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Seven Secrets to Having a Committed Staff

By: Jenni Click author's name for more of his/her articles

During the current economic turmoil, your business needs to have a strong loyal committed staff who are working together to keep your business healthy. These seven strategies will help you encourage a business culture that attracts and keeps the right people.

1. Career Development
Career Development is not just about offering promotion or improved salary. It is about enabling each person the opportunity to work at tasks that they find satisfying, and to know what their longer term goals are so you can work with them to achieve those goals within your business.

2. Training and Challenges
Most people like some form of challenge, and in the workplace it is essential that you listen to your people to know the types of challenges they are seeking and training they require.

3. Work Life Balance
If you want to retain people it is essential that the company’s expectations are realistic and sympathetic to work life balance. This is not just an issue of hours worked, but modes of work. Consider flexible hours, working from home, part time or job sharing.

4. Communication
Your team need to know what is going on, and need to feel like their opinion is sought and listened to, giving a sense of being able to contribute to the direction of the firm. Achievements and hard work must also be acknowledged.

5. Deep Listening
Many opportunities for communication are lost in a busy work environment, yet making the time for genuine communicative conversations within the workplace is vital. The use of an exit interview is common, to find out why someone is leaving, but it is also important to find out why people are staying so you can build on the positives.

6. Contemporary Leadership Style
Leaders must demonstrate integrity, trust and transparency leading to a healthy environment in which people’s talents and professional passions can blossom. A good leader knows the strengths, interests and aspirations of their people, and will foster a healthy environment where the existing staff can achieve.

7. Culture
Culture is affected by all of the issues that have been discussed in this article. It is a combination of the group norms, the everyday interactions, the openness of communication, feeling supported and listened to, and being lead with conviction in an environment of emotional intelligence.

A business which employs these strategies will find that work becomes an enjoyable environment, marked by co-operation and striving together to achieve mutual goals.