The world today has become quite fast-paced. As employers strive to scale the heights of success, employee relations are becoming more and more crucial. Hiring the right employees is great, but things should not stop here. As an employer, you are tasked with the responsibility to ensure that your staff members are satisfied and that they remain happy.
The goal of every employer is to see to it that everyone at work is happy, feels positively motivated, and that they enjoy their work environment in general. Your employees’ attitude is reflective of the company’s culture. If you make the right changes to enhance employee relations, it could lead to loyal employees who in return represent your brand well to the public.
Employee relations defined
Like the phrase suggests, employee relations refer to the manner in which your staff members relate with each other and how they interact with their managers and supervisors. These relations affect employee work experiences, in addition to the workplace environment, staff wellbeing, and overall productivity.
Another definition of employee relations is ways in which HR representatives, managers, supervisors, and other office leaders interact with other employees in the office.
Why employee relations are significant
Relations among employees are a core foundation of the trust that exists in the company, starting from top management, down to junior employees. When staff members feel respected and valued, it gives them a deeper sense of belonging, contributing to positive growth in the company. In workplaces where employers and employees have a strong connection, collaboration and enhanced communication improves significantly.
How do tools such as social media contribute to improved employee relations?
There are numerous tools that employers can use to enhance public relations, but social media really stands out. Social media’s influence goes way beyond personal lives; it has become a revolutionary tool that has the potential to fully transform the employee relations aspect of your organization.
Here is how social media platforms can foster employee relations within your firm:
1. Enhanced collaboration and communication
Social media platforms come packed with powerful tools that can help in fostering employee collaboration and communication. Such tools include enterprise social media platforms, internal company blogs, and dedicated communication channels, among others.
These tools allow seamless exchange of knowledge, generation of ideas, sharing of information, and giving feedback. With team collaboration software, organizations are able to break down any existing hierarchical barriers, therefore promoting channels for open dialogue. This helps in encouraging transparency while enhancing staff engagement.
2. Advocacy and enhanced branding
With social media, it is so much easier to showcase your company’s products, values, culture, and overall brand. An organization can use social media platforms to share their vision, mission, achievements, as well as employee stories. Enhance your online presence effortlessly by leveraging a business name generator to find a unique and memorable name for your brand.
Managers can encourage their team members to use their social media handles to become their firms’ brand advocates, increasing their companies’ reach. This way, it gets easier to promote themselves as desirable workplaces.
3. Engaging distributed and remote workforces
With the rise in distributed and remote employees, companies have no option but to use new approaches towards ensuring effective engagement with these employees. Social media platforms come in handy in bridging the existing geographical gaps, ultimately fostering the connections among distributed and remote employees.
Collaborative tools and virtual communities are ways through which such employees can share their experiences, communicate regularly, establish strong relationships with co-workers, as well as get a sense of unity despite the diverse geographical locations.
4. Facilitation of learning and employee development
Social media are important platforms when it comes to fostering professional development and continuous learning. Employees can connect with industry experts through groups, online communities, and industry forums to share their knowledge, connect with experts in their fields, as well as learn outside their places of work.
Employee relations strategies
Here are some tips on how to enhance employee relations:
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Give a good first impression
If you subject a new employee to tons of never-ending paperwork and petty tasks ends up diminishing their initial enthusiasm. The best practice would be matching their enthusiasm; you could take your time and set them up for their job personally.
Better yet, introduce them well to their teammates for them to feel welcome and acclimated. This first impression leaves them feeling welcome and like they belong.
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Create a learning atmosphere and an environment that fosters professional growth
While a stable source of income is important to employees, an avenue for growth and professional developments is equally important to them, especially in their prime years. As an employer, it is advisable for you to encourage your team members to learn new skills.
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Make use of social collaboration platforms
A social collaboration platform allows employees to interact and communicate in a single platform. A good example would be a WhatsApp group chat. This makes it so easy for employees to pass a message along, and is a great way to bring company members together.
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Provide guidance and feedback regularly
We all tend to appreciate feedback, especially positive feedback for a job well done. You could do weekly reports on the status of the projects that your employees are individually tasked with. As part of the feedback, be sure to give a compliment here and there for top performance. This helps them feel valued and appreciated, contributing to them staying highly motivated.
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Reduce monotonous routines
No one wants to do the same thing over and over again every single day. At some point, you will tend to get bored. The same goes for employees. Spice up the work environment by adding in a couple of surprises here and there. You could do a random breakfast with special treats, a quirky holiday, or even hold an office party.
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Organize team-building events
Employee relations covers more than the interactions between employees and their employers; it also entails the relations that exist among employees. Have your team get to know each other through team-building events in order to strengthen their relationships. You can use resources from the Coaching Tools Company to come up with interesting team building activities.
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Recognize and reward company brand ambassadors
When your employees show deliberate efforts to promote your company on social media, appreciate them, not just by word of mouth, but also by sending in some rewards their way. Any employee who makes it their personal responsibility is to be a brand ambassador is without a doubt proud of the company they work for. Keep them well motivated through effort recognition.
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Be a good employer and remind your employees of this
This is a tough one and it requires you as an employer to have confidence in yourself. If you strongly feel that you have done a great job in creating a positive working environment, you will end up ‘transferring’ this confidence to your employees. Such employees tend to share the good company aspects on their socials, conveying the message that they work at the best firm.
Advantages of good employee relations
Here are some key benefits of employee relations:
1. Enhanced employee engagement
If you meet the right employee relation levels, your team members feel like they are part of the firm, which ultimately enhances employee engagement. This is beneficial in that it leads to lower employee turnover, increased customer loyalty, and less security issues.
The immediate results of employee engagement are:
- Increased productivity
- Higher motivation
- Job satisfaction
Drive employee engagement by:
- Keeping employees informed about any expected changes
- Providing feedback and recognition
- Promoting sharing and open discussion
- Encouraging open communication
2. Improved office culture
A thriving office culture goes hand in hand with great employee relations, seeing as great relations are built on trust. If an employer feels that they are working towards achieving a common goal with their supervisor, he or she will tend to be more positive towards their work environment.
In addition to this, staff members who trust the companies they work for have a higher probability to align to their firms’ vision and mission, and they show greater adherence to company policies.
3. Strengthened confidence
Employee relations foster confidence among team members seeing as they are already empowered. People working in such an environment tend to have a higher sense of responsibility, seeing as they are in an environment that promotes professional development and growth.
4. Reduced office conflicts
A company whose employee relations are great has fewer cases of conflicts among employees, or even between employers and team members. Any form of conflict within the office could be detrimental.
When you encourage staff relations, more so when new employees are joining the company, acclimatization will be easy and seamless, reducing any chances of future conflicts.
5. Increased advocacy
Employees in a good working environment where interpersonal relations are great are highly likely to be company brand ambassadors. You cannot expect unsatisfied or unhappy employees to advocate for your firm. Increased advocacy in return yields brand awareness, ultimately increasing your reach, especially on social media.
In conclusion
More often than not, employers tend to downplay the importance of great employee relations. However, we can see the importance of this aspect, just like any other aspect that managers tend to focus more on.
If you want a team of employees who are not only fit for their jobs, but also happy to work at the company while remaining motivated and highly productive, be sure to check on your employee relations policy.
