8 Tips for Creating a Positive & Dedicated Workforce

Posted: Aug 12, 2012
Author: WordJack Media

Even if your small business has a great marketing strategy, you won’t be successful if your workforce isn’t dedicated to what it’s doing. If your employees are passionate about what your company does, they will help with marketing without even realizing it—just by showing those around them that they love what they do.

Here are 8 pointers for how to create a positive and dedicated workforce who loves your company and isn’t afraid to let it show:

 

1. Hire with passion and commitment as the highest priorities

Just about everyone has an impressive resume these days. That’s one of the reasons why the experience and credentials shown on paper should take a backseat to the passion and commitment each applicant shows during their interview. Look for employees who show a genuine interest in your company right from the get-go. Consider asking questions in interviews that will reveal their true motivations, such as: What is your inspiration? Or: What do you love about your field of expertise?

 

2. Don’t tolerate whiners

Whiners and complainers can ruin your positive company culture. But one of the sneakiest things about whiners in the workplace is that they usually don’t go public with their comments. They are the ones whispering by the water cooler or quietly expressing doubt in the break room. If you hear about a complainer, identify them quickly and replace them. If they don’t agree with your company values and can’t stop complaining, they are just not a good fit for your business. End of story.

 

3. Focus on positive communication

Sit down with your employees regularly and discuss what is working and what isn’t. Don’t get angry if someone points out a potential flaw in your company’s policies or marketing efforts, for example. Constructive criticism is important to helping your company flourish. For that reason, your employees need to feel valued, so they are comfortable expressing their true opinions to you without fear of repercussions.

 

4. Reward hard work

It’s a huge sacrifice to work 40-plus-hour weeks. Your employees have friends, family, and hobbies that they would probably much rather be spending time with. If you are constantly drilling your staff into the ground and never give them a break, they will spend more and more of their time daydreaming of where they would rather be. If, on the other hand, you reward hard work with company luncheons, sports days, or a Friday afternoon off once in awhile, you will reap the rewards quickly.

 

5. Aim for diversity

If all of your employees graduated from the same university with the same degree and come from the same socio-economic background in the same geographic location, you aren’t going to stir up much debate among them. If, however, you have a wide variety of cultures, backgrounds, experiences, and interests represented in your company, you are much more likely to progress and have healthy conversations that lead to corporate growth.

 

6. Be ambitious

Ambition can be a negative thing if taken too far, but there’s nothing wrong with aiming high. Even if you fall a little short of your ultimate goal, you will still have achieved something great and will have learned a lot through the effort.

 

7. Re-arrange those cubicles

Your physical office space does a lot more to create a shared culture than you might think. Create a workspace that encourages interaction between each of the different departments.  You never know when someone from engineering has a great idea he could share with the marketing team, or vise versa. But if they never see each other, that won’t happen.

 

8. Focus on long-term goals

You should be looking way beyond this month’s sales figures—into the next quarter, year, and maybe even decade. We tend to overestimate what we can accomplish in a year, but underestimate what we can do in the next five or ten years. Keep your eye on the future.

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