The phone is ringing, your to-do list is piling up, and your employees need support or direction. You are being pulled in multiple directions. And admittedly, you feel a little overwhelmed at times. Sound familiar?
Running a business office is not an easy task. You are responsible for many important operations within your facility. You rely on solid leadership and a strong team to make your department run smoothly. But, how often during your busy day do you reinvest in yourself and your team to build a stronger, more efficient office?
Investing just ten minutes once a week on development for you and your team can have a major payoff. Whether you need to enhance communication, build a more cohesive team, or improve leadership skills here are eight areas to focus on to build a high functioning business office team.
8 Focus Areas to Help Improve your Business Office
Communication
Effective communication in the workplace helps to set a solid foundation for the success of any team. Communication helps to promote innovation and creativity amongst employees. Additionally, employees are more productive, happier, and more loyal to the company when appropriate communication is leveraged within their team.
Evaluate your communication and learn more about how you can revamp your team’s communication.
Managing Different Generations
Most employers today have four to five different generations represented in their workforce. Managing employees from different generations can present many challenges including work style, communication styles, and technology knowledge.
A multi-generational workforce can also present many opportunities. Consider how you can optimize the strengths of each generation and harness the power of innovation and collaboration. Discover management skills that will help you embrace the strengths of each generation on your team.
Training
Research has shown time and again that employees stay where they feel the most valued and challenged. Improving employee retention rates can be directly impacted through training programs that reinforce the value of your employee. Non-traditional training programs help employees to grow their skills while also feeling challenged and valued.
Professionalism, interpersonal, diversity, and skillset training programs can all benefit your employees. Whether you are looking to invest in new training programs or are ready to expand your employee training, learn more about unlocking your team’s potential.
Workplace Modernization
Is your office stuck in a sea of beige cubicles from the 1990s? Has it been a while since your workspace has seen a facelift? It might be time to consider some ways to modernize your team’s workspace. Modernizing your workspace is about more than the wall color, desk arrangement, or even technology. It is about demonstrating the importance of an optimal workspace so that your team can be the most productive during their time at work.
When evaluating how best to modernize your workplace consider aesthetics, technology, flexibility, and data to best utilize your budget. Learn more about these areas and more to enhance your workplace.
Coaching
When thinking about coaching in the workplace most people think about the manager to employee coaching. However, coaching can come from all areas and levels within the workplace. It is important to be able to coach your peers, your employees, and your management. In addition, it is equally as important to be coachable. The importance of developing coaching skills for all levels of your team is critical to your group’s success.
Dust up on four areas to help you be a better coach as well as be coachable.
Building a Forever Team
Every manager dreams that the team they build will stick around forever. That their hiring and retention practices are so finely tuned that their employee turnover is low. The reality, on the other hand, sometimes just isn’t the same. Building your forever team takes a great deal of time, skill, and practice.
It is never too late to evaluate opportunities for improvement in your hiring strategies. Review these six steps that can help you hire your forever team.
Keeping Your Team
Now that you have brushed up your hiring practices and found your forever team...you need to keep them! Retaining great talent goes beyond financial compensation. Employee retention is inclusive of training programs, compensation, management, and initiatives. Additionally, keeping a great team is about ensuring you have all the right kinds of players on your team.
If you are tired of turnover and looking to keep your team, review these three methods to help improve employee retention. Also, consider taking a step back and reviewing your team to ensure you have all the right players. Learn more about the different types of people that help to make up a great team.
Goal Setting
Goal setting is one of the most difficult tasks that employees are asked to do. Sometimes your goals might be hard to measure. Or, perhaps your goals feel misaligned with the organization’s priorities. You might even feel discouraged because you have tried to set great goals in the past but ultimately not achieved them.
Setting SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-Bound) goals takes a great deal of practice. Honing a goal down to be achievable takes trial and error. And, your ability to set SMART goals as a manager helps your team be more productive. Additionally, as a manager, you will be able to lead your team in setting and achieving their goals. Get started on refining your goal-setting skills with these seven tips.
Investing in your managerial skills and the skills of your team can have a major payoff. Productivity, stability, and happiness amongst your team are all possible when you invest in development for all roles and levels.
Not sure where to start? Are you struggling to hire the best team or does your workplace need a facelift? There isn’t a specific order to these tips. Begin by reviewing the eight focus areas and decide where your team needs the most support. Then dive in! Each area has more details linked to help get you started. Keep in mind that, executing on all of these areas well will have the biggest payoff for you and your team. But, tackle one area at a time. Ensure that your efforts are paying off before introducing additional changes.
Need more help to ensure your business office is running smoothly? Send us a note today at info@mcaskilled.com to let us know how we can help!
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