‘Tis the season for gratitude and, as a business owner, you have a special group of people in your life who deserve your gratitude: your employees. There are many ways you can show your appreciation and say “thank you” for their hard work. This is the perfect time of year to step back and think about how your business gives back to its employees, how you makes them feel acknowledged and appreciated for their contributions. Sometimes it’s necessary to simply pull someone aside and literally say, “thank you!” for a job well done. At the same time, creating happy employees should be an integral part of your overall business vision and strategy.

Your Leadership Strategy: The Big Picture for Employees

At E-Myth Worldwide, we believe that everything related to your business starts with you, the business owner. Therefore, the first step in creating happy employees is to ask yourself on a personal level, what kind of impact you want to have on them as their leader? How do you want them to think of you? How do you want them to respond to your leadership? If creating a positive impact on others, including your workforce, is not important to you on a personal level then there is little chance that your business will become a place where employees truly thrive.

The next step in creating happy employees is to envision and integrate the kind of company culture and employee experience you wish to create into your entrepreneurial vision for the business. How will your employees experience your business? What opportunities will your business provide for them? What will they get out of working for your business over and above a paycheck? Most business owners don’t give employee satisfaction enough attention from the beginning, yet employee satisfaction is an essential key strategic indicator that should be highlighted in every business owner’s Strategic Objective for their business.

Your employees need to have a clear sense of where they fall in the big picture of your business, and they need to know the big idea behind your business. That allows them to feel they are a part of something they can believe in and devote themselves to wholeheartedly. Your leadership strategy should include communicating the big idea of your business to your employees as much as possible, which is something they will truly appreciate.  In many ways, that’s what every person is looking for in their working environment and what so many businesses lack.

Once you’ve determined that creating happy employees is important to you on a personal level and you’ve formulated your vision for how your business will fulfill your employees, you can then develop specific systems in your business that will support, empower and inspire your employees and ensure they are willing participants playing your game to the best of their ability.

Your Management Strategy: All the Little Things That Count

Perhaps the most basic way to create happy employees is to make sure that they know exactly what they are supposed to do in order to achieve success in their positions, and exactly how they are supposed to do it. Developing operations manuals for your employees that include documented systems for all the duties they are accountable for is the best way to empower their successful achievement of results and give them confidence in their work. Orchestrated patterns are natural for people, and by orchestrating your business through systems you will free your employees to move beyond their limitations. If your business is not fully systemized yet, you should prioritize developing a system strategy for your business and work toward that goal. And don’t forget, your employees can take a central role in developing systems for your business, which not only helps you make it happen but also helps them feel engaged and valued.

Your managers should support your employees by helping you provide the vision, structure and tools they need to succeed. Within any management system, there should be regular, weekly, one-on-one Employee Development Meetings (EDM) between managers and employees so that a productive and supportive relationship can be established (read more about EDMs in last week's post). All business leaders and managers should communicate in ways that reinforce your employees’ positive perception of themselves, while clearly communicating and giving honest feedback about areas that may need improvement. The rules of your game should be clearly established and aligned with your company vision, and all employees should be given the opportunity to accept their accountabilities and agree to the challenge of doing their part in the fulfillment of your vision, not just be “told” to do things. Having an up-to-date organizational chart and implementing position agreements with you employees can help to achieve that.

Beyond the fundamental elements of business development mentioned above, the following are some specific suggestions that may spark your imagination about systems you could develop and implement in your business to create and support happy employees:

• Create a system that honors employee birthdays, anniversaries, or milestones. Be aware of employees that may not want to advertise their age, and be careful not to miss anyone who might feel left out if their birthday or milestone is not acknowledged.
• Create a system for presenting employees with awards for their valued contributions. You might honor employees for things like making the most sales within a given period, representing and upholding the company brand, or coming up with an innovative idea that helps the company move forward.
• Create a system that includes company sponsored events such as trips to a baseball game, company outings of various kinds, or company parties.
• Create a system for employee discounts or other perks such as discounts on Costco memberships, Starbucks gift cards, or coupons for local restaurants.
• Assess your holiday schedule and consider increasing the number of holidays your business honors or create company holidays when appropriate.
• Hold potlucks and provide other opportunities for employees to congregate and get to know each other better.

When you put your attention and your intention to creating and retaining happy employees, there is no end to the possibilities that may present themselves to you. It is worth your consideration, not just during this time of year, but all year round because having happy employees and showing them your appreciation will pay off in the quality and commitment they bring to making your entrepreneurial dream a reality.

Share Your Story

How do you show your gratitude to your employees? Post a comment and tell us about it.

Further Reading

Engaging Employees in Your Strategic Objective
Your Operations Manual
Company Culture: A Game Worth Playing
The Cycle of Gratitude