To help your business prepare for the people challenges and opportunities of the new financial year, here are the top ten things you should plan to change this new financial year to set your business up for maximum growth and success:
1. Set goals, recognise results
Goal-setting is the first step to employee success and motivation for the coming months. The new financial year provides a fantastic opportunity for employers to review business goals and then set employee goals accordingly for the second half of the year. Communicate your goals and vision, and show each staff member how they’re contributing to reaching those goals to keep them motivated and engaged. It’s also equally important to recognise employee success when results are achieved – remember to show staff that you value their achievements.
2. Look to your employees for input and ideas
If you have a team that is engaged and motivated, everything in your business will run so much more smoothly. Staff want to feel like they are being listened to and that their input counts. Ask for their opinions and make time to listen. Great ideas come from many places, and rarely from a single person.
3. Increase management skills
Unsurprisingly, a great management team can have profound benefits for staff productivity and motivation. A study by SHL confirmed this, by finding that employees with good managers were far less likely to ‘chuck a sickie’. Taking the time to continually invest in management skills pays off big, with the study also finding that management influences how motivated 59 per cent of Australians are at work. Training and development programs for managers will ensure that staff are kept at their most motivated and productive.
4. Plan ahead to secure top talent
A “bums-on-seats” approach almost never works successfully, with expensive hiring mistakes often made out of desperation just to fill a position – right now! With skills shortages impacting many Australian businesses, recruitment planning is now essential to reduce hiring mistakes. Avoid reactive recruitment by creating a simple 12-36 month Recruitment Plan, which will estimate the number of additional employees needed after analysing business and growth plans.
5. Don’t forget Generation Y
While it may seem a while away, Generation Y are your future succession plan. Show your Gen Y staff that you value them and strive to engage them, or risk them using your business as a training ground before moving on. Above all else, young professionals are seeking inspirational work environments that accommodate recognition, social media and flexible work options – and they’re often prepared to take a lower salary to find that opportunity. A recent Cisco study found that 45 per cent of young employees would accept a lower-paying job that had more flexibility.
6. Get smart with your reward strategy
Non-financial rewards and benefits are more important than ever in attracting and retaining staff, with studies showing that non-financial benefits are important to the majority of Australian workers. Look past a big salary figure to create a ‘smarter’ reward strategy, including what is important to your employees and what will motivate them to stay and excel.
7. Embrace the future of the workplace with flexibility
The workplace is changing – staff no longer believe that they need to be at the office all the time to achieve results. To get the best from your staff, switch to an outcome-oriented workforce where employees are paid for results and high performance, rather than time. To switch over, effective performance management systems are essential to ensure consistent results, including regular reviews, monitoring of work outcomes and goal-setting.
8. Promote a healthy workplace for high productivity
Improving employee health and wellbeing will not only reduce absenteeism, but will also increase productivity and staff satisfaction. There are many simple methods to promote healthy lifestyles, such as group sport activities, free/low-cost health food, wellness assessments, flu vaccinations, health seminars and reduced-cost gym memberships. Encourage staff to think more about their health and wellbeing by placing more focus on health throughout the workplace.
About the Author
Paula Maidens is Managing Director of Recruitment Coach, a unique HR coaching and consulting firm for small-medium businesses.
