We need to create a new workforce code, a better workforce code. One which helps employees not only feel connected to the company but makes them work their best and want the best for the company that they work for. Here are 5 ways to help your company thrive in 2021 and beyond.

1. Open Communication
2. Creating a Company Culture
3. Being flexible
4. Ensuring Equality
5. Training

Open Communication

I have a friend, let’s call her Katy. Katy has three kids and is very busy during the day, so she found a side job at night to clean for a short period of time. She cleans a building that has multiple floors and various areas. She has been doing this for the last 2 years. During that time she has gotten very few complaints. However, the complaints she has gotten usually happen around springtime, this is also the time she was hired. The cleaning company she was hired for had just gotten a new contract when she was hired and she was given the first building. It was a big account. This last year she called me to complain about her latest complaint and an encounter that eventually made her look for another job. Apparently, the new manager of the building she was cleaning came by one night and wrote her up with no previous explanation. She met the manager one time previously and had tried to communicate with him, trying to tell him that the new cleaning solution that she had been given was not cleaning like the old solution, that it was weaker. At the same time, she asked for more cleaning solutions for another area that she had just run out of. So. like normal Katy continued to clean, she eventually bought her own bleach. After three weeks she had a visit from the new manager again. This time with a write-up and an attitude.  There had been no communication before this write-up.  She needed the job and therefore was doing her best and tried to correct the issues that she was written up for.  BTW The issues were never on the list of expected things she needed to do before that night.  The next week she was fired.  Never given another write-up or even a dismal letter.  She was just asked for the keys back.  Open communication could have stopped this from ever happening.  Communication helps employees feel respected and by keeping your employees you stop the expense of retraining new employees.

Creating a Company Culture

At our company Zany, we try to make our employees feel like family.  We joke with them, listen to their problems, and understand when they just need more support.  Our goal is for employees to love their job.  When they face their next project it should be with a smile, because they enjoy it and the team that supports them.  The other day an employee told me that she hoped to work for us the rest of her life.  That made me feel good, but I realized it was part of our culture to help the staff grow in their knowledge, experience, and abilities.  Zany has many employees who are learning to be better in their work and life.  This will help them to possibly expand to the point that they find new opportunities to enrich their life further.  Our culture, our responsibility is to help our employees be the best they can be, feel like they are secure, happy, and excited to work.  By doing so our customers are treated with respect and a smile every day!

Being Flexible with Time

I used to think that if an employee came late to work, they should still go home on time.  Otherwise, it would be like the employee was setting their own hours.  Don’t get me wrong, I still believe that if an employee respects the company enough they will be on time.  After all, companies depend on employees at certain times to fill a spot.  So how then can you really be flexible?  First, we have to go back to open communication.  Talk to them and find out why they are always late.  Probably you will out that a later time would be easier for them.  So, simple, schedule them later.  If that is not the case, look for other (usually obvious) reasons.  Something happens at the specific time they should be clocking in that they want to avoid.  One manager, from another company, told me an employee at his restaurant came late to punish a manager and make him look bad.  They fired that employee, maybe they should have wonder why the employee wanted to punish the manager.  The moral is, usually the upper manager can solve time problems easier than not.  The hard time to be flexible is with the work quality.  No company can compromise when it comes to the quality of work,  so those individuals can flexibly be moved to another job.

Ensuring Equity

A different restaurant manager came to talk to me the other day.  She had been with the company for 3 years before they brought on an assistant store manager to take some of the pressure off of the Store Manager who was about to retire.  It was a large franchise group, so the Assistant Store Manager was coming from another store (he was also the best friend of the franchise owner).  He was a swearer.  He yelled and used fear to control.  Well, the lady that came to talk to me was not about to be managed by fear.  For one thing, she had 10 years of experience in the business.  The worst part about this case was the Owner of the franchise knew this Assistant Store Manager because he had already had multiple complaints against him and taken anger management classes.  Yet, he was allowed to work there.  This was clearly an example of non-equity boarding on harassment (non-equity usually is harassment).  This should never be allowed in the workplace, but day after day across America people go to work and feel the power of fear, anger, and unfairness at their place of work.  They continue to go to work, because they need a job, need the money to support their families and they have begun to feel like no one else will hire them, that they are not good enough and deserve to be treated this way.  Employees need to be uplifted thru appreciation, respect, and a feeling of community.  BTW The lady walked out of her job 2 weeks later with no regrets.

Training

Training should be a daily experience.  So many large companies send staff to training and expect them to come back changed.  Fill with vitality, knowledge, leadership, and appreciation when really they were just glad to get out of the daily work grind.  Companies should be cross-training every day.  Not only is it good practice for the workforce (if someone is temporarily absent, someone else is all ready to take over the position) but it makes the employee feel like the company thinks they are an asset.  When you empower employees with the trust that they can take on more responsibility they begin to care.  The company now feels like they have a vested interest in it.  That is how diamonds in the rough are found!  People often step up to the plate when someone asks them to.  When a staff member feels like you need them, they are often there for you.  Go back tomorrow to work and look around.  Who can you help cross-train today?  Can you set up a shadow experience for someone?  New friendships are created this way.  Bonds between staff and management that blossoms into a productive workforce that wants to come to work and not only do their best but help others feel that sense of worth too. Communication, Culture, Flexibility, Equality, and Training are the key factors when maintaining and elevating your companies workforce.  After all, when Zany gets you leads or creates an SEO-friendly website for you, you will need a great workforce to directly deal with your customers.   Do you have staff that can be the face of your company with pride, training on all aspects of your services and satisfy customers?  Zany can help you look at your workforce and show them ways to better deal with the public.  Or we can just deal with the public for you and you can do what you do best – Your Service!