The asset here is your employee. Your employees are your most important asset. Employees are so important, rank so far higher than any other asset, that a positive ROI is almost, almost, guaranteed from any investment in your employees.
And, these 5 investments require amounts usually available in petty cash drawers. The impact isn't petty, nor is the point of the investments. It's just the term to illustrate how inexpensive these 5 ways are:
6). Talk about them right in front of their face.
Don’t just praise them behind their backs. Praise them right in front of their face.
Like company gossips, talking about people right in front of them often describes an unpleasant scene.
But, if you change that cliche’d experience and use this moment to instead celebrate(!) their work, you create... another(!) mini-celebration. And your day can be spent creating a series of these as you walk through the offices.
Maybe, they’ll blush. Maybe, you’ll blush. But imagine the reward felt by that employee as you heap a mound of praise on them while they stand beside you.
Imagine if all your employees could have this experience! That’s your mission, too: create a company where all your employees could experience the recognition by you, in front of their peers. Then all day, every day, everyone in your company moves through a series of mini-celebrations.
7). Write hand-written thank-you’s.
My wife received a hand-written thank-you note, one day . It was legible, barely. But, clearly communicated was the time and personal attention spent by her manager finding the card, writing the note, licking the stamp, taking it to the post office. It made her day and mine, too, when I read it.
Added Bonus: Make your employee happy and you’ve made their spouse happy, also.
Don’t forget the flowers and candy...
8) Flowers, candy, pastries, coffee...
Paid out of your pocket, work wonders. Bring them for no-good reason...kind of like a just-because...thank-you. Bring them when they’ve accomplished some heroic achievement. Bring them on a Friday (Yay! We made it through the week..!)
9). Help them do their job.
I regularly answered the calls on our sales or customer service line when they were busy. I had our IT-Guy Extraordinaire, as we called him, program incoming calls for sales or customer service to ring to my desk with a special ring. And daily, I’d answer one or two calls. And I knew this was one way I could help them do their job, communicate the importance of those calls to our employees AND our customers and talk to our customers, as well.
It also showed everyone I asked of others only what I was willing to do myself.
10.) Always, always, always defend them.
Then, defend them again, when they:
* make mistakes.
* act poorly.
* create and/or use the wrong assumptions.
* rush to judgment.
Hold them accountable of course.
Ask them: Did you do that deliberately?
Listen. The A-Player will tell you how they made the mistake that brought this discussion...if you’ve created a culture of trust and accountability.
Then work with them to create a system to make sure that mistake is not an option for them in the future. The A-Player employee will know you now have created a system to insure their career can advance.
The first were listed last week in this post.
The entire list is contained in my free ebook - Employees: Worth their Weight in Gold.
Photo credits in order:
iStockPhoto/ever
iStockPhoto/bmcent1
iStockphoto/aaltazar
