Are you running a business with high sales targets? Do your employees understand your company vision and goals?
Whether onboarding new employees or motivating your management team, you need to make it a focal point to inform them about your business goals.
That’s why we have compiled a list of reasons your employees must understand your business goals.
Better performance
Motivating your employees increases the chances of achieving better performance. If you are a manager, you need to ensure that you are well equipped to encourage your team members. Someone without this trait has no business being a manager.
Common ways to motivate employees for better performance
- Give positive feedback by praising your employees when they meet business targets. In a study by HubSpot, 69% of employees say they’d work harder if they were better appreciated. For example, you can also offer good rewards, e.g., vouchers and monetary gifts for employees who have performed exceptionally well.
- Recognise employees who are trying to improve, even when they aren’t quite there yet. When you recognise the efforts of struggling employees who have improved, it will encourage them to try even harder.
- Always share your business results by reporting weekly and monthly so that employees can know when they have met or are close to completing an important company goal.
When your employees have a strong sense of purpose, they will work hard to complete their tasks to meet those goals. You can also give your customers a strong sense of purpose by including them in major decisions – doing this will help them feel like they matter.
How to give your employees your sense of purpose
- Give your employees a sense of ownership and play according to their strengths. For example, if you have a team member who is exceptionally good at reporting, give them more responsibilities via reporting. Doing this will help you keep track of your numbers and
- Help employees understand why you do what you do. As you onboard new employees, explain why you started the business and the problems your services and products were created to solve.
- Appeal to your employees caring side by providing case studies and testimonials of customers who can benefit from your services. When these new employees start work, they will understand why they chose to work for you. As your employees work to achieve your business goals, continue to share your company purpose via customer testimonials so they can use it as a guidepost to improve their work.
Employee retainment
Employees are the backbone of every organisation. Without loyal employees, a company will undoubtedly crumble, and for this reason, you should always try to retain your employees. When your employees are fulfilled and feel appreciated, they will work for you for a long time.
Ways you can encourage employee retainment:
- Offer a clear progression path to existing employees. If your company does not have a clear progression path for employees, they will go elsewhere once they feel they have nothing further to learn.
- If you want to make your company an employee-centric workplace, start by asking them what they would like from you as their employer, then slowly implement your employees’ requests.
- Study organisations that have a high employee attainment rate, then assign your HR team, (which can sometimes be you as a small business owner) with the challenging task of implementing the actions to improve employee satisfaction.
Better employee engagement
Employees who are not engaged will lack focus and will do the bare minimum at work. This could mean you will be wasting a lot of time and resources on a team member who is simply not pulling their weight. When you communicate your company goals with your employees and give them a sense of belonging, chances are they will want to go above and beyond their tasks to help achieve the company goals.
How to keep your employees engaged
- Have regular 1-1 sessions with your team members and try to learn about what motivates them. Learn about how they work best and encourage complete honesty in the feedback sessions.
- If an employee starts to slack, look at all the angles to understand what is causing this. For example, if a valued employee suddenly stops contributing at meetings, you can organise a catch up with them to find out if something is causing them to become unhappy at work.
Employees becoming brand advocates
- Companies that keep their employees engaged have a higher chance of turning them into brand advocates. When your employees are passionate about the company they work for, they will, in turn, speak to their family and friends about it.
How to turn your employees into brand advocates
- If you have a content team that writes blog posts on the company website, you can ensure that employees share this with their friends on social media. The best way to do this is to run competitions that everyone will love to get involved with.
- Continue to educate your employees about your brand and give them tips on how best they can represent it. Whenever there is a workplace initiative that can benefit your employees and their family and friends – spare no costs when you roll it out.
- Invest in valuable products with your brand logo and give them to your employees for free as part of the onboarding process. This way, they can wear your brand name as they go out and about. For example, you can give your employees a good umbrella with your brand logo on it during the rainy season.
Your employees are your greatest asset
- If you don’t educate your employees about your business goals right from the onboarding process, you risk having team members who lack purpose. It is essential that you keep motivating your employees and rewarding them when they make progress. As your employees grow in the ranks, they will take on more ownership, which will take the load off you too. When you have more people taking ownership of your company goals, it gives you a higher chance of meeting your business goals.
