Momentum - Business to Business Online Magazine MOMENTUM SUMMER 2019 | Page 14

HR CORNER NICOLE BELLOW, DBA, MBA, SPHR, SHRM-SCP Smarter HR Solutions [email protected] FIVE QUESTIONS TO ASK Your Employees This Week W hen posing the question, “Are you aware of the activities that take place in your company?”, they’ll undoubtedly tell you that they have a pretty good grasp on what’s going on in their workplace. There are employees engaging in chit chat about their day over lunch in the break room or important discussions about the next company’s project in the meeting rooms. As a business owner, you probably feel like you know exactly what’s going on beneath the surface. If you want to succeed, you need to dig a little deeper. Are you interested in creating more meaningful conversations this week? If your answer is yes, just ask these following questions. How do you think this business could improve? From time to time, you’re so involved in your own business that it sometimes becomes difficult to see any glitches that become present. Your employees are assisting your clients and customers each and every day, which means they have a complete understanding of the ins and outs of your company. One thing that you could do is find out what could be done to help the company progress moving forward. Doing this could potentially lead you to some amazing ideas, and it could do wonders for engagement and morale. In what ways can we make your job easier? Improving production in your business could have a great impact on your earnings. Your employees may know what is expected of them, but are you giving your staff the support they truly need? Maybe you could assist the employees by investing in new equipment to cut down on time that is spent on certain tasks that one 12 MOMENTUM may find tedious. Asking this question will help you to get the feedback you are searching for ,which will help you in supporting and encouraging your staff to be the very best they can be. What are some procedures that you believe are no longer necessary for this company? The usage of dated systems and procedures could be costing your business a fortune as well as making a process more complicated and time consuming than it has to be. This could be time to part ways with the old systems and procedures that aren’t working and start moving towards something that is a little more up to date. Your employees are responsible for keeping things running on an operational basis, so they will have plenty of thoughts and recommendations to share on how to improve the future of your company’s internal operations. Where would you like to see yourself in the next 2-5 years? If you’re not encouraging your team and doing your part to keep them motivated and on track, then a time will come when they will unfortunately begin to search elsewhere. When you identify what their ambitions and aspirations are, you can figure out how you can align these desires with your succession planning. How’s your work-life balance currently? Have you ever wondered what activities your employees participate in outside of work? It is important that your staff have time to relax and unwind outside of work. You can show your genuine interest by asking about your employees’ families, children, pets, interests, and hobbies. How could you support them in striking an effective balance? Displaying interest is found to be greatly appreciated, and it could also help you to get a better understanding of any issues that may cause an impact on your workforce. If you take the time to ask these questions this week, it’s guaranteed that you’ll discover some valuable gems of valuable information that could help you improve your workforce for not only you, but your staff as well. Perhaps you already know that your people practices need some work, but you’re not quite sure where to start. If this is the case, then we would love to help. Our HR staff can assist with leading you on the right path to making some serious improvements. Give Smarter HR Solutions a call at [phone] to find out more.