The importance of understanding what makes your employees tick

Businesses need good people. From start-ups through to established enterprises, it’s essential to have the right people with you to help drive your company forward and know what makes your employees tick.

It follows, retaining and replacing talent can be challenging. Indeed, recent research of UK small business bosses revealed that in terms of recruitment costs, training time and lost productivity, it costs almost 30, 000 to replace an employee who’s left the business*.

The loss of a valued employee is a disruption for any business. But for micro enterprises that might not have the resource to absorb the direct and indirect costs or the security of succession planning often enjoyed by larger organisations it stresses the importance of keeping hold of good people if you possibly can.

Remuneration, of course, plays a vital role when it comes to employees remaining committed to a business. As a part of this, employee benefits can play big part in engagement since, at the most basic level, they provide a tangible illustration of value an employer places on its people. At the same time, however, appreciating the additional elements that make people tick can be the difference between keeping hold of your people and losing them.

Belonging

Ensuring you have a cohesive and engaged team isnt always easy especially if the nature of work means that some employees spend long periods working alone. While autonomous working can give people greater freedom and control over their daily activities, drawbacks can include isolation and the pressure of being “always on”. Therefore it’s important not to let these employees drift and detach seize opportunities to ensure they feel part of your business.

Esteem

We don’t want to feel undermined or unconfident at work. Indeed, we all appreciate acknowledgement and recognition, so don’t forget that positive words help to raise spirits and deepen employees? feelings of satisfaction and worth in your business.

But there’s much more to managing wellbeing at work than simply knowing how to make employees happy. Rather, we should think of wellbeing as a state affected by a myriad of physical, psychological and social drivers. This might, for example, involve an employee being affected by their financial situation and/or relationship issues, which can lead to stress, anxiety or even depression.