If you’re looking to expand your business in 2024, then it is time to turn your attention toward your employees. After all, while investing in customer satisfaction and new products and services is important, your employees are the backbone of your business. Without them, operations would grind to a halt.

Furthermore, as 1 in 6 employees are currently considering leaving their current role, working to combat this is essential – and the easiest way to do so is by prioritizing employee satisfaction. 

Photo by Brooke Cagle on Unsplash

With that in mind, here are some simple ways in which you can take better care of your team in 2024!

Take a stand against burnout.

According to a recent study, a staggering 77% of workers have experienced burnout at their current job. There are many different reasons for this. For example, smaller teams may be overburdened by additional work due to poor employee retention rates and increasing customer demands. In some cases, burnout may be considered part and parcel of working within a particular industry, such as the legal sector. However, regardless of the cause of burnout, it’s something that you, as an employer, should take a stand against.

After all, burnout not only impacts an employee’s performance at work but also their physical and mental health – meaning it’s not an issue that can be swept under the rug. Working to combat this within your team will also improve workplace morale and productivity rates. 

Fortunately, there are now many ways in which you can prevent caregiver burnout within your care team, or any other kind of burnout that may be prevalent in your particular industry. For example, you could:

• Establish an open-door policy within your office, making it clear that employees can come and talk to you to voice concerns or ask for support at any time. You may also want to give them the option to submit complaints or requests for help anonymously or digitally if they’re worried about face-to-face confrontation. 
• Discuss with each employee their capacity for work, ensuring they’re not overburdened or overstretched. 
• Being realistic about the amount of work an employee should be expected to complete within a given day, even at times when consumer demands are rising.
• Work to improve your delegation skills. 
• Encourage employees to work collectively on difficult or time-consuming tasks, reducing individual responsibility. 
• Promote a healthy work-life balance and ensure your team takes a break when they need one.
• Leading by example in the workplace, by asking for help when you need it and knowing when to take a break. 

Outsource.

One of the easiest ways to protect the best interests of your full-time employees is to ensure their workload remains manageable, even during peak business periods. This could be achieved through outsourcing specific roles and duties that would otherwise take up a lot of their time but don’t necessarily fall within their job description. For example, if you run a restaurant and it’s time to conduct a deep clean of your equipment, you could call upon a restaurant cleaning services provider instead of asking your team to carry this out. Not only does this reduce their workload, but it also allows for a more thorough, efficient cleaning.

Develop an employee wellbeing scheme.

If you’ve noticed that employee morale is low, you should also think about developing an employee wellbeing scheme. This should be built upon the foundations of wellness, meaning it should provide your team with access to resources to better their physical and mental health. For example, some wellness schemes include discounted access to gym memberships or therapy providers, whereas others focus on on-site support systems. 

Either way, employee well-being programs go a long way toward keeping your team happy and motivated. They’re also great for retention, with a recent study finding that once a well-being program is established, employees are “59% less likely to look for a job with a different organization in the next 12 months.” 

If you aren’t sure where to begin when building your own wellbeing scheme, start by asking your employees what they want/need. This way, you can ensure that you’re catering directly to their needs, while also showing them that you value their opinions and perspectives. 

Invest in their growth.    

Another way in which you can take better care of your employees is by investing in their professional growth and development. For example, providing them access to development opportunities, be that through external or on-site training, can increase employee motivation while also making them more skilled and competent workers. As such, this is a mutually beneficial endvor! 

You can invest in employee growth by: 

• Setting up an on-site mentoring or shadowing scheme, where junior employees can learn from more senior members of the team. This is not only a great way to develop their abilities through skill-sharing, but it can also strengthen colleague relationships quite considerably. Be sure to offer to be a mentor yourself, too! 
• Subsidising the cost of training schemes or additional qualifications that help employees sharpen their skills or further their knowledge. 
• Regualry reviewing their performance, and providing them with actionable advice and guidance they can use to improve or develop. 
• Hosting on-site training sessions, providing them with insight into other roles within the company.
• Curating individual development plans for each employee, so that they’re aware of their goals and can track their progress more efficiently.

Final thoughts.

In short, there are many steps that you can take as an employer to better care for your employees in the new year (and beyond). Doing so will not only improve employee satisfaction and retention, but it could also help you to attract top-quality employees moving forward. After all, making a concentrated effort to care for your team will help you to cement  your reputation as a respectable employer – the kind that top talent will want to work for moving forward.

As such, now is the perfect time to start protecting the best interest of your team, whether that be through taking a stand against burnout, or improving your on-site training schemes. If you aren’t sure where to begin, be sure to consult directly with your employees who will be able to provide you with more specific guidance and insight.