4 Ways To Increase Profit

Happy employees add value to a business and help it thrive against the competition. Happy staff members are reliable, stay for longer and generate an energy and vitality that lifts the performance of others.

An employee who thrives in the workplace is an asset to an organisation, as they have the ability to be present and the resilience to succeed.

Happy employees perform better, are more satisfied, enjoy better health and are less prone to sickness and absence.

Some people excel regardless of their environment as they embrace work, learn quickly and create opportunities for themselves and those around them.

But a supportive work environment helps more people to perform better and better performance leads to higher profits.

To provide the right environment, however, it is necessary to address a number of issues: decision-making, information flow, fairness and feedback.

Decision Making

We all feel more engaged when we’re involved in making decisions about our work and how it is carried out.

Employees feel a greater sense of control when they are included in the decision making process and such involvement leads to greater productivity and therefore greater profit.

The challenge, of course, is for managers to be brave enough to build trust and allow for the fact that mistakes will happen, particularly in the early stages.

Information Flow

Every organisation has its own way of sharing or not sharing information and making sure employees know or don’t know about what’s happening.

But sharing information in a timely way particularly at crucial times is vital, as it provides an understanding of what is being done and why.

Employees perform better when information is shared because it provides a context for the work they do and their role in what the business is trying to achieve.

A positive flow of information also helps to show that there are no secrets or hidden agendas and so people can focus their time on what matters.

Fairness

A sense of fairness is vital to the health of an organisation and the performance of those who work in it, as a lack of fair play stops people from achieving their best.

Fairness also helps to develop a strong culture amongst employees, as it creates a set of values to guide internal and external behaviour.

Once fairness is embedded in the culture of an organisation it spreads to affect everyone, as actions and conversations change from negative and guarded to positive and open.

Feedback

Providing honest feedback to employees is vital to manage performance and address any insecurity that arises from the day-to-day work environment.

A good feedback process provides opportunities for learning too as issues are discussed in a way that provides lessons from what’s happened.

Developing a supportive environment doesn’t need major organisational change or big financial investment but it does need commitment from senior management.

So, involve employees in making decisions, improve the flow of information, ensure organisational fairness, provide feedback and watch your profits grow. What could be simpler?