A client once told me that a train station is where a train stops, a bus station is where a bus stops and a workstation is where a worker stops. So why is it that some employees go above and beyond their call of duty while others just sit at the workstation and do just enough to avoid being terminated?
Turns out that it is a matter of HEART POWER. Heart power is the engaged passion for excellence in workers of an organization. The more heart power your company has, the higher the employee engagement, the higher the productivity, the better the work environment, the lower your cost and the more profitable the company will be. Here are 4 ways to build heart power in your company.
#1. Promote work life balance: I learned a trick twenty-five years ago when I was the company liaison for a home health care organization. When the staff member had a good life at home, their work life was also good. When they had stress at home, their quality of work suffered. Here is what I do to promote work life balance; if I have a staff member with little children, I try to get them on a 3 (long) workdays a week schedule so that they can be at home as much as possible. I have system where the staff works 3 days, off 2, works 3 and off 6. It gives them a 2 week vacation each month. Works like magic.
#2. Develop an effective employee eldercare assistance program: Over seventy five percent of the workforce is involved in some amount of caregiving for a loved one. By the time an average caregiving employee gets to work, he/she might have already worked a full shift being a family caregiver. What makes caregiving more stressful is lack of care planning. Provide an employee elder care assistance program that offers care planning, care advocacy, caregiver work life balance and a resource service that ensures a safe, convenient and practical system for identifying and addressing their caregiving needs. With an effective caregiver employee support system caregiving employees will reap benefits for generations to come.
#3. Merge your priorities with theirs: I do this through a self-evaluation exercise when we hire new team members. This exercise asks the new staff about their strengths, weaknesses, aspirations, how the company can help them reach their goals and what they can do to help the company reach its goals. It is an opportunity for the staff to see that they are a part of an organization that values their happiness and success.
#4. Do the unexpected: This is the strongest heart power builder to date. Do something quite unexpected, such as offer a come dressed down to work day in the hospitality department, send someone home early with a full day’s pay, or bring them lunch, or have them take a break while you fill in. Anything works as long as it’s something that no one has ever seen you do before. This helps in two ways; first, it boosts the morale of the surprised staff member but it also shows that no job is beneath you as the manager or the business owner.
For other ways of building heart power within your organization, please email to Stella@StellaNsong.com.
