organizational transparency – Growing Forward

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Keeping your employees happy is essential if you want them to do their best work. If they’re finding it difficult to concentrate or they feel like it’s harder than necessary to get their work done, you could find the productivity is nowhere near as good as you want it to be. Many employees complain that things get in the way of them doing their jobs. If you want things to improve, you should think about how you can make life easier for your staff. There are many things you could do that will remove some of the barriers your employees face so they can work better.

Remove Unnecessary Work

There are tasks that you might ask your employees to do that they feel are completely unnecessary. Although you might see them as things that they need to do, they could just think that they get in the way of their real work. The best way to identify these tasks is by asking your employees for feedback. If you’re unsure if they will be honest, you can allow them to give anonymous feedback. This will allow them to say what they feel, without having to worry about whether there could be negative consequences.

Put Them in Control of Their Time

Helping your employees to manage their own time can help them to balance their work life and personal life. This is one of the best ways you can improve your employees’ happiness and work satisfaction. With the right HR software, your staff can manage their own time off, submitting requests for leave when they need to. If they have their own accounts that they can log into when they need to make a request, look at pay slips or find out other information, they won’t have to spend time dealing with HR in person or sending emails.

Make Sure Team-building Has a Purpose

One thing that can really frustrate your employees is having to deal with team-building days that don’t have a clear purpose. Many companies want to engage in team-building, but they don’t have a clear goal. So your employees are left wondering why they’re doing it, and why they can’t just get back to their normal work. Before making them participate in team-building activities, make sure that you know why you’re doing it so that you can make it clear to your staff why you’re doing it too.

Improve Transparency

Another thing that can be frustrating for your employees is feeling like they’re missing vital information. Not only does a lack of transparency cause frustration, but it could also lead to big mistakes and a lack of motivation and morale. While there are some things that might need to be as confidential as possible, they are many times when you should open up communication and make sure that your staff have as much information as they need. Keeping them in the dark won’t help them do their jobs better.

If you want to make life easier for your employees, stop getting in the way of them doing their jobs. Help them to get their jobs done well and avoid unnecessary work.

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Businesses are known for acting in a relatively selfish manner. We all know that while a business might exercise goodwill and be ran by profoundly decent people, the structure of a business must be geared towards survival if it hopes to continue. Even non-profit organizations in pursuit of a great cause will need funding to pay salaries, office rental, and a range of logistical costs to ensure their work can be achieved. This means, just like people, our businesses can be friendly up until a point, as long as their basic needs are met.

However, just like human relationships, sometimes a firm can help itself survive by allying itself with those around it. Businesses can thrive on goodwill just as human partnerships can, and not only survive, but thrive. It can be essential to know where to begin if you hope to establish yourself as more of a reliable force in the market.

Consider our advice:

Goodwill Between Firms

Goodwill often comes in the form of little actions. For example, you may decide to forgo a current small debt thanks to a large upcoming order, or perhaps deliver the goods for free despite the relative cost incurred to you. You may send free sample or full products to their office. For example, if you supply a firm with computer parts, you may send a batch of branded mouse-mats for free to help them set up. View this guide to nurturing your supply chain relationships for even more advice regarding upstream and downstream business connections.

Goodwill can also mean referring them to another firm who could better settle inquiries you can’t quite manage, putting in a good word for them. It might be that you offer free training, or something simple. A restaurant might offer discounted delivery lunches for staff of an office responsible for handling their marketing. This kind of goodwill connects firms, people, and helps out in small ways. It is akin to having a friend. In such a competitive industry, this can feel like a breath of fresh air.

Take Care Of The Customer

The customer isn’t always right, but they are always valuable. This means that taking steps to take care of your customers will often help them take care of you in kind. Remaining honest about how products are made, honoring long-term customers with loyalty rewards, celebrating customers with an outreach program or generally doing everything you can to keep quality high will result in a carefully considered relationship that helps honesty travel in both directions.

Remain Transparent

Remaining transparent is the easiest method of gaining trust. Let’s say one of your business partners commits a PR nightmare, such as posting a tweet that has vaguely abhorrent political undertones. This sounds like an unlikely scenario, but it happens. Your connection to a firm like this can be a PR nightmare for yourself also, so disconnecting from them but doing nothing to hide your previous relationship can show you are committed to living by your values. Or, it might be that you believe the firms intention was mischaracterized, and sometimes sticking by them can show rationality and dedication that both customers and other businesses may appreciate.

With these tips, we hope your business relationships remain worthwhile.