Five Important Tips for Small Businesses to Keep Employees Happy

Being a small business owner means you know the value of your workforce. Does your employee know you value them? Keeping your employees happy is crucial for small businesses. Replacing an employee who quits has significant costs. According the Center for American Progress, replacing an employee who quits costs about 20 percent of an annual salary.

Say you’re paying an employee $30,000 per year. You’ll spend about $6,000 trying to make up for lost productivity, hiring, and finally training a replacement.

We’ll break this down into five important tips to keep your employees happy.

Be positive. Recognize your employees for a job well done. A simple, “Hey, you’re doing great,” goes a long way. You can still provide constructive criticism in a positive manner. If something is wrong show that you know your employee is trying and you appreciate his or her effort.

Set goals. Setting up smaller, achievable milestones for your employees makes their workload easier to conquer.

Take any complaint or suggestion seriously. Have you heard your employees complain about the coffee at work? What about the internet speed? Small complaints like these won’t cause an employee to quit. But yet, how you react to smaller complaints shows how you’ll act on the bigger issues.

Encourage growth. By encouraging employee development, your workforce becomes stronger, which ultimately makes your business stronger. Strive for certifications, recognitions, research, whatever it takes!

Reward. This goes hand in hand with the tips above. Did your employee make a sale? Reach a goal? Reward him or her and show you value this dedication to your team.

Keep it simple: listen to your employees and assure they feel valued and you will have a happy workforce!