As your business begins to grow, you will surely have to get more hands on board so you can meet the increased demands of your market and general business operations.
Characteristically, as your business begins to hire, a lot of shifts follow. One such shift is the responsibility you automatically assume — to lead and manage your team and ensure they are productive. This is easier said than done; managing employees effectively can sometimes be a challenge for small business owners.
This article offers basic information about how to manage employees effectively — either remotely or in person.
What Is Employee Management?
Employee management encompasses many things in one: designing a job description, hiring and onboarding a new employee, supervision, coordination, and performance reviews. It describes all the effort involved to help employees attain peak performance.
Employee management is wider in scope than performance management. While performance management is basically about whether an employee is able to do his job and meet set goals, employee management is about the employees' individual well-being in relation to their role in your company.
Employee management is a core function of a human resource manager or department. However, in most cases, this task is performed by small business owners.
Quite frankly, employee management can make or break an organization; it can propel an organization to success or undermine it.
Benefits of Effectively Managing Your Employees
Organizations with a well-executed employee management approach will enjoy the following:
- Hires the Best Candidates: As earlier mentioned, employee management begins with the hiring process. Hence, a key benefit of proper employee management is that it delivers a more effective and efficient selection process. Employee management ensures that the job description is well done and the employment process is well-executed to select the most suitable candidate.
- Increases Employee Motivation and Productivity: Through the instrument of employee engagement (which is a function of employee management), you can connect with your employees on a more personal level, thereby enhancing their motivation and level of involvement in your business. Employees who feel their opinions are valued will likely show more commitment to work.
- Reduces the Cost of Managing Employee Turnover: Lots of resources are expended on hiring and onboarding new employees when people leave your company. This excess spending can be avoided with proper employee management. Be reminded that effective employee management will produce satisfied and happy employees. When your employees are happy within your work environment, the rate of turnover is likely to reduce.
Nature of Employee Management
Employee management can be in-person, in the situation where employees and their employers work in a physical work environment. On the other hand, employee management can also be remote, as is the case when employees work from home.
Both forms of employee management share the same characteristics to a large extent.
Whichever is your unique situation, there are tips and strategies that can be implemented so as to ensure effective employee management.
9 Tips for Effective Employee Management
Below are a few tips you can utilize to manage your employee effectively:
Get to Know Your Employees
While your aim is not to — and shouldn't be — become your employees' counselor or personal life coach, you should know your employees to a fair level if you will be effective as their manager. Knowing the strengths and weaknesses of your employees will help you know where individuals can function better.
Consequently, this will lead to higher levels of employee performance and output.
Provide Exemplary Leadership
There is such a thing as leading by example when it comes to employee management. Whatever management style you choose to adopt, ensure to provide an example that others can follow. For example, if you schedule a meeting, ensure that you are present and on time, as well. Good managers set good examples — they take the lead and encourage others to follow. Avoid micromanaging your employees; you don't want to come off as being overly controlling.
Appreciate Your Employees
Appreciate the contributions every team member brings to the table. Oftentimes, it is easier to motivate your employees to grow in their areas of weakness when you appreciate their strengths.
For example, you can give out awards, commendation letters, or other perks and bonuses to employees who perform brilliantly as a way to show you value their dedication and to encourage others to emulate their example.
A word of caution though; employee recognition must be done in a way that doesn't create unhealthy competition.
Focus on Employee Development
One of the ways to have your employee warm up to your leadership is to show commitment to your employees' personal and career development. This management tactic can hugely increase employee engagement (i.e., your employees will feel like you care about them and will, in turn, be motivated to give their best and contribute more to your business).
Some of the ways you can show commitment to employee development are to offer in-house training or pay for employees to attend conferences and seminars.
Have a Defined Call to Action
You need to provide direction in such a way that it is clear what the task is and what goal(s) you are trying to achieve.
Do you want to increase sales or improve customer satisfaction and retention? Your employees need to know what is required of them, so set clear expectations and give straightforward directions or instructions.
Listen to Your Employees
Effective management begins with being open-minded and listening attentively to your employees as they share their concerns or offer their ideas. It's OK not to have the answers all of the time; an employee's contribution might be the missing piece of a puzzle sometimes. As a practice, you should always ask your employees whether they have a suggestion, a question, or just any concerns they want to air. Great managers know the value of embracing other people's perspectives.
Communicate Effectively
Communication is one of the fundamental elements of human relationships; without effective communication, it is impossible to effectively manage your employees.
Effective communication would mean that you are clear, correct, coherent, concise, and courteous. It is an essential skill required of every manager. Effective communication will also involve sharing important company updates and getting feedback. Social media platforms — like Facebook or WhatsApp groups, for example — can also be useful tools for communication, as well as video conferencing apps like Zoom and Google Meet.
Use Management Software and Tools
In a case where you are managing a remote team, using project management or employee management software becomes crucial to facilitate and make teamwork less complicated.
With these softwares, you can also communicate with a dispersed workforce, send them real-time updates, share files, schedule and manage project workflow, monitor performance, and have employees send in reports. They can be helpful when it comes to building transparency, enhancing open communication, and having effective project management.
Tools like Asana and Slack come highly recommended in this regard.
Develop Yourself
One way to become more effective as a manager is to give yourself to personal growth and development. Definitely, as you lead your team, you will learn from practical management situations; either from the decisions you made that panned out well or the ones that got bad results. You must be self-aware and always learning.
Likewise, completing a professional program in management can also give you some measure of exposure and a fundamental knowledge of how to manage your employees and your business.
Manage Your Finances More Effectively With Skynova
Management, like every other skill, can be learned and improved on. Becoming a five-star manager won't happen overnight, just the same way that growing a business takes time. Using these few tips can help you manage your employees effectively. As you implement these tips, you will gradually develop a management style unique to your situation and be able to drive your organization toward the desired result.
As a business owner, besides managing human resources effectively, you also need to manage your financial resources effectively. This is how you ensure that your business maintains a positive cash flow.
Skynova has your small business covered. Our software modules provide effective solutions to expense tracking, invoicing, tax record-keeping, and financial reporting. We also have industry-tailored invoicing templates across several industries.
Stay on top of your financial management game; sign up today and explore our world of all-in-one invoicing and small business accounting.
Notice to the Reader
The content within this article is meant to be used as general guidelines and may not apply to your specific situation. Always consult with a professional human resource manager to ensure that you're meeting human resource management standards.