9 Ways To Invest In Your Employees
What is one way you are planning to invest in your employees in the near future?
To help you better invest in your employees, we asked business professionals and leaders this question for their insight. From increasing team engagement to planning company trips, there are several ways to invest in your workers.
Here goes:
- Increase team engagement
- Supporting cross-functional improvement initiatives
- Plan company trips
- Invest in employees’ mental health
- Expand the upskilling programs
- Implement a health stipend
- Provide valuable resources
- Invest in training and development
- Create more opportunities for collaboration
Increase team engagement
There are different ways to invest in one’s team. For some, it’s monetary; for others, it’s time. (For example, you might want to avoid after-work pizza parties if you know your employees prioritize family time.) Regardless of the situation or organization, understanding is the best way to invest in your team.
The ability to understand our team, how they work, and what motivates them is a skill that is in short supply and will reduce turnover. By increasing engagement with the team, getting to know them personally, and being their advocate when they have earned it, you have done something that is rare and will have your team go to the ends of the earth with you.
Life is short, too short to work for a problematic organization. The Great Resignation is a perfect example of this.
Supporting cross-functional improvement initiatives
Remote work makes cross-functional integration much harder as casual exposure to other business domains is minimal. To extend everyone’s view and allow colleagues to learn new skills and see the interdependencies beyond their line of work, it is great to allocate resources to initiatives that put together multiple teams.
The options are endless, from collective programming classes through “10 things you would like to know about”. What also matters is creating the right environment to collect feedback and act on it.
Plan company trips
A great way we are planning to invest in our employees in 2022 is by providing incentive trips. As teams hit their milestones, we want to send them on weekend getaways, Disney trips, or even resort stays. As travel opens up more and more, we want to say thank you to our teams for their hard work during the pandemic. We wouldn’t have been able to do it without them.
Invest in employees’ mental health
The last two years have been a time of constant change, leaving a heavy mark on people’s mental health. People, almost overnight, had to get used to an entirely new reality with lockdown, remote work, and online school. They struggled with stress and anxiety, which also affected their work-life balance.
That’s why, in 2022, we want to pay great attention to providing employees with all necessary support to help them maintain their mental health. We want to develop a buddy program for new hires, conduct time and stress management workshops, monitor employee satisfaction, and invest in professional psychological support. These actions will help us create a psychological safety environment where every employee will feel well taken care of.
Expand the upskilling programs
Our company will be overhauling and expanding the upskilling program starting in 2022. While one already exists, we’ve decided to make a few key changes to it.
Firstly, we’ll be adding new foreign languages to the portfolio we have thus far. Employees shall also be encouraged to suggest one on their own. Secondly, we’ll be increasing the budget ceiling as well as making the program more accessible by simplifying the qualification process. The program/workshops no longer need to tie directly to employees’ day-to-day duties. They will now have much more leeway in sharpening their skills that relate to their role even tangentially.
All in all, we’re very excited to introduce and promote these changes and hope that more employees take advantage of them in the upcoming year.
Implement a health stipend
We are planning to invest in our employees in 2022 by implementing a health stipend for our employees to use for benefitting their health. This stipend can be used for fitness memberships, fitness classes, yoga, and more. This will help our employees be their best selves this upcoming year, both physically and mentally.
Exercise has been proven to help employees be more productive, so the ROI on this benefit is great. By investing in the health of our employees, we get more productive employees in return. It’s a win-win.
Provide valuable resources
We’re going to continue doing what we’ve been doing, which is showing our employees how much we cherish them as individuals and contributors to child welfare. We look to make magic happen in the lives of Texas children, and the greatest resource we tap into to make it happen is our people.
We’re a big family, helping children in less than ideal circumstances find the comfort and love they deserve. Our staff deserve the same consideration and love. With that said, we work hard to provide the valuable resources that our staff needs to succeed every day.
Invest in training and development
Training and development will be a key component in our plan to invest in employees in 2022. The last twelve months have been about building foundations, processes and bringing in new team members. The next step will be to provide growth opportunities in a variety of functions, in and out of individual roles. Our eNPS surveys all point to a desire to continue to learn and grow.
Create more opportunities for collaboration
I will invest in my employees by creating more collaboration, learning, and thinking space. Currently, we are planning to build a culture of learning, thinking, and innovation within our company. We are planning to allocate more budget on design thinking and learning.
Alongside my team, we are also planning to learn new skill sets so that we can meet the changing requirements of the next five years. Furthermore, we are planning to host more internal workshops to empower employees to share ideas across functions. I believe that if my team is equipped with the right skillset, the right mindset, and the right attitude, they can work on any project with full potential.
These expert insights have been collected by Terkel. Terkel creates community-driven content featuring expert insights.
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