What's your relationship with your employees? Do you work in a strict environment without positive feedback? Or do you take time to encourage your team?
As a manager or business owner, you're suddenly in charge of other workers. Team management is an important skill and one that needs work and nurturing like any other. A key aspect of leading colleagues is offering positive feedback and encouragement. Some managers skip this step, but overlooking it is a significant oversight as it offers many tangible benefits for your business.
In this article, we're looking at the key benefits of employee encouragement and how to add this practice to your own business. Scroll down to learn more now.
What is Employee Encouragement?
Employee encouragement is the process of giving positive support, recognition, and feedback to your team. This includes noting their achievements, contributions, and hard work. It's basically a professional way of saying thank you.
Encouragement leaves team members feeling appreciated and valued by their employers. It allows their hard work to be seen, which is an important facet of any working organisation, as it can go on to build a productive and engaged environment.
Types of Employee Encouragement
If you want to boost your employee encouragement practices, take note of the following techniques.
- Offering praise for good work
- Giving opportunities for professional development
- Rewarding outstanding performance (i.e. with a new office chair or standing desk)
- Providing incentives to hit targets
- Giving constructive feedback
- Working with employees to build their skill sets
While giving material items as praise or incentives is popular, you don't have to hand out a height adjustable desk every time you close an account. Instead, continually offer constructive feedback and compliments, and save the big gifts for large accomplishments.
How Employee Encouragement Can Benefit Corporations
Ready to take your company's progress to the next level? Satisfying results start with a happy team. Here are some of the top tangible benefits of employee encouragement for corporations.
A Positive Working Environment
Extra encouragement created an overall positive workplace. If you only hand out negative feedback, your team will likely feel ignored or hard done by. This can make the office environment sour at times, and no good work is done in a negative atmosphere.
Instead, positive reinforcement will make your workplace a more enjoyable space to be — which is just as important as making those deals!
More Motivation
Encouragement can make employees more motivated to smash work-related goals. When you value their contributions, they'll be more motivated to take on challenging tasks, show initiative, and go the extra mile to get the job done.
Don't expect your employees to work frequent overtime, though! Encouragement is about improving their work focus and output, not making them stay in the office for longer periods of time.
Better Mental Health
Did you know employee encouragement can boost your team's mental health?
Uplifting feedback won't just improve their work habits, but it'll give them a higher sense of self-worth. After all, happy employees are the goal for all employers!
Increased Productivity
Like improved motivation, employees that receive positive encouragement often showcase higher levels of productivity. Good encouragement leaves employees more focused on task completion, especially if you highlight their strengths in the feedback. Pair this with an ergonomic chair and a few coffees, and your team has the formula for success!
Improved Job Satisfaction
No matter what field you work in, hearing that you're doing a great job makes you feel satisfied. So, there's no wonder that employees who receive positive feedback and encouragement feel overall happier with their careers than those who don't.
Creative Thinking
Creative and out-of-the-box thinking can make a good idea great. However, unlocking creative thought patterns in a negative environment is challenging. Providing employee encouragement gives your team more confidence, and teams become more at ease with each other due to their higher self-esteems. With this new attitude comes lots of creative solutions.
Employees More Receptive to Feedback
If you constantly offer negative feedback and criticism without constructive comments, your team will likely shy away from receiving feedback. Good feedback makes your team stronger, so you want employees to be open to comments. This also boosts the way your team communicates, as everyone is respectful and constructive to each other. No half-hearted communication here!
Switch your feedback practice to encouragement-based comments and watch their attitude towards comments change.
Higher Quality of Work
Finally, employee encouragement results in a higher quality of work. If you're told you're doing well, you'll want to do more and better.
Teams will develop better attention to detail, conduct in-depth research, and encourage each other to keep going. Starting encouragement-based feedback will transform your team's way of working and the quality of their output.
The Takeaway
Whether you're new to team leading or looking to develop your skills, adding employee encouragement into your practice is a great way to elevate your team's performance. Plus, it also offers benefits for your employees, such as better job satisfaction and higher levels of confidence.
So, when will you get started and empower your employees?
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