Your employees are the backbone of your company. They bring fresh ideas, energy, and make sure that all of your plans can come to life. However, there’s one aspect of employees that isn’t quite so positive: they can be expensive. From hiring to training to their salaries, they form a significant portion of your business budget. But that doesn’t mean they have to break the bank, however. There are many ways you can help keep the costs associated with your staff to a minimum, as we see below.
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Hire Correctly
You’ll be doing your business, your budget, other staff, and well, just about everything connected to your business a service by making sure you’re hiring correctly in the first place. It’s much easier to make sure you get it right from the word go, rather than try to make up for the hiring mistakes later on. If you’re relatively new to the hiring game, then take some time to develop a hiring process, including methods for screening out unsuitable candidates at the first hurdle, a robust approach for finding out candidates fit in with your company culture, and so on. The cost of replacing an employee can be substantial; much easier to get it right the first time around.
Check Those References
We know that you’re busy, but if you’re asking for references, then please, do yourself a favour and make sure you’re checking them. A person might present themselves as a trustworthy candidate – why wouldn’t they? – but later turn out to be an employee who’s willing to do your business more harm than good. Like it or not, employee fraud and theft is a much bigger problem than business owners usually realise; by checking their references, you can make sure that the person you’re thinking about hiring is the kind of character they’re presenting in the interview.
Give Proper Training
You’re hiring staff based on their skills, but they won’t know exactly what to do when they turn up. It’s going to be up to you to make sure they’re receiving proper training. If not, they’ll likely be able to perform the work, but they’ll be performing it nowhere near full capacity; not because they don’t want to do, but because they can’t. It’s easy to miss this type of cost because it’s not a traditional “loss.” It’s a profit that was never there. However, with proper training, it could be! Part of making sure your employees don’t cost you more than necessary is ensuring they’re able to bring in as much profit as possible!
Lax Security
Your employees will rarely try to cost you money, but sometimes they can do so unintentionally. Take, for example, digital security. The threat of this type of crime is rising all the time and is somewhat underestimated by many business owners – make no mistake, your business is in danger if you don’t have measures to protect yourself. Apart from the right tech measures, these include training employees the art of keeping sensitive information. This can mean having strong passwords, not clicking suspicious looking links, and not taking any work-only devices out of the office. Given the rising threat of this type of crime and the heavy financial losses that can be attached, it’s imperative that all of your staff know the dangers and right code of conduct.
Protection Against Injuries
Accidents happen in life, so why wouldn’t they happen at your business? Whether it’s an office, shop, or factory, it’s always a possibility that something will go wrong. By ensuring that you have proper insurance coverage, you’ll be able to avoid the expensive costs that can arise from workplace injuries. While you still may have to deal with the cost of temporarily replacing an employee who needs to take time off work, you’ll at the very least be able to avoid those heavy medical bills and compensation claims.
Unmotivated Employees
You might know, just by looking at them, just how bad unmotivated employees are for your business, but the actual figure might astonish you. Unhappy workers cost the US economy up to $550 billion a year – that’s billion. With a ‘b’! If you’re trying to get the most out of the salary that you’re giving to your employees, then part of your job is to find a way to get them interested and enthusiastic about their work. A happy worker will always go above and beyond when it comes to their job. Simple methods for having more engaged employees include: giving positive feedback, adding bonus incentives to their contract, and adding some “fun” features to the workplace – it doesn’t all have to be about getting the job done.
The Wrong Tools
You’re only as good as the tools you’re using, or so the adage goes. Do your employees have everything they need to deliver their best work? It’s not enough just to have the best workers – you need to ensure they have the tools they need to reach their full potential. You can do this in a number of ways. To begin, you can straight up ask them what would help them work their best. Second, you can keep an eye on the latest technologies and software that’s released. And third, you can make a habit of updating all of your tech infrastructures when it feels like it’s becoming outdated.
Overworked and Stressed
You want your employees to give their all to make your business the best it can be, but remember, there is such a thing as overworking an employee. Lost days due to tiredness and stress are going up all the time, and, in any case, a worker can’t deliver their best if they’re drained of energy. If a worker is complaining that they’re beginning to feel the strain, it’s best to give them some time to recuperate.
Traditional Working Schedules
Finally, have you thought about adopting more flexible working schedules? There are many advantages to have flexible hours or telecommuting days; it increases productivity, saves on energy bills, and keeps things fresh.
Hernaldo Turrillo is a writer and author specialised in innovation, AI, DLT, SMEs, trading, investing and new trends in technology and business. He has been working for ztudium group since 2017. He is the editor of openbusinesscouncil.org, tradersdna.com, hedgethink.com, and writes regularly for intelligenthq.com, socialmediacouncil.eu. Hernaldo was born in Spain and finally settled in London, United Kingdom, after a few years of personal growth. Hernaldo finished his Journalism bachelor degree in the University of Seville, Spain, and began working as reporter in the newspaper, Europa Sur, writing about Politics and Society. He also worked as community manager and marketing advisor in Los Barrios, Spain. Innovation, technology, politics and economy are his main interests, with special focus on new trends and ethical projects. He enjoys finding himself getting lost in words, explaining what he understands from the world and helping others. Besides a journalist, he is also a thinker and proactive in digital transformation strategies. Knowledge and ideas have no limits.