonious (and productive) workforce is policy. With transparent and fair company policies, there are fewer opportunities for misunderstandings and workplace conflict. When everyone knows where they stand, it builds trust and accountability.
Tips for Policies
Here are some tips for making sure policies are both fair and transparent:
- Document workplace policies in an accessible employee handbook. This doesn’t have to be a physical document; most policies these days are online or in a digital format. The location of the handbook should be communicated clearly and reminders sent regularly, especially after any updates.
- Apply rules consistently to all employees. There should be clear rules in place and these should be applied to all employees in the same way. If there are any discrepancies, it will create a disconnect among teams, which will cause conflict and a reduction in productivity.
- Review and update policies regularly. Policies should be reviewed and updated at regular intervals to ensure they remain relevant and fair. Setting a review schedule is a good idea so that these tasks don’t get forgotten.
Approaching policies in this way promotes a sense of fairness and equity. There will be minimal confusion and a reduced number of workplace disputes. Ultimately, there will be a culture of transparency and mutual respect, which improves relationships and boosts productivity at work.
6. Ensure Team Collaboration and Social Engagement
Another key strategy for encouraging proactive employee relations is through team collaboration and social engagement. Encouraging collaboration and a social side to work is great for developing creativity, innovation, and camaraderie. When colleagues bond, the relationships within teams and departments are strengthened.
Tips to Encourage Collaboration
Here are some ways to encourage a social side to work to help boost productivity within work:
- Organize regular team-building activities and social events. Ideally, these should be done within work hours so that all employees attend and take part without encroaching on their precious downtime and work-life balance. Activities can be varied, from quizzes to working lunches and cross-team projects.
- Facilitate cross-department working to encourage collaboration. Teams that are encouraged to work together through a project will develop their general collaboration skills even once the project has ended.
- Create spaces for information interactions. Water cooler chats are still a thing but these days, it’s a good idea to have lounges where colleagues can catch up and be social on an informal level. For hybrid or remote environments, a virtual hangout can be a good idea for anyone working from home who wants interaction.
By focusing on collaboration and social engagement, employers can work to build a cohesive and supportive workplace culture. This will also encourage innovation and knowledge-sharing and ultimately boost overall satisfaction and employee performance.
7. Address Conflict Promptly and Effectively
When people spend a considerable amount of time together, conflicts between employees are inevitable. In the workplace, conflict can have a detrimental effect on employees as well as business output. When conflict is addressed promptly, it prevents escalation and the disruption of workflows. This also helps keep the workplace positive and maintains trust.
Tips for addressing conflict
Minimizing conflict in the workplace isn’t an easy task to undertake so here are some actionable tips that may help:
- Train managers and human resources in effective communication and conflict resolution techniques. If managers know how to deal with conflict, they can nip it in the bud before it escalates and causes greater problems.
- Use mediation or third-party interventions in complex cases. If disputes are overly complex or unable to be dealt with by in-house employee relationship management, a third-party intervention or mediation is a positive solution that can resolve issues quickly.
- Maintain confidentiality and professionalism. With emotions running high, conflict comes with greater risks of being unprofessional. No matter the cause of the conflict, it’s important to remain professional and maintain the confidentiality of all those involved.
When conflict is well managed, it helps to preserve a healthy work environment and avoids toxic, unproductive atmospheres with high turnover rates. Using these strategies also minimizes productivity losses from unresolved disputes and reinforces positive relationships alongside a company culture of fairness and respect.
Conclusion
Being proactive toward employee relationships is key to creating a productive and engaged workforce. The seven strategies discussed in this article—open and transparent communication, recognition, development, work-life balance, transparency, collaboration, and conflict resolution—are all essential for optimal productivity.
Leaders should implement these strategies to help develop a workplace culture where employees have high levels of engagement and performance. Ultimately, strong employee relations lead to a happier and more motivated workforce, which will drive success for both individual employees and the organization.
