For a business to succeed, it must have a pool of talented and skilled workforce. Employers need to know how to develop their employees' skills without overworking them. That way, they can motivate their people to be efficient and productive.
If you are curious how you can do that to your employees, keep on reading to learn:
Consider personal development
Many companies know the importance of investing in the skills development of their team. However, these companies may neglect the personal aspect of development.
When an employee is investing in personal development, it impacts the quality of their work. That’s why if you help them with personal development programs, you also get a happier, healthier, and more productive team member at work.
Focus on healthy leadership
Healthy leadership is beneficial in ensuring that the employees are not overworked. Overworking them is one thing.
Passionate workers who love their job and their coworkers can still be overworked. But dealing with poor leadership is another matter.
Around 75% of employees in the US have voted in a poll by Gallup that they quit their jobs due to bad managers. That’s why business owners must ensure that the people in positions of leadership are actual leaders.
Provide professional training
One reason an employee might feel overworked is that they have a lot of catching up in terms of skills to do their job. It can overwhelm them if you don’t provide the proper training and task them with jobs outside of their role.
That’s why you should always provide your team with the professional training they need.
Give stretch assignments
Stretch assignments are an excellent way to motivate employees on the right path for their career development. Outside of a job change, these stretch assignments ensure that your employees can step out of their professional comfort zone one step at a time.
Instead of constantly assigning higher-level tasks, consider breaking it down and assigning the different parts to your employees who have the skills to do so.
Cultivate skills as a team
Aside from individual skill development, companies should also consider using team-building activities to develop group skills.
There will be projects that require a significant level of coordination between people in the workplace. By cultivating skills as a team, it becomes easier to achieve these projects without too much drama or hiccups along the way.
It will also help eliminate barriers and create a culture of openness and communication among team members.
Check for collaboration overload
Of course, your employees must know how to work with a team, but you also need to be mindful of something called collaboration overload.
It’s tough to constantly have your achievements linked to or rely on other people’s performance. It makes it tougher to receive individual accomplishments that can make one feel proud of themselves as a professional.
Hence, you should be mindful of the project collaborations that you do. That way, you do not overload your employees.
Build a “care culture”
Your employees should not feel ashamed for clocking out during the right time when they've finished their work already.
They shouldn’t be expected to work overtime. They shouldn’t be expected to answer calls or messages during their breaks or off-days, or holidays. Otherwise, you’re building an unhealthy work culture that’s mentally and physically draining.
Instead, build a culture that cares. Open, transparent, and empathic communication are all elements that make up a caring culture in the workplace. By practicing these things, you’ll soon start seeing a culture of care developed in the office.
Encourage healthy work-life balance
In relation to having a caring culture, you should encourage employees to have a healthy work-life balance.
Call it out if you start noticing an employee clocking in too much overtime or working through lunch too often. Encourage them to take their breaks and ask what you can do to help lighten the load.
Encourage them to take their sick leaves when they feel under the weather instead of pushing through. Remind them to take their vacation leaves as well. All of these are simple ways you can reinforce a healthy work-life balance in your employees.
Automate the review process
Employees might feel overworked, and the management isn’t aware of it because of the lack of feedback from both sides.
The review process should be mutual and frequent. The year-end performance review shouldn’t be the only time when your employees hear feedback from you and vice versa. It will be less daunting the more often you do it. It will be more manageable for employees to enact your input.
The key to a successful, thriving venture is to have skilled and motivated employees. And the tips listed above can help you achieve those.
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- How to Develop Your Employees’ Skills Without Overworking Them - December 7, 2023
