In any business where you have employees, you have to maintain the balance of productivity and employee satisfaction. And this is a tough line to walk in any business, especially when you’re operating a business in the contracting space.
A recent report by contributing polling agencies found that about half of U.S. workers are unhappy with their jobs. And this number is alarmingly high for blue-collar industry-related jobs. As such, this makes your efforts towards employee retention all the more important.
The contracting industry holds many disciplines. And often these front-line jobs are held by those who perform some type of manual labor.
But when it comes to keeping employees happy, it’s often not the nature of the work that’s to blame as much as it is the work culture and atmosphere that you–as a business owner–are responsible for creating.
Here, we’ll explore a few ways to keep your employees happy while on the job.
Providing Adequate Tools and Equipment
Nobody is going to enjoy their job and perform quality work if they don’t have the right tools to get the assigned tasks done. As such, it’s imperative that you’re able to provide your employees with the right tools.
And you can’t stop at the bare minimum either. If you really want to keep your employees around for the long term, you have to make them comfortable and provide the latest that technology has to offer.
For example, if you have a workforce that requires a range of logistical coordination, and you need your employees to be at certain job sites at specified times, you might consider providing them with vehicles to do so.
If this is the case then you can rent reliable commercial vehicles to provide your employees with quality and professional transportation to and from your job sites, no matter how far apart they might be.
Create a Positive Work Culture
It’s no secret that companies like Google or even HBO have perhaps some of the best employee reviews regarding work culture. And this is because these companies go out of their way to make sure their employees are taken care of.
Sometimes, even the most diligent worker with the most solid work ethic needs a break. And it’s your job as an owner and a mentor of sorts to see to it that your employees’ mental and physical health are of top priority.
You may consider such things as rotating 4-day work weeks or at least giving every one of your employees an additional couple of days off each month.
Additionally, you can provide your employees with resting facilities, a company gym, or even organize intramural sporting events for your employees to engage in. This not only helps to foster a positive work culture and help with employee retention, it creates greater camaraderie as well.
Offer Incentives for Productivity
One of the best ways to ensure that your employees are both productive and satisfied is to offer incentives and bonuses for producing quality work, or for going above and beyond the assigned task.
Everyone loves an added bonus, no matter what it might be. And you can be as creative as you like with your incentive program.
For example, you could offer cash incentives for perfect attendance. Or you could devise a competition on the job site for completing a job ahead of schedule with a prize for the winning participants. And a prize could be anything from a fully paid meal at your employees’ favorite restaurant to a paid weeks’ vacation.
Keeping your employees happy is going to be one of the ongoing tests of owning a business. And any business where the nature of labor can be intensive can be a challenge for employee morale and retention. But if you have a little creativity in your pocket, you’ll be able to keep the balance and keep the peace in your contracting business.
