It doesn’t matter if you have a 10 person team of you have hundreds of thousands employees, having them trained properly with the skills that increase moral and productivity can be a saving grace to just about any company. Today you’ll learn the 9 things that you should teach your employees, new or old. These tips will help in many aspects of the job and will make everyone’s time better while clocked-in. Let’s jump into it.
1. Goals & Needs
When your team has the same goals and needs of the company in mind as you do, there is a much higher chance of meeting those goals and needs. There are several ways to do this and you can learn more after you have your goals and needs clearly planned out.
Once you do, teach them to your staff or have them take training courses that include the reasons behind what you chose and then allow the floor open for any questions they may have so you’re all on the same page and communication is clear.
2. Independence
Breathing down the neck of your employees and micro managing everything they do can actually worsen their work performance. This can limit their performance and how well they work. Teaching your staff to be independent not only shows that you trust them but you also have confidence in their skills and abilities to do what they’re supposed to do.
This can make work a place they look forward to going, instead of dreading clocking in. Whatever problem comes up in the workplace, every single employee should be confident enough to fix it or be able to easily contact someone who can. Having a team that is empowered while doing their job will drastically improve work in the office.
3. Time Management
Time management is an incredibly important skill you should teach your staff. People tend to zone out more and be able to get work done less as the day goes on. You want to take advantage of all of the minutes provided in a shift, while also having people work when they’re at their highest concentration throughout the day.
One thing employers know well is that time costs money. Having your staff know which tasks to do and in an order of importance will naturally improve time management. This is up to you to tell them which jobs are more urgent and need to be completed quicker than other tasks. Once this becomes a routine, they can use the independence they’ve already learned to continue to prioritize without you having to tell them daily. This will take off any pressure of deadlines and can improve the work-life balance that we all crave.
4. Leadership
Leadership is a given when thinking of things to teach your staff. Having your entire staff capable of leading a group or a project will drive those goals and needs we mentioned earlier. Leadership doesn’t necessarily have to mean a title. Someone can have great leadership skills but that doesn’t always mean they’re in management or part of the higher ups.
Leaders tend to be inspirational to other employers, encouraging and empathic. These are the same qualities that make a great boss. You can improve leadership by providing opportunities where the staff needs to step up and show some of the traits listed above.
5. Teamwork
It may seem redundant but having your staff be able to be independent and simultaneously great at teamwork is a great combination of skills. No matter how many people you have on staff, you’re a team.
When everyone is on the same page and sees one another as teammates instead of competition, a lot more will get accomplished. This is why team building exercises can be so important. Some of these exercises can seem cheesy but when taken seriously, you’re team will value one another more and work better than they did before.
6. Communication
It’s said that 9 out of 10 issues in the workplace are caused by miscommunication. You could even go as far as saying problems out of the workplace are because of miscommunication as well. Teaching your staff to listen well is a great way to start making a difference in communication.
Once they’re able to listen and take in all points of view and aspects of the conversation or issue at hand, they’re better equipped to make a thoughtful change to fix the issue. This also makes fellow employees feel heard and respected which in turn, improved communication in itself.
7. Ownership
Taking ownership of your own issues and tasks can be difficult but it can be incredibly rewarding. (funny how that works, huh?) When you teach your staff to take ownership, this can help things in the office like false-blame and even gossip.
Having staff own their mistakes makes them easier and quicker to fix than letting them sit in the shadows of shame. Learning to own your stuff will help you stay honest and motivated to do well. If everyone on your team is doing this, it will take a load off everybody that works there.
8. Critical Thinking
Employees you can think critically can not only save you time but money as well. This will improve with indepence and problem solving. This way they’re able to handle just about anything that’s thrown at them with confidence and won’t have to run to you asking for help every time something comes up.
9. Problem Solving
Being able to pick apart an issue or situation while remaining calm and unbiased are great skills that make a great problem solver. Teaching your staff how to obtain these skills and reminding them that there is no problem with a solution is a great training idea to add to the list.
Final Words
Using the 9 things listed above, you’ll be able to greatly improve the workplace and overall skills and happiness of your staff. Consider teamwork activities and meetings to improve communication to start off and go from there. You and your staff will be on the up and up in no time.
