Invest in your business culture for greater success

Creating a company culture that promotes employee empowerment is crucial for your small business, regardless of size.

By doing so, you can uplift morale, enhance productivity, reduce recruitment expenses, and foster employee loyalty. This approach cultivates empowered employees and ensures your business operates at its full potential.

When employees feel empowered, they are more likely to take initiative, contribute innovative ideas, and go the extra mile to achieve company goals. This sense of ownership and responsibility can lead to higher job satisfaction and lower turnover rates, saving your business the costs of hiring and training new staff.

A positive company culture might be your passport to positive personnel development. Ongoing recruitment efforts are expensive and a drag on company resources. As such, if you’re looking for talented, loyal employees, instill a company culture that has applicants hoping for a position with your team.

Human resources departments have noted emerging trends in this area. According to the United States Department of Labor, around 22% of American workers have held their current position for 12 months or less. This number drops sharply to between 5% and 6% for two- to three-year employees before picking up again for those staying in their position past the three-year mark.

Currently, because many are working remotely, employers are having to identify more productive ways of introducing new hires to their teams. Culture-building starts from Day One, so make sure it begins with your onboarding program.

Most employees know whether they’re willing to make a long-term commitment to a position within the first six months of employment.

As such, a carefully planned onboarding program takes advantage of this time to connect with and develop new employees. Within that six-month time frame, the goal is for the new employee to feel fully “on board” in terms of the company’s culture, goals, and ambitions.

LinkedIn Talent Solutions data shows companies retain employees at a much higher rate when a formal onboarding program is in place. When companies buy into these programs, they have employees who buy into the company.

Some advantages include faster integration, reduced turnover, improved employee engagement, increased job satisfaction, and the establishing of team trust.

Onboarding is more than a tactical solution to stemming employee turnover; it’s a strategic decision to use the full range of an employee’s talents over the long term, and forward-thinking companies are quickly adopting it as a solution to a mobile and restive workforce.

More importantly, it’s important to recognize that your development approach should (if possible) be tailored to your employees.

To further empower people, it’s important to focus on the kind of learning your employees ask for. It’s a double win when their goals and your needs are in sync. They’re more likely to stick around, and for the company, they’re adding value. In other words, employee fulfillment leads to employee empowerment.

There’s a lot to love when a company’s culture, worker satisfaction, and staff development are jelling. The work you put in can pay off in countless ways, but here are just a few:

• When employees feel they have “skin in the game,” they understand that the company’s success begets their success. Devoting professional development resources to their success is an excellent way of building company loyalty.

• The personal touch: People respond well when someone takes a genuine interest in their future and trusts their judgment. Extending this fact of human nature into the workplace is a great way to establish a mutual sense of loyalty and respect.

• Talented people rarely like to rest on their laurels. Employees likely to shine are attracted to companies with a strong sense of company culture that works on the premise that a rising tide raises all ships.

Fostering a culture that ensures that all voices are heard in a way that benefits both the employee and the company is crucial to employee retention. A culture that promotes openness, learning, and collaboration provides the foundation for employees to propose new ideas, take calculated risks, and drive innovation within the company.

In short, empowering your employees begins by understanding their worth, respecting their expertise, and giving them the broadest possible field to develop their talents.

Just as a reminder, November is Thank a Business Month. Whether it’s a positive review, buying gift cards, or sharing news of good businesses with others or on social media, we hope you will take a moment to thank an exceptional business or service provider.

• Steve J. Bernas is president and CEO of the Better Business Bureau and can be reached at sbernas@chicago.bbb.org