How to set your employees up for success (and guarantee your own)

Yes, the numbers don’t lie, we are gradually moving to an age of more short-term jobs, online gigs and freelance work, but that doesn’t make you shouldn’t be trying your best to turn good employees into long-term partners. In a sea of transient contracts, long-term relationships have become more valuable than ever. Think about it from an economic standpoint, the lower the supply of X, the greater its demand and value tends to become. By good employees, we mean the people you look forward to seeing when you start your workday, the person you’ll contact at an awkward hour when you need to confirm or request something, it’s those people in your team you can trust.

There are two sides of the career and success coin, and it’s important to find the intersection between them.

1. Individualise career-path

Each individual can have different objectives at different points in life. Part of career roadmapping should be understanding what the individual wants. There isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution for career roadmapping. One way you can guarantee an employee’s loyalty is by mapping out their goals and finding out where they intersect with your company’s goals.

Everyone has their own motivators, and if you want to help your employees upskill and bring new knowledge and skill sets into your business, you need to find out what they need to get there.” 

2. Look for ways to provide more resources

Actively look for ways to give more resources and skills to your employees. The more they develop, the more unique skills they bring back into your company.  Even if a particular skill may not be 100% directly relevant to your company’s needs, helping an employee actualise their goals creates happiness and loyalty – two qualities with incredible benefits for your team that money can’t buy.

Recognise that it’s likely that your employees already have a pretty good idea of the resources and skills they need; often, all you need is a wholesome conversation to find the right intersection between your needs and theirs.

A good employer will do their best to facilitate an employee’s ambitions and will be realistic enough to see the shorter-term benefits of investing in their development regardless of their long-term destination.

3. Look within for talent first

Stop valuing experience and precise qualifications before everything else when seeking to resolve a need. Fct is that, when motivated, a person can learn and absorb experience at a pace that will surprise you. Let employees make mistakes; let them get the additional training or mentoring, if necessary; but look internally for your talent.

Empower employees by promoting from within, and approach promotions with a hive mentality. If you have one employee ready to advance, who on that team can take their role?

4. Change the conversation from expectation to opportunity

Often, career paths are approached with an eye toward what each party can do to help the other. Let go of this mind-set and shift your point of view to a more collaborative and opportunities-driven approach by separating out performance and career path development meetings. By doing this, you allow a platform for the two to exist symbiotically.

For instance, an employee may find a special project or client that aligns with their skills and interests and volunteer to work on it. For an employer, maybe they proactively look for those types of projects for people too or find chances to create new roles that align with employee goals while also helping the company.

Create time and space for employees to talk about their career path development so they feel heard. When employees feel heard, their roadmaps will feel individualized to them, bringing us full circle.

Conclusion 

Career roadmapping helps employees find their way, make an impact and deliver meaning to their professional lives. In turn, it helps employers support the growth of their teams and organizations. This process can be tricky, but by approaching each employee as an individual, empowering employees from within and looking for ways to give more resources to your teams, you’ll be on the path to success. Make sure you are retaining talent by working individually with employees to map their paths to the top of the mountain, one opportunity  at a time.

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4 steps to make your office work for you

Pandemic or not, big or small, most businesses face the same key issues. How do I increase productivity? How do I decrease downtime?

We spend more time per day with work colleagues than we do with our loved ones back at home. It then follows that our offices and workspaces need to offer an environment that promotes health and welfare if we are to achieve long term productivity. Shortcuts will only work in the short run.

For this article, we’re going to be looking at the elements that help workspaces provide a productive environment. We’re imagining a space with a desk and a laptop, be it a living room, bedroom or a designated study area. Despite this, many of our tips can be applied to any area where you perform work, be it in the kitchen or in a garage.

For Malta and elsewhere, Covid-19 changed the way we work dramatically, but remember: Whether at home or at work, we still spend a majority of our day working.

Work can mean many things: It can be preparing a meal, recording content, filing a form, paying bills, reviewing accounts to managing communications and workflow in a big company.

  1. Stimulate your sense of smell

Aromatherapy probably isn’t the first step you imagined, but we argue it should be.

Of our senses, smell is best able to influence brain activity. Our olfactory bulbs, responsible for recognising and processing smells, directly influence our limbic system, responsible for emotion and memory. This is why some smells can bring vivid, old memories back to the surface.

It’s not just about cognition, essential oils also have anti-viral, anti-bacterial and anti-fungal properties.

The key challenge you’ll face in following these four steps is not budget, but balance. Do too much of one thing, and it can become distracting, do too little, and you may notice any difference. Finding when too much is too much is going to be up to you, but keep in mind that one pleasant scent is better than three great scents if they do not mix well together.

