Share the Love: 5 Ways to Show Employees You Actually Care About Them
You have to work to show employees that you care—about their success and about them as people. According to a LinkedIn report, employees who feel cared for at work are 3.2 times more likely to be happy at work and 3.7 times more likely to recommend working for their company. Here are five ways to care for your employees:
1. Talk to Employees About What They Need
Let’s not romanticize the employment relationship. Employers and employees don’t come together for the fun of it or out of a selfless desire to help the other party. They come together out of necessity. You need your employees, and they need you. If one of you stops needing the other, the employment relationship ends.
Money is an essential need for both of you, but it’s not the entirety of your respective needs. Your employees may be looking for professional development, new challenges, new skills, or opportunities to make friends. The best way to discover what keeps your employees employed is to ask them! Then build the relationship around meeting those needs.
2. Maximize Freedom
No one likes to be in a relationship with someone who’s overly possessive of their time or attention. That goes for work too. Micromanaging and overly surveilling employees feel stifling and controlling, not caring. These actions say, “I don’t trust you.” Not the kind of message you want to hear from your boss (or see on a candy heart).
Workers who feel constrained and distrusted are less likely to stick around. And if they do stay, they’re likely to feel frustrated, perhaps even resentful. Neither attitude inclines one to do their best work. Instead, empower your employees with real control and freedom over their work lives. Figure out what decisions they can make for themselves at work. For example, can they set their own schedules? Determine where they do their work? Decide how best to accomplish a task or achieve a goal?
3 Prioritize Safety
With health and safety on most people’s minds, there’s a big demand for work that’s physically and mentally safe. Most employees don’t want a job that puts them in danger of getting a serious illness or causes them psychological harm. Workers need to feel safe, and they’re leaving jobs where they don’t. Make sure your employees feel safe—physically and psychologically. Listen to any concerns they have and do what you can to address them.
Feeling safe is even more important in industries where physical risk is a part of the job. These employees need to know that safety isn’t a matter of checking a box. Demonstrate your commitment to their wellbeing. Don’t just comply with OSHA; use their guidelines as the minimum and set your own standards. Your employees should know that you want them to go home safe every single night.
4. Give Employees Time
Perhaps the most important way you can show employees you care about them is to give them time to care for themselves and those they care about. Employees may need a moment to breathe or a day to regain their peace of mind, and they shouldn’t be afraid to ask for time to take care of themselves. Paid time off makes it possible for them to heal, recharge, or assist a family member without having to worry about a smaller paycheck. When the option to occasionally function at a medium (or even slow) pace is built into performance expectations, employees can more successfully avoid burnout or breakdown.
5. Pay Employees Well
In the business world, we invest in what we value. If we want employees to feel valued, we have to invest in them. That means paying them well. Granted, most businesses don’t relish the idea of paying employees higher-than-usual wages, but there’s good reason to believe that increased pay is a good investment, especially for people in traditionally lower-paying jobs. When people are preoccupied with bills, debts, and other forms of scarcity, they tend to be less productive and make more mistakes. But, when scarcity isn’t taxing their mental bandwidth, employees are able to be more productive, make fewer mistakes, and increase business profitability. They’re able to give more of themselves to the relationship and feel rewarded for doing so.
