Your employees are one of the most important elements of your company- these are the people that perform the daily tasks that keep things ticking over and your business moving forward. If problems arise with your staff it could mean anything from reduced productivity to lawsuits to a loss of profit. Therefore you need to find the right employees in the first place and then keep them. Here are a few issues you might have, and how to overcome them.

Pay

As much as your employees might like their job, and your company might be an awesome place to work, at the end of the day people work to be paid. When pay is messed around whether it’s late or incorrect, it’s a quick way to get your employees back up. You don’t know what their financial situation is, and even being one day late or a few dollars short could mess things up for someone so it’s a risk you simply can’t take. Payroll recruitment agencies can ensure that everything is paid on time and the law is being followed to the letter, so outsourcing this area of your business could make good sense. That way it’s one less thing for you to deal with in-house, and you know everything is being done correctly. If you do want to deal with payroll yourself, invest in some good payroll business software to make life easier. Other issues that might arise with pay is workers wanting a pay increase. The best thing to do would be to treat each case individually. Give raises to workers who genuinely deserve it, they will appreciate the company more and be less inclined to leave and find work elsewhere. If they do you’re left with a spot to fill that will cost money in recruiting, interviewing, background checks and everything else.

Bullying and Harassment

The workplace is unique in which people who wouldn’t necessarily be friends through choice are forced to spend eight hours a day with each other. This can sometimes lead to conflict and clash of personality, in more sinister cases bullying, harassment and sexual harassment can take place. As the boss it’s your job to ensure your team are working well with each other. Make sure you let employees know that any problems can be reported in confidence, and ensure the law is followed with any reports and allegations made. Doing thorough referencing and background checks, and hiring workers that have a proven record of working well as a team will help you to avoid this. Regular team building activities can help to strengthen bonds, even things like the occasional dinner paid for by the company would be appreciated and is a good chance to get everyone together.

High Staff Turnover Rate

Are your staff dropping like flies? Every time you have to advertise a job role, interview, background check and train a new staff member it costs money. It will also mean a drop in productivity while everything settles into a routine. Making sure you keep your staff members is important. Treat them well, offer fair wages and good employee benefits. During the advertising stage, be honest about the job role- this will prevent people taking it on, being disappointed or misled and leaving. It’s not just a case of snagging the best people for the job, but keeping them too.

Theft or Sabotage

As a business owner we know to protect our assets. We use good burglar alarms and CCTV, we use strong passwords and firewalls, we lock our money up in a safe and protect ourselves physically and digitally from intruders. The only problem is threats don’t just come from the outside. In many cases it’s employees on the inside who are the problem, with things like theft, fraud and sabotage (where information is being given to your competitors) that’s the problem. Suspending employees you suspect are doing this would be the first step and conducting a full investigation. Having systems in place that help bad employees get spotted and caught out is another option. You could have an anonymous reporting system where people feel comfortable alerting you if something is out of the ordinary knowing they won’t receive any backlash. Properly background checking employees is worthwhile to, anyone with a criminal history especially in things to do with fraud or finances could act again. While someone with no criminal history could too, it’s just an extra precaution you could take.

Low Productivity

Low productivity will mean poor performance in your business, and could affect your profits or relationships with customers and clients. Decide what the problem is and what needs to be done. Would a better office with updated equipment, nicer surroundings and more daylight help? If you’ve been considering moving office anyway, a drop in productivity could be a clue you need to do it sooner rather than later. Psychologists have shown certain colours, natural daylight and living plants all help with productivity and worker motivation. Even something as simple as creating a staff room where workers can relax on breaks and lunch could help. If they are having to leave and go off site you could be losing a few minutes of each work day due to people coming and going. Having a strict clocking in/ out system can help to avoid this and could help boost productivity levels. Would more training help matters, or a team building weekend? Another thing to check is that employees are not overworked. Productivity might be low where people are snowed under and not able to get through everything within the working day. In this case you will need to re-jig employees roles, hiring new staff members where needed to make sure everything is getting done.

Keep your workers happy and productive and reap the rewards for your company. Nip any problems in the bud, and let employees know they can speak to you if issues arise.

How do you deal with employee issues?