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Looking after your staff isn’t only humane, it’s essential. 

Reducing sick days, increasing productivity, and improving workplace environments should be the focus of all Human Resource Managers and Business Owners/Leaders.

But how can you help your employees thrive?

Through improving communication around the office, or to at-home teams. 

Having strong communication methods allows you to build trust, reduce stress, forge friendships and make your employees care about the successes and failures of the business on a personal level. Having this level of engagement with your employees is imperative to changing mindsets and motivation levels in the workplace - so here are our 3 steps to using communication to look after your employees:

Step 1: Build trust through regular 1:1s, feedback meetings, and teambuilding exercises that you personally get involved in

Communication is key to maintaining your duty of care and giving back to the people who do so much for you. Having an open door to staff-in-need and encouraging communication in all elements of business leads to:

• Smooth workplace transitions
• High employee engagement and interest
• Boosts productivity
• Impressive innovation
• A strong team
• Key crisis management and staff who know where to turn when there’s an emergency

Trust can easily be built through being a present member of the teams you work with and actively participating in work tasks rather than “micromanaging” from afar. 

Feedback meetings where you guide your staff also gives you chance to ask one important question: what can I be doing to help you?

If you’ve built up a great rapport with your staff, they are likely to give you truthful answers that could significantly impact their working life. Asking this question up-front stops you from wasting time doing things you think they want, rather than what they really need. 

Step 2: Keep your business as transparent as possible, with clear processes and expectations 

Secrecy can often lead to gossip. 

Having transparent business intentions, and being open about your goals can help cut out toxic interactions in the workplace. 

One easy way to keep your business is transparent, is one that’s a scary thought to a lot of businesses: being open about pay rates when advertising new jobs. If staff are confident they are on the same rates as the colleagues doing the same job as them - you’re likely to have less resentment and less stress, and a happier workforce.

Being transparent allows you to:

1. Trust employees to make responsive decisions 
2. Be open about expected job roles
3. Share business plans, financial results and keep employees ‘in the know’ 

Another way you can be transparent is through implementing strong communication channels, leading us onto step 3. 

Step 3: Provide training for communication processes, and have the right procedures in place by providing platforms for emergency communication

Work emails aren’t always the be-all-end-all solution, and struggling to get hold of management in emergency situations can be detrimental to a workforce that needs to have fast responses to issues arising. 

Instead, improve communication training, resources (such as an easy to access ‘contact folder’), and of course: give your staff fast-response platforms to improve confidence for crisis management. Staff that are well equipped to respond to a wide range of scenarios are likely to have more confidence, transforming their workplace mindset. 

Klaxon is our platform that lets you send urgent messages quickly and efficiently with multi-channel notifications. Schedule your demo to see how improved communication channels can help your employees - and your business.