Business owners invest in a variety of products and services for their businesses such as computers and utilities, insurance office space, advertising onboarding, training taxes, 401k match-ups, disability, health benefits, phones printers, office equipment Office supplies, delivery solutions… the list is endless.
However, if you’re not investing into team-building and development within your current workforce, you’re wasting a tremendous opportunity for the company’s long-term development and success.
The working population is experiencing a huge shift in the workforce during the pandemic’s recovery. Companies are struggling to fill vacant positions and retain their employees.
Although people tend to point finger at COVID-19 and unemployment benefits, the fact is that employers were having a hard time keeping employees when the epidemic hit.
Gallup reported that millennials, the generation born between the years 1980 and 1996, are notorious job-hoppers, more than the previous generations have ever been. This trend may be exacerbated by the COVID virus however, it’s not a new phenomenon.
Gallup’s report, titled How Millennials are looking to live and work, revealed that 60 percent of millennials are interested in exploring new jobs, as opposed to 45% of non-millennials. In the average, millennial turnover costs an economy U.S. economy an estimated $30.5 billion per year.
As millennials take over older generations of workers and COVID recovery efforts put a spotlight on employees frustrated with being underpaid and underappreciated, retention rates are likely to continue being a struggle for many organizations.
A simple solution is to invest in employees already employed to ensure they are keen to stick around.
The advantages go far beyond just retaining employees. When you invest in your team it can make significant impact on your bottom line, and even the long-term future for your business.
The time taken to invest in team building and leadership development exercises helps:
1. Improve Employee Engagement
In the end, retaining your employees isn’t enough. If your employees don’t enjoy their job, then your business isn’t operating at peak efficiency.
Gallup’s survey revealed that only 29% of millennials are working at a high level, which means that 7 out of 10 employees of the generation millennial don’t feel enthusiastic about their work. One alarming number of the millennials who are actively disengaged from work, which could have negative effects for the company. The others are nonengaged that is, they’re just doing their job to earn a paycheck and that’s about it.
Engaged employees provide a wealth of benefits. Some of them are:
Healthier work culture: Engaged employees are satisfied at work. Their likelihood is higher to take initiative and provide assistance to others, and they’re less likely to experience work-related burnout.
Accountability When employees are motivated and proud of their work. They are motivated to complete a good job, and if they make an error, they’ll be determined to solve the issue swiftly and quickly.
Employees who are engaged are usually self-sufficient. They don’t need to be constantly monitored, which frees up supervisor’s time to concentrate on other tasks.
Confidence: Actively engaged employees are open to learning and self-improvement. They become more confident at work, which has an impact on their confidence outside of work, too. Success both inside and outside of the workplace can be the recipe for a happy life.
Word-of-mouth recommendations: Happy employees often speak about how much they love their work. Their positive feedback can be helpful to attract talented professionals to your company.
Bottom line: An engaged employee who’s passionate about the job will have an increased productivity rate than someone who’s just working to make a profit or, perhaps, who is unhappy being there in the first place.
2. Develop Trusting Relationships
Collaboration is an essential component of all jobs. Rarely does an employee act as a lone wolf and not influence other people’s duties and deadlines.
If your team wants to function at optimum efficiency, they need to trust each other to perform and carry out their duties. This level of trust takes a while to develop within the everyday activities of the job.
However, setting aside designated moments and activities to encourage group building can significantly speed up and strengthen the trust between employees, enabling them to operate like a well-oiled, efficient machine in a matter of minutes.
3. Reduce Workplace Clashes and Improve Conflict Resolution
Strengthening relationships between team members can have the advantage of reducing conflict. Employees are not only less likely to experience major clashes, but they are also better equipped with the necessary skills to deal with issues.
The team building process helps employees recognize their own resources and feel confident in trusting and confiding in one another. When there’s a challenge that workers can’t resolve by themselves it is more likely that they get help from a supervisor or human resource department.
4. Develop Leadership Skills
Your company needs dedicated and competent leaders to sustain the long-term growth. Instead of seeking outside talent for leadership positions, you can invest in cultivating leaders within your own organization.
Employees are more likely to trust in leaders who started at the bottom of the ladder and progressed to the top with determination and perseverance in a way that is more than they would trust an outsider who arrives without knowing any of the employees or company’s policies.
The fact that your current employees can continue to grow and stay puts out an encouraging message to people who are keen on advancing. It’s a great method to help leaders of stewardship to guide with faith over fear.
For more information on leadership team development visit innerleader.co.uk
5. Investment in Long-Term Professional Growth
High turnover rates drain money as well as time and resources away from your company. It’s not a sustainable growth method. In time, these kinds of companies end up with active or disengaged employees with a few competent leaders and lots of wasted expenses and resources trying to fill vacant positions and then lose the workers within a short time.
As per the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) the typical cost to replace a salaried worker is between 6 and 9 months’ salary.
However, that isn’t a necessity in the event that you’re taking time to invest in your existing team, improve their skills as well as teamwork, and build leadership within your ranks. These actions will set your business up to be successful over the long term.
Make the necessary steps to build the Team You Want to Be Successful
The team-building exercises are among the most effective ways to motivate your employees to connect, meet each other, enjoy themselves and be a good team and develop collaboration, communication as well as teamwork and leadership skills.
The rewards are well enough to justify the expense of investing in a more efficient, more positive and engaged team of employees.