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3 Investments Every Company Should Make In Their Employees
The pandemic has been a wake-up call to businesses all over the world. Indeed, it sent an unmistakable message to us all: Society is much closer to total collapse than anyone thought. We also learned that when people can’t work, businesses can’t thrive. The inverse of that message is that what is good for employees is good for business. Your company will not do well when your workers are unhappy, unmotivated, unwell, and unfulfilled. When people are used as mere cogs in the machine, the machine is in for an untimely failure. Extremely large companies that control more wealth than many countries succumb to the belief that the primary goal is to provide and increase shareholder value. When that is the rallying cry, you know you are dealing with a company that places employee welfare near the bottom of the priority list. That is if employees actually make the list. It is an untenable situation. It takes a while before the ill-effects of minimizing employee welfare are fully realized. But there is always a reckoning. Companies that take care of their employees also tend to be companies that take care of their customers. In tough times, those customers take care of the company. It is a virtuous cycle. To make your company a part of that virtuous cycle, consider ways you can invest in your employees. Here are a few: Safety First Safety is more than a slogan; it’s an investment. Safety in the workplace is also not something that happens in your company by accident. It is intentional. What’s more, safety is not a one-time sunk cost. It is a commitment to everyone in the company over the long term. It is not just for the high-value workers. And it has to be a part of the company’s underlying DNA. Safety is not just first. It is everything, all the time, for everyone everywhere in the company. You can’t expect your workers to shift a few thousand pounds a day without providing the best gear available to be productive. Forklifts, cranes, and power loaders are just some of the machines needed to get the job done. When they feel like you are looking out for their needs, they will put even more into the job, knowing that you have their back. Another critical factor for making sure employees stay safe is helping them stay healthy. Employer-provided healthcare should be a given for all full-time workers. Coverage makes it easier for your workers to undergo diagnostic screenings and routine exams to uncover any underlying medical problems. Education Knowledge is power. If you truly believe that, you should do more to help your employees reach their educational goals. Do you want them to remain as entry-level employees? If your employees never move up, that is a sign of failure on your part as an employer. You should want the most knowledgeable and empowered workforce you can get. You should always be hiring at the entry level because your employees are constantly moving up the ladder. If you have to fill the good jobs from outside the company, it means you are not nurturing, training, and promoting the employees you have. It is a bad sign when you are constantly bringing in outside talent for your high-level jobs instead of your lower-level jobs. It probably means you need to make a bigger investment in employee education and advancement. Accessibility Have you considered assigning a chief accessibility officer? Perhaps it is time to stop talking about accessibility and start implementing a few baby steps in the right direction. You can start with something obvious like wheelchair access. Look around. Do you have anyone working for you in a wheelchair? If not, that is problematic. How many legally blind people do you have in your company? If you can’t imagine how a person with a disability can contribute to your business, you are living in the wrong century. In this day and age, people with disabilities are not the ones with the limits. The ones to be pitied are the employers who don’t know the value of some of the most determined overcomers the world has ever produced. A small investment in accessibility always pays off big. If you want to make investments in your business to ensure its long-term success, start with the safety, education, and accessibility of the people working for you. Good things follow from there.
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