The common misconception floating around most employers’ minds is that all their employees just swarm around higher appraisals and salaries like bees to a honeypot. But that is a farfetched ideal which doesn’t really resonate with most workers.
Today the office space has been transformed entirely from the ground up, and these transformations have also overhauled the expectations your employees generally have of you. Here are the X things which employees need from the workplace.
Respect
That is a fundamental need of the hour. An employee is not just another cog in the wheel who can be easily axed and replaced in a heartbeat. Once workers are given respect, they will feel obligated to return it to their peers, superiors and bosses alike. Respect means you have deep regard and admiration for a person which necessarily translates into good treatment of them. It also means you won’t fire them out of nowhere.
This requires abandoning prejudices, racial biases and sexist stereotypes and requires a consistent effort to embrace diversity at the workplace.
Feedback
Good feedback is arguably one of the greatest gifts managers and owners can give to their employees. Feedback creates a cycle of increased productivity and automatically serves to keep in check any negativity which might be circulating in their heads about their bosses. In order to constantly generate this feedback, employees continue to develop and improve the team’s overall performance.
While managers are really hesitant about inadvertently giving away negative feedback, there are ways you can get around it by improving barriers in communication.
Feel worthy
Employees crave the feeling of being ‘needed’ by the company. This means they want to constantly be in the loop about the latest information circulating around the company. If they feel left out, the feeling of being just another ‘extra’ will manifest itself. They hate feeling excluded from the flow of information and are always in search of clues on how they can contribute to the growth of the company.
Leadership roles
They won’t be able to feel worthy of the job if they’re denied the leadership roles within the company. They want to be a part of something bigger than just their own ideals. Providing a worker with leadership roles mean that the company trusts this employee enough to give them higher order tasks. This is also acts as a hedge against unexpectedly getting laid off in the future.
Businesses don’t tend to lay off their most trusted employees
Employees want freedom
This is actually very true for millennials who seek autonomy to be able to perform their tasks. If the management cripples their decision making skills and prevents them from prioritizing one assignment over another, it will make them feel trapped.
Negativity in the workplace prevails the moment employees begin to feel claustrophobic by the policies which are enforced by HR personnel. Let them decide the best path to their goal instead of holding their hands through every little aspect of the job.
Center of attention
Employees need to feel that the world revolves around them. The feeling of importance is derived from this attention. It is a good idea to check in with them every once in a while, asking them how they’re doing and as well as their wellbeing.
