Over the last few months, there has been a global shift in the workplace, forcing employees to adapt to new schedules and work environments. For many individuals, this means working from their home or apartment while their family members or roommates do the same. With little preparation time or warning, it can be difficult to maintain structure and feel motivated to continue their professional journey.
As challenging as it is, there are ways that business owners and managers can undertake to encourage productivity and assist employees in reaching their professional goals with greater ease. Let’s explore them here.
Here’s How You Can Help Employees Attain Their Professional Goals
1. Exhibit transparency
One way employers and managers can help their staff feel confident and focused during their day-to-day work is to ease their anxiety about their career stability. By maintaining transparency, employees can focus their energy and attention on getting their work done, rather than worrying about what the future holds as it relates to job security.
By scheduling regular company meetings and providing specific updates about business changes and initiatives, you can be proactive in answering questions and addressing concerns company-wide. With so many changes happening in the world, it’s helpful for employees to know that their career is certain, and their income is protected.
Should there be financial issues within the business, it’s important to be upfront and communicate a plan of action for your employees. This makes them feel like a priority and shows you are willing to do all you can to secure their specific job and encourage them to strive for the set professional goals.
2. Help them feel prepared for tomorrow
As a business owner, manager, or executive, you cannot control all aspects of your employees’ financial future. With that said, there are many ways you can serve as a resource to help them navigate times of uncertainty and change while encouraging financial protection—no matter the circumstances.
One way to do this is to provide information regarding insurance options and company benefits that can help provide a sense of security for employees. You can suggest that your team takes time to review options, especially when it comes to the best life insurance companies on the market that would be most suitable for their particular situation. When it comes to health and life insurance, each person and family has their own set of circumstances. This is why it’s important to provide information, but also allow individuals to ultimately decide what is best for their loved ones and future.
As far as benefits are concerned, it might be helpful to lay out what is offered through your company and clearly state the options available to assist your employees during this time. Benefits like 401k, health insurance, telemedicine, and flexible spending are a few options that you’ll want to share specific information about. Again, this will guide employees towards preparing for their future while ensuring they feel satisfied in their career and future with the company.
3. Foster collaboration (even from home)
If you’re not an essential business, it’s likely that your company has gone fully remote during this time—meaning business continues but your employees are working out of their homes to protect their health and safety. This certainly calls for adaptation and change, but there is also an opportunity to learn and connect using technology. You can promote connectivity throughout the workplace by encouraging zoom meetings, breakout sessions, and brainstorms, allowing employees to get regular facetime with one another. Consider a virtual ice-breaker or strategy game that allows your team to collaborate on a more personal level.
Due to the uncertainty and heaviness of the state of the world, it’s also a good idea to provide mental or emotional support resources to your staff. Providing an outlet to help individuals navigate difficult situations at work or at home will be worthwhile. This is especially important to show you care and want to set your employees up for success.
4. Eliminate multitasking and overscheduling
Overwhelmed employees and uncertainty together just might be a recipe for disaster. With this knowledge, it’s necessary to streamline tasks and reduce workload overlaps. While employees work remotely, it’s that much harder for them to feel on the same page when it comes to progress and project timelines.
That being said, getting organized early on can help discourage the need to multitask or jump from project to project. This ends up wasting time as employees have to change their thought processes many times throughout the day, increasing stress and reducing productivity. To avoid this, aim to schedule meetings at consistent times throughout the week that your staff can plan for and workaround. Rather than get distracted answering various questions all day, dedicate certain “office hours” or times that employees can ask specific department questions or discuss concerns. The clearer plan you have in place, the more efficient you and your employees will feel.
5. Utilize technology and helpful tools
What is an easier way to attain professional goals than with assistance of modern technology?
As a society, we have come a long way when it comes to adopting technology and new processes to assist in daily workflow. Technology allows for more consistent and accurate information to be produced, lessening the need for manual time-consuming actions.
Time management is extremely important when it comes to career growth. Without being able to monitor progress, productivity, and workload, it’s hard to identify pain points or areas of improvement. Companies should consider implementing time tracking software to see where employees are spending most of their time and how much time is required for certain projects. Utilizing chat systems, onboarding software, online portals, and easily accessible shared documents are also great ways to collaborate effectively.
6. Encourage creativity and new ideas
Finding new ways to engage with team members and keep spirits high when the entire company might be working apart is one hurdle to cross. Allowing room for creativity is one way to validate employees and show they are being heard. Give them the opportunity to submit ideas that might help the brand, company, or employee base. Consider sending out an employee survey to gather feedback and apply some of these new ideas. If your employees feel as though they can be themselves and offer unique or creative insights, it’s likely they will feel more motivated during their day-to-day duties on the job.
7. Adopt mentorship programs focused on specific professional goals
As a business owner, manager, or executive, you cannot be in all places of the business at once or have your hand in every single project. That means you will need to delegate training or learning opportunities to other trusted employees. By developing a mentorship program, you can support the professional development of your staff without needing to do all of the work yourself. Designate more senior personnel to work on programs that will promote internal growth opportunities. This can get employees back on track to prepare for their future and reach their professional goals, no longer feeling stuck in the daily grind of working from home.
Helping Employees Achieve Thier Professional Goals Is Good for Your Business
It’s hard to say how a business will be operating in the coming months and what new changes will be implemented. In the meantime, business leaders can take advantage of this unique opportunity to connect with their employees and make a positive impact on their lives as well as their professional future. By optimizing business tools and technology, encouraging career growth, and motivating employees to set professional goals and plan for tomorrow—you are on your way to the next phase of your business’s future.
