Truthfully, there isn’t one standalone magic trick to get your employees more involved. Building a strong team comes from multiple avenues and requires a lot of work from everybody. It is one thing to have a group of people who are good at their job; come in, get their work done and go. The goal of every employer is to see their workers go beyond what they ‘have to do’ and be a strong member of a solid team. Here at FlexiBake we are proud to say we have a great team environment, where everybody brings their strengths to the table each day, and we have decided to share some of our secrets with you.
Get Your Employees More Involved with Consistent Team Feedback
There’s nothing better than consistent feedback. Being part of a team includes helping each other grow and learn from mistakes. Although it is great to get feedback from management, we also find it beneficial to encourage feedback from coworker to coworker. Feedback doesn’t only have to come in an extremely formal way, such as a quarterly review. A quick way to get your employees more involved is to encourage open discussions about what you’re working on/how you’re handling it. This is a fantastic way to get the team engaged and bounce around ways to improve.
Encourage Teamwork
Above all else, the most important way to get your employees more involved is to encourage teamwork. It’s extremely rewarding to contribute to an active team environment! Here at FlexiBake we often run our ideas past one another before finalizing them. We also have a group chat that we constantly throw questions into. The team instantly jumps into the rescue, which is effective and comforting, especially for new employees. No matter what you choose to do, you can’t go wrong by bringing your workers closer together.
Work-Related Activities
If you’ve tried the first two methods and are ready for something bigger, how about work-related activities. Who says you can’t have fun while still staying on task? There are tons of work-related activities you can try that will get your employees more involved. Something as simple as ‘show and tell’ per week – you choose 1 employee per week to showcase something their working on. You can also host competitions! Whoever makes the biggest sale this week or Work together in groups to figure out this problem we have. You’ll have your employees saying “wow, who knew work could be so fun!”.
Other Activities
Who says it must be all work and no play? A GREAT way to get your employees more involved is to get to know them outside of their role. Host a hockey poll, grab a drink on a Friday afternoon, plan an outside of work activity. You are spending most of your time with these folks, the easiest way to get them excited to work for you is allowing them to feel comfortable and seen, outside of just their job title. Who wouldn’t get excited and more involved with the same group of people they have fun with too? It’s just science really.
Whether you choose to do all 4 of these suggestions or just try one, it’ll get your employees more involved and excited about their job. If the work is getting done, you may as well have a little fun. Find what works for your business and go with it, you’ll be surprised at how effective it can be.