It may be a cliché, but it happens to be true: A company is only as good as its employees.
True, some business models think of their workers are little more than expendable replacement parts. This is true for large corporations that pay low wages, such as Dollar General and Wal-Mart.
However, consider the sobering cost of employee turnover for firms that employ skilled professionals or technicians. A recent study by Boushey & Glynn found that the typical cost for turning over an employee earning less than $30,000 annually is 16% of that employee’s salary. That means for every such employee that leaves, replacing him or her costs $4,800 in recruitment, training and other expenses.
That is why company leaders who are employee-centric bring enormous stability and financial value to the companies they run. Some key elements of what makes up employee-centric leaders are:
Shares Information Freely
Company heads who routinely withhold information from their staff foster an atmosphere of confusion and loss of trust. Employees who are well-informed rise more rapidly within an organization — that means they are motivated to stick around longer. The monetary value of that alone is considerable.
Create Successful Plans
Good leaders tend not to be micromanagers. Rather, they put together a detailed plan and educate their entire team on what it takes to carry out the company mission. Then it’s a matter of hiring high-quality employees and empowering them to bring in the best performance daily. Workers don’t like to be constantly looking over their shoulders to see if the boss is pleased. A successful plan with everyone on the same page is a super alternative to micromanagement.
Give Credit to Those Underneath
When a company leader is constantly creating his or her own prestige on the backs of their employees, the result is the fostering of a sense of resentment and eroding morale. But those bosses who give credit to staff members who make excellent contributions nurture loyalty to the company and its leader. It’s kind of a paradox — give liberal credit to those under you and your own image as a leader will rise as a result.
Award Good Behavior Often, Punish Less Often
A great company leader knows when to let “the little stuff” go, such as when an employee makes a big or small mistake one day but has been performing optimally for weeks on end. On the other hand, offering praise for even minor accomplishments has a way of building morale in a powerful way. Employee-centric leaders praise often and criticize as little as possible.