Team building is vital for small businesses, especially if you want good productivity. You’re doing a lot with a small group of employees, so making sure they’re engaged is important. The good thing is you can do something about team building, and the following are seven ways to do that.
1. Live Your Values
Making sure your team engages with the work and your business can be challenging, but one thing you can do is live by your values. The stronger you commit to your values as a business, the more your team will engage with the work.
If your employee’s sense that you’re genuine and your business is trying to reach a certain goal, your employees will internalize that. They’ll be proud to represent a company that practices what it preaches. Be sure to practice what you preach, even when it hurts, and you’ll see how engaged your employees will be.
2. Improve Onboarding
It’s vital to focus on onboarding. When new employees come in, be clear about what you expect. Allow these new employees to see how they’ll fit into the business and among peers.
Pair them with different team members. Make them feel welcome. Taking the time to do all this allows team members, especially new ones, to feel like they’re part of something special, like their family. This is how you build engagement.
3. Gaming Up a Bit
The things you do to improve team engagement don’t have to be boring; sometimes, you can be fun. One thing you can do is scour the internet for team-building games that you can participate in. Games may not seem too important, but they encourage teamwork and break the ice amongst employees.
Games help your employees feel like a family, and that leads to more productivity and engagement. You can make your games topical; maybe some focus on the holidays or maybe the time of the year, like Pride month, and you can mark the occasion with something like Pride month trivia.
4. Create Growth Opportunities
If you want engaged employees, create growth opportunities. Don’t just make it available to your employees. Go out of your way to present these opportunities to them. Most people want to move forward and would like their place of employment to offer that.
The reason you’re doing this is not only to get your employees excited about their work but to improve employee retention. You know how hard it is to train folks only to watch them leave you. Doing this helps your employees feel good about working for you and makes them care, and you want that to happen.
5. Recognition and Rewards
Employees want to feel like their hard work is rewarded and recognized. These individuals give you a good part of their day. They sacrifice time at home to work for you and to do what you need them to. Sure, they’re getting paid, but that’s not enough.
Your employees can get paid anywhere. Be sure they feel like they’re getting a little more from your business. This is where recognition and reward come in. These need to be genuine, so recognize an employee, and reward that employee when he or she does something exceptional. Soon, everyone will want to be in your good graces, so they’ll step up.
6. Offering Feedback
Feedback is important, and it has to be constructive. By offering your employees constructive feedback, you’re letting them know that you’re paying attention, but you also believe they can do better. It gives your employees a reason to concentrate more on their work.
Be sure the feedback isn’t one-sided. This means you should allow your employees to offer some feedback in return. Creating a safe space for these sorts of conversations gives your employees a voice. You want to make sure your employees feel like they’ve got a voice because that improves productivity.
7. Promote Good Work Habits
It may be a good idea to promote good work habits. This means going out of your way to make sure your employees are working hard but doing so wisely. Don’t let them work too much or you’ll risk burnout. Your employees should have enough days off so that they can rest.
If you can offer more paid days off, then do that. If you can offer flexible work hours, then do that, too. Try to implement healthier snacks at work. Get your employees to exercise while they’re at work. The reason you’re doing all of this is to show your employees that you care and that they aren’t just numbers to you.
Doing all of this could help improve your team’s engagement. It may take a while to see results, but you’ll see them at some point.
