Business time is precious. Every decision needs to be made quickly, precisely and effectively, to avoid damage to profit margins and to keep the customer base intact.

That’s how a manager should see it from a productivity and profit point of view. However, there is another side to consider also. 

Your biggest asset as a business is without a doubt your employees. 

Without your employees, you literally have no business. Who is going to do the work? Who is going to come up with the new ideas during brainstorming sessions? Who is going to communicate with your clients and solve problems as they arise? 

With that in mind, it’s vital that you treat your employees with the respect and kindness they deserve. Of course, we don’t need to tell you that, it’s common sense on many levels. One area where many business fall down, however, is decision-making. 

As a manager, do you involve your employees in important decisions? For instance, if you were thinking about redesigning the contemporary office, would you invite your employees to put their opinions and ideas forward, and would you listen to them?

If you don’t ask your employees for their input on important decision-making choices, you’re going to notice that they quickly begin to feel undervalued. Particularly when it comes to a decision that affects their daily working lives, involving your employees is vital. 

When you’re redesigning an office and moving everything around, you’re basically completely overhauling the area where your employees spend a huge amount of time during their working week. Whether working full time or part-time, that’s a lot of hours over a week, so it’s vital that you involve them in key decisions that affect their work. 

Failure to do this can quickly affect morale, which has a direct impact on productivity and profits. 

Morale is Key 

Any good manager knows that keeping morale up is vital. Without this, you’re going to notice an increased amount of employee sickness, staff might start to leave the business, you’ll struggle to attract new talent, productivity drops, causing profits to free-fall, and the whole situation is far from positive. 

Check out this video which talks about how you can create a workplace that helps employees to feel valued and appreciated.

By taking note of these points and ensuring that you talk to your employees about any changes you’re making, you’ll find that they’re not only happier but they’re also willing to go the extra mile for you.

We gave the example of changing your office design. Sure, you oversee the daily work that goes on in the office itself but you probably don’t work in the heart of it. Your employees do, and they’re better placed to give you information on what works versus what doesn’t, what they’d like to see, and what they feel would make the office more productive and more impressive to visitors. 

It’s not difficult to ask someone their opinion. All you need to do is mention it at your next team meeting and ask for suggestions, perhaps tell people to send you an email if they think of anything, or you could go as far as to set up focus groups. However you do this, ensuring that you ask for opinions and take them on board is a vital step in creating a happy and harmonious working situation, which brings major results in terms of productivity and profits.