You can introduce a pleasant scent through candles or incense sticks, herbs or flowers.

Here are six scents that Hawkins recommends for boosting your productivity, mood and more at work:

  • Lemon
  • Lavender
  • Jasmine
  • Rosemary
  • Cinnamon
  • Peppermint

  1. Add plants and flowers

Scientists have named us ‘Homosapiens’ meaning ‘wise men’ for a reason! Moreso than any other living creature, we can perform complex work and activities.

But, when it comes to understanding what makes our natural clock tick faster, you need to first take a step back to your roots. We’re animals who can do really complex work, but we still share a lot of characteristics with our fellow living beings. Above all? A deep, instinctive attraction to the natural world.

A body of evidence promotes the presence of plants as well as natural views in workspaces.In an analysis of 10 UK studies, every paper found greenery had a positive effect on mood. It also found being around nature gave a marked lift to self-esteem, productivity and consistency.

Meanwhile, up to 10% of employee sick days could be explained by a lack of nature and natural light in the office. You can check the first two steps at one go by choosing flowers and herbs that carry a nice aroma.

Here’s five plants that research from Queensland University has found to be great promoters:

  • The Spider Plant
  • Philodendron
  • The Peace Lily
  • Golden Pothos
  • Lemon Balm

  1. Make an ergonomic chair and footrest cushion your biggest investments

Research has found that over 31% of absenteeism is due to workstation related injury.

Let’s first explain the cushion:

First, footstools can be flipped over to obtain a rocking motion that keeps your blood circulation going. Perfect for restless legs, long trips in the car or an extended session at your desk. Otherwise, you can kick off the shoes and enjoy a therapeutic feet rest massage while you work. The footrest pillow cover is hygienic and washable

Secondly, if you spend all day sitting down working at a computer then you need to invest in ergonomic chairs.

It’s not just about avoiding back problems, it has been proven that sitting in an ergonomic chair improves workplace performance. This is a result of increased blood and oxygen flow which helps keep you more alert and awake, which allows for better concentration.

  1. Include a whiteboard

A whiteboard is a fantastic and classic way to activate great communication in your team. It’s not just about setting tasks and reminders, whiteboards are a great way to brainstorm ideas and illustrate points.

The humble whiteboard remains the favourite tools for CEO’s of all ages.

Not only is it a reusable space, it is also a persistent space.

Even if you are working alone, a whiteboard still is a great idea. For one, it gives you a much bigger space to brainstorm visually than your average notebook or laptop screen, and b) notes on a whiteboard won’t be hidden by an app or a Netflix episode anytime soon.

Want to find out more about making your office space a more productive environment?

Contact us via email on [email protected] or visit our website at www.crossroads.com.mt.

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Defeating Distractions: 4 Strategies to Fine-tune your focus

Here’s a secret: Focusing and defeating distractions doesn’t get easier. It doesn’t matter if you’re a manager, an executive or you’re just starting out at a company, losing track of time is a problem almost everyone struggles with. Concentration is something you have to work on every day, and while there are times when you just will feel less focused than usual, there’s a few agreed-upon strategies welcomed and shared by top CEO’s around the world.

First, prioritise

Instead of trying to tackle everything on your to-do list at once, start by figuring out what’s most important. Consider which items will have the biggest impact, which are most time-sensitive and which can be delegated. If you do end up getting carried away, you won’t be delaying the most important stuff.

Second, avoid multitasking

Once you know what’s most important, avoid multitasking — a slew of research shows humans are actually terrible at multitasking. Every time you switch tasks — even if it’s just looking up from reviewing a resume to send a quick message or check Facebook — your brain has to ‘refocus’, and for our ‘wetware’ – that’s not easy! It can take 23 minutes for the brain to refocus, resulting in a 40% loss of productivity.

If you’re thinking, “not me —I’m good at multitasking,” think again. Research shows people who think they’re good at multitasking are actually worse at it

Third, eliminate distractions

Research shows that even having your phone within reach reduces cognitive capacity, because of the underlying work your brain has to do to resist grabbing it. You heard that right: ignoring distractions uses a lot of brainpower!

Fourth, set boundaries

How often do you realise – usually at the very end of the day – that you spent every waking hour in front of your phone or laptop? Internalise the need to switch off and set a cut-off point (say 6pm) for when you must disconnect from the digital world and experience the real one.

Fifth, talk with yourself

Use Guiding Questions — Questions are a great way to reach the logical part of our brain and let it naturally find the right answers. Here are three that could be useful: Is this worth my time? What should my focus be on right now? How will spending my time on this make me feel later?
Would you like to share any tips or strategies you use to stay focused? Send us a message, or leave a comment – we’ll add it to our article!

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