Empowering your Employees Leads to Growth and Productivity

Leaders of the business world are constantly seeking ways to improve.

They look at sales strategies, operational efficiencies, and marketing tactics with a careful eye and thoughtful mind.

Their goal?—to spot trends and get ahead of the curve.

And one trend successful business leaders are rapidly latching onto is the development of better working environments for employees, particularly for new hires, new parents, and Millennials.

New hires

Hiring new employees is stressful enough, but that stress is only amplified in the weeks following hire when businesses don’t create an environment of learning.

New hires need more than on-the-job training, they need peer mentoring and managerial support.

They need continual immersive education that doesn’t stop after the first day or first week, but continues well into their first year at a company, as part of a slow, steady, and sustainable ramp-up. Ideally?—the environment of education becomes pervasive company wide, with as many training programs for long-time employees as there are for new hires.

By successfully creating programs that cater to the growth of new hires, businesses maximize their long-term returns on employee productivity and value.

New parents

Companies big and small in the United States have long been lambasted by countries across the globe for having archaic (by first-world standards) parental leave policies, and savvy business leaders have taken notice.

Companies like Etsy—who this April replaced their old five-week parental leave with a new 26-week policy—are seeing the value in creating a professional environment that helps their employees play the all-important role of new-mom or new-dad.

When employees become parents, it’s immensely helpful and empowering to know the company is standing behind them as they embark on one of life’s hardest journeys.

Strategic decision makers recognize that what’s good for families is good for business, and the more the company can support the families of their employees, the more those employees and their families are going to support the company.

Millennials

With every passing year, Millennials grow as a percentage of the overall workforce, and like the Generation Xers who replaced the Baby Boomers, Millennials are decidedly different than their predecessors.

They loathe the constraints of a traditional nine-to-five, and are naturally drawn towards environments that encourage work-life balance.

Are smart leaders trying to fight against this Millennial-induced change?—of course not!

They’re embracing the change and developing work environments that Millennials can grow and flourish in.

Case in point, look at Google, the company that sets the standard when it comes to creating a workplace that caters to Millennials.

From ping-pong tables and movie rooms, to nap pods and fully-catered cafeterias, Google leaders are constantly pushing the boundaries of what is “acceptable” inside the workplace, much to the delight of their largely Millennial employee base.

Do all those distractions result in lost productivity? Not for Millennials and not for Google. In fact, as employee happiness at Google has gone up, so has employee productivity.

Getting started

So how can business leaders start generating similar environmental alterations?

Start small.

Broad, sweeping changes to the workplace environment sound great in theory, but are extremely difficult to execute.

Try instituting simple things at first and work up from there. Transforming a workplace isn’t an overnight job, it’s something that takes time, patience, and investment.

Is creating a work environment that’s more appealing to employees the only way for savvy business leaders to take their company to the next level?—of course not.

But if you’re an owner or executive looking for a way to help your business break out from the pack, think about creating a better environment for your employees who work in it.

If it can help companies like Google and Etsy, odds are, it can help you, too.
For more valuable insight on ways you can grow your business, click here for your free eBook: Leading for Growth: 8 Timeless Ways to Move from Frustrated Manager to High Performing Leader.