4 Ways Your Small Business Can Lead In Employee Satisfaction

Julie Starr • Jan 20, 2023



If you recently started a small business and expanded your team, you may be thinking about how you can keep your new staff feeling their best. In the event that employee satisfaction wasn’t a top priority before, now’s your time to create a healthy work environment. Here are four easy ways to lead in employee satisfaction and make your business one your employees will feel proud to be a part of:

1. Incentives

To combat the mundaneness of the everyday workflow, introduce friendly competition for a small reward to motivate those who need an extra push. Everyone wants to feel that their work is benefiting the greater cause, whether it be from generating sales or efficiently delegating a team. Creating incentives that reward employees for their efforts will keep them engaged and striving to work their hardest.

Looking for incentive ideas? Here are a few ways to reward your staff:

  • Establish an employee recognition program
  • Give out company-branded apparel or items
  • Hold more frequent compensation reviews
  • Offer continued learning or development opportunities

Employee recognition isn’t just for top performers. It’s also important to acknowledge those who’ve been trying their hardest and staying consistent or improving in their work efforts! 

2. Benefits

Growing a team means providing a benefits package employees can feel secure with. Health insurance, paid family leave, and retirement plans are among the many crucial components to creating the perfect package. Adding extra benefits that offer employee perks such as a health and wellness program, can be highly favored by employees. If you don’t feel financially comfortable providing these big-ticket items for your employees just yet, obtaining the sufficient funds to put these in place can help get you in a more comfortable position. Not only are these benefits essential for the well-being of your employees, but they can also be a major attraction for job applicants. 

3. Work-Life Balance

Being a small business allows greater flexibility, which is something many larger corporations can’t offer their employees. With 48% of Americans identifying as being a workaholic , burnout among your team can feel inevitable. Therefore, being adaptable and flexible with your employees can make a lasting impact on the efficiency of your business! 

 

As an employer, promoting work-life balance can seem counterintuitive, but encouraging employees to take a personal day now and then can increase their productivity. Balance doesn’t always have to mean taking a day off, seeing that employees take a lunch break or even a walk around the office can allow them a mental break throughout their day. You may want to also look into how to create a 24 hour schedule depending on your line of work. This way you can avoid one particular employee being overworked and experiencing burnout.

 

To further avoid burnout, making flexible work hours a part of your business model can give employees a more relaxed way to schedule their work week. Having a 9-5 every day can become a tiring routine; working a different 8-hour schedule within business hours could be the change in workflow your employees need!

4. Team Building

If you expand your business and onboard more people to the team, creating team-building activities can be a great way to invite innovation and creativity into the workplace. Collaboration among different departments will ensure everyone understands your company’s goals and offer the opportunity to witness everyone’s contribution. 

Many companies encourage team building through company-wide retreats. Holding one for your employees can help everyone feel comfortable meeting one another without the pressure of missing out on day-to-day work requirements or easing back into in-person work. 

Here are a few events you can host to kickstart team-building traditions:

  • Hire a speaker for a day
  • Rent a park for a company picnic
  • Have an office party to celebrate a big win
  • Create weekly or bi-weekly company meetings 

Not everyone who works for you will be excited to come to work every day, but slowly introducing these practices into your small business will create a culture your  employees will be increasingly excited to work in. This will make you a stronger employer and increase your employee’s satisfaction!

Is Your Small Business an Appealing Place to Work?

