A great and never ending tug-a-war has ignited between employees and their employers for some time. It involves what is expected of workers. This continues to change and grow now more than ever before.
Employers can either watch their workforce fail to reach those expectations or help them. The following are a few ways to help.
Be Clear and Realistic
One important thing to do is to be direct and clear about your expectations. A good chunk of employees say they aren’t sure what is expected of them.
If your employees don’t know what you want from them, it’ll be hard for them to meet those expectations. Before looking outwardly, start by looking inwardly. Is it possible that your employees don’t understand what you want from them?
Take a survey or ask directly to see if miscommunication is the issue. If you find out that you aren’t clear, the next step is to rectify this issue. Set specific expectations, and be sure that what you expect is realistic.
Employers are told to set high expectations because employees will rise to the occasion. Expecting more is supposed to encourage because it means employers believe in their employees, but if those expectations are unrealistic, you’re setting your employees up to fail. You won’t only stress your employees out; each time they fail, they’ll lose confidence, which hurts performance.
Provide Help
If you want your employees to meet your expectations, it’s important to provide them with all the tools they need. Wanting your employees to do better without investing in helpful tools is unrealistic.
Trying to get them to do what you want without lifting a finger makes your life easier, and it saves your company money, but it’s unrealistic. One big thing employers expect from employees today involves cyber security.
Employers know that cyber crimes can cost a company a lot of cash. Those same employers know that these attacks are made possible through employees who don’t know how to work safely online. It would be great if all employees automatically knew how to use the web safely, but that’s not possible.
You need to not only invest in identity theft protection services but also in web security training for each employee. Do the same for anything else you expect from your employees. Invest in the tools that’ll help them meet your goals. It’s that simple.
Use Management Tools
So far, you’ve learned about what to provide to your employees, but there’s more to it. You also have to make sure you have what you need to help your employees meet your expectations.
While a big part of it rests on the shoulders of your managers, there are still several tools that could help you help them. For example, work tracking is available, which has been shown to be useful. The problem is that this particular tool is a bit controversial.
Employees don’t love the idea of their computers having work tracking software. To them, this feels like their employers are going to be looking at everything they do on their computers or smart devices. It feels like an invasion of privacy, which does make sense.
When introducing these sorts of tools, it’s important to be smart about this. Highlight that it helps them meet goals and that it helps you pay them fairly. In essence, make these tools sound like they are for your employees rather than the company.
Encourage Genuine Connections
Meeting employer expectations can be challenging for an employee if connections haven’t been encouraged within the company. Connections help employers work better together, but that’s not the only kind of connection you need to foster.
You also have to create a genuine connection between your company and employees. You can do this in many ways, like being more transparent. The more honest and transparent you are, the more your employees will feel like they can trust you.
If they don’t understand something, they’ll likely feel comfortable bringing it up if you’ve established this connection. Transparency is one way you can encourage a real connection between you and your employees.
You could also do what other companies are doing, which is to allow employees to own part of the company. When employees yoke with the company, everyone feels like the company belongs to them. That feeling encourages folks to meet expectations.
Helping employees meet your expectations requires some planning and company culture changes. It takes time, but if you take these suggestions to heart, it can be done.