HOW TO MAKE YOUR COMPANY A GREAT PLACE TO WORK

“Being able to say ‘This is a great place to work’ is invaluable for both existing employees and attracting the best new talent”, says Great Place to Work, after announcing the UK’s best workplaces for 2018.

Moving forward into 2019, if you’d like to make the list, or simply make your workplace better for both your current and future employees, there are a number of things you can aim for to make your company a great place to work.

What does a great workplace look like?

Firstly, before we suggest any changes to make, we need to know what a good workplace looks like for its employees and overall. Your employees should feel valued at their place of work, trusted by their superiors and colleagues, and have a sense of purpose about what they do – they need to know that what they do isn’t “just a job”.

Additionally, a great workplace for your employees is one where they are able to grow and develop both personally and professionally, making them proud of who they work for and what they do for the company. A good work-life balance is always important since it allows employees to feel like their needs are just as important as the needs of the business, and they don’t feel like they can’t switch off from work. From this, they’ll be encouraged to do their best at their job and will enjoy working with their colleagues, towards goals, and with their clients or customers.

A great workplace on the whole will prioritise their employees and embrace a strong and effective leadership to make sure that happens. Values for your business are very important to establish since they help influence both your business strategy and how you go about your day-to-day.

According to Great Place to Work, “the average organisation has trust levels of just 55% compared to best in class organisations which have trust levels of 85%.”. Trust is an important aspect to cultivate at your company; trusting employees with tasks can drive more engagement, collaboration, and innovation, since they’ll see that you’re open to their ideas and approaches.

The best workplaces attract and retain more key, talented employees – apparently “on average 40% more applications than other organisations” – and experience far less employee absences, often 50% less, and are generally more profitable.

How can you make your company a great place to work?

Taking into account all of the above points is a good place to start when you are aiming to make your company a better place to work, but they can seem quite nebulous. What you need to focus on is fine-tuning the environment of your workplace, in order to encourage the other changes.

Flexible working

The most important place to start is by encouraging a work-life balance for your employees, and the best way to do this is to enable flexible working for all employees. Whether this is flexible working hours to accommodate different employee commitments, job-sharing, remote working, or simply encouraging workers to approach their tasks in their own way, making sure that employees don’t feel forced to fit to a pre-determined schedule can help them increase their positivity and productivity. Additionally, making your workplace accommodating to all types of workers is a great way to foster the other positive workplace features, such as trust, value, inspiration, and more.

Encouragement

In terms of practical things that you can do, encouraging people is a great way to start – maybe set up a recognition or rewards system to recognise people for the good work that they have done. You could even include promotions or pay rises as ways to recognise truly great work. This will help your employees feel like they’re growing and improving in their work and encourage development.

Communication

Communication is also very important – you can’t make your company a great place to work if you don’t know why it isn’t already. Understanding issues that your employees may have, and places that you can improve, will help people feel more valued and listened to. Maybe they need a break area to sit away from their desks at lunch, or maybe they need more flexibility with their working hours, or even simply needing more amenities in the communal kitchen.

When you understand what employees are looking for in a great company, and how being a successful company can also benefit your business, you’ll be able to see the changes you need to make or encourage to reach your goals. If you’re looking to attract new talent to join your company, making it a great place to work is a good start. At Property Personnel, we can also lend a hand and help with your recruitment. Get in touch with us today and let us help you find the best employees for your great company.