Top 5 Strategies to Improve Employee Relations

For a business to run successfully, excellent employee relations must be cultivated and maintained at all cost. Without an effective strategy to maintain positive employee relations, communication quickly breaks down, causing conflict and slowing productivity.

Fortunately, it is possible to cultivate and maintain great employee relations through various strategies, such as the following.

Excellent Management Skills

As the business owner, manager, or supervisor, it is possible to improve employee relations through your management skills. Maintaining a positive attitude, practicing fairness, and giving constructive feedback are a few strategies that can be used to do just that. Luckily, there are many employee management apps available today, such as digital time clock software and online scheduling tools, like Hubworks' Zip Schedules, which can significantly improve the management skills of any manager or supervisor out there.

Written Communication

As most people have already realized, verbal communication is prone to misinterpretation. Whereas, written communication is more accurate and clear. In addition, written communication acts as an excellent source of records or references, and this makes it very significant in the business world.

Memos, meeting notes, email, and other documents are all examples of written communication that should be encouraged in the workplace to avoid misunderstandings and misconceptions that might affect employee relations, even as verbal communication is applied.

Also, it is important for written documents to be circulated among all applicable employees so as to create an atmosphere of unity in the office or workplace. Leaving out or excluding some employees from official documents, such as notifications and schedules, will make them feel isolated and unappreciated.

There are some tools in the market today that can be used to automatically communicate with all team members, without the risk of leaving a single one out. One such tool is Hubworks' Zip Clock digital time clock, which is an online attendance system that can also be used to send quick messages to team members in a matter of seconds.

Team Projects

Organizing team projects is also among the top strategies that can be used to create and maintain positive employee relations. Working together to achieve a common goal is an effective way of easing communication and improving comfort levels amongst employees.

Sharing Meals

Making it possible for your employees to share occasional meals in the workplace can also be used as a way of building great employee relations. If it is not possible for meals to be had in the workplace, making it possible for the employees to take their lunch breaks together will also create a sense of togetherness. Forcing some employees to take their lunch breaks alone or during odd hours will make them feel isolated and less valued, and this will definitely sabotage your efforts to improve employee relations.

Organizing Retreats

Another strategy to employ would be to organize retreats or picnics where employees can share meals as they unwind. Studies suggest that employees who are allowed to mingle and share meals away from the office occasionally are less likely to suffer work-related stress, which is the leading cause of anxiety and depression among employees today.

As employees are likely the foundation of your company, these 5 strategies can be effortlessly employed in order to improve employee relations within any business. Implementing software, like that from Hubworks' complete suite of cloud-based business management apps, gives employees a sense of autonomy and greatly improves morale and productivity in the workplace.

If you are looking for more tips and tricks on how to better your company, check out the Hubworks Blog where we have a plethora of free resources!