Train yourself to improve staff engagement

One approach business owners and managers don’t consider enough is to develop your workplace culture by developing yourself.

So, you run or manage a business in the highly competitive cleaning and hygiene industry? It takes up most of your waking hours in both thought and action. Most of the time you are likely concentrating on the operations, financials, client relationships and tenders. Obviously, you read this publication for industry news, and likely attend trade shows and conferences for the latest and the greatest designed. All of this is to be expected and forms part of your daily and yearly planner.

However, probably your biggest business challenge this year, and in the coming years, will be attracting and retaining talented employees. There are numerous directions you can follow to achieve this aim. One approach that businesses don’t consider enough is to develop your workplace culture by developing yourself.

Expand your own horizons

When did you last spend time learning to improve those outer-orbit business skills? Designing a better mouse trap, truly reinvigorating the business plan, implementing the triple bottom line approach, learning about crisis management, improving governance practices generally within the business?

You might also be asking an employment lawyer is posing such questions and making these types of suggestions? Well, I could just stay within the strict workplace relations parameters of reminding you about the scary and litigious Fair Work Ombudsman.

I could remind you about the real benefits of implementing appropriate workplace policies, training yourself and others in managing HR related matters, keeping legislatively required personnel records and appropriately applying industrial Awards. While all of that is true, those issues are matters you must already be attending and periodically reviewing because it’s either the law and provides evidence of your compliance with the law.

Although not the warm and fuzzy type, after working in this field for many years it is my experience, and has become my belief, that those businesses who from the top down, genuinely develop and implement skills and thing outside the traditional, have less conduct and performance related problems with their employees.

Think it, feel it, do it, be it

It’s my belief this is because the ‘think it, feel it, do it, be it’ approach towards what have traditionally been perceived as non-core skills have obvious benefits on colleagues and subordinates. This in turn creates a better workplace culture, which is no longer a buzzword or a fad and has to be taken seriously. No matter your type of business, the benefits will flow from you to your employees, onto your clients, which in turn will flow to the standing, reputation and profitability of your business.

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