By Julie Starr • 07 May, 2024
Bringing passionate, enthusiastic and talented people into your business is obviously a top priority when you’re growing a company. However, the only way to onboard the brightest talent is by ensuring that your brand is an appealing place to work. Driven employees have certain expectations when it comes to choosing their ideal workplace, so you need to show them what you have to offer. Whether you’re looking into your business ethos , or reassessing certain compensation plans, you can do so much to ensure you’re attracting the best possible employees. Consider some of the following methods and your small business will soon be the go-to place for skilled, driven and talented individuals to work. Pay and Benefits Should Be Competitive When you’re running a small business, the idea of paying regular salaries to your employees will always be on your mind. Keeping up with bills and ever rising costs will never be easy, but you have to offer a competitive salary in order to attract the right type of people to your business. You should also consider all elements of a compensation plan so that your employees always feel valued for their contributions at your workplace. It may be worth talking to your current staff members to see what would be most important to them so you can assess it in the near future. Create a Career Development Plan Working towards the next goal is certainly something that most career driven individuals are keen to do. Staying stagnant in the same role for a prolonged period of time can reduce motivation and cause issues with staff retention. Making sure that there are clear progression opportunities will help to bring in the most talented and focused employees who are willing to put in the work and climb the ladder within your business. Adopt an Eco-Conscious Approach More and more employees are looking for workplaces that put the environment at the forefront and actively choose sustainable processes. Taking care of the planet and going green with your business may help you to align with the right talent for your company. Although this might not be the priority of everyone, it’s certainly a very popular value that a number of people carry in the modern day. Working in an environment where sustainability is a priority is extremely appealing and these people will help you to work alongside like minded colleagues within your business. Your small business goes above and beyond you as an individual; it’s also about the people who work for you and the potential employees you could be onboarding very soon. You can be sure that you’re reaching out to the right type of people and attracting the best possible talent by offering competitive salaries and benefits and working in a sustainable way that always keeps the environment in mind too. Hopefully, these ideas will give you a huge advantage when it comes to bringing in new people who would be an asset to your business.

How to Make Clinical Trials More Sustainable

By Julie Starr • 07 May, 2024
Running a business means you should know how to follow a sustainable path toward success. But while this is straightforward in some industries, it can be trickier in other professions. One common problem involves scientific businesses and laboratory environments that often struggle to ensure full sustainability and eco-conscious approaches. So how can clinical trials become more sustainable? Here is some advice to consider. Early Planning Planning is always a useful tool when working out how to improve sustainability within any workplace. You already know what you need to do, so why not focus on planning the different stages to ensure you can avoid delays or other problems that could generate wasted resources and electricity? Planning in laboratory settings is arguably even more crucial as the controlled environment requires a careful approach that is entirely error-free to ensure success and genuine results that scientists can use. Digital Solutions Businesses are using digital solutions more often as these can accelerate lessons and help them find accurate information immediately. The same can apply to clinical trials where using AI will reduce costs and provide quick insights into what you have learned, allowing you to make the most of the data without worrying you’ve made a mistake. Furthermore, this approach can avoid delays and reduce the number of people required in the lab at any time, meaning you can use fewer resources and don’t need to worry about getting to and from the lab. Partnerships Partnering with other companies or organizations can also help clinical trials become more sustainable. You can collaborate to share information, which means you have an entire library of data at your disposal without needing to collect it yourself. This can provide fast and efficient solutions and you don’t need to waste time and energy going into the field to collect this data yourself. Finding The Balance As much as clinical trials can improve sustainability, they also need to know how to find the balance. Since many central laboratory services require face-to-face conversation, it’s important to determine when to hold these meetings and invite patients into the controlled laboratory environment. You know you need to collect samples, but you must do as much as possible to avoid wasting resources. Ensuring you get everything right the first time will make a significant difference and help maintain a sustainable approach. Recognizing Where to Improve No business is perfectly sustainable, so understanding where to improve will be a continuous process. Clinical trials and similar environments can identify strategies to reduce the carbon footprint and take a more eco-friendly approach to their work. Although you won’t reduce your emissions or environmental impact entirely, you can do as much as possible to minimize any damage by maintaining transparency and following compliance regulations that put your laboratory in the best position to excel in every area. Sustainable Building sustainable practices is vital for any industry, and scientific environments are no different. These tips should highlight how and why clinical trials can become more sustainable to improve conditions and reduce the impact on the planet while also striving to further humanity’s knowledge and ability to overcome diseases and other issues.
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