8 tips for managing your small business employees

When you're running a small business – and especially when you are growing quickly and staffing up to meet evolving needs – employee management is critical to your ongoing success. However, it's not always easy to define what great management actually looks like in this regard, particularly because it requires such a multi-faceted approach to get it just right.

Luckily, adopting even a few of the following tips as policies for ongoing employee management will likely help you find the success you're looking for and ensure professional growth, engagement and satisfaction among your workers:

1) Make training a regular effort

Perhaps the best way to make your employees see what you want, need or expect from them on an ongoing basis is to make training and team-building a common practice, according to Business 2 Community. Setting aside even a few hours per month to let employees know how to approach new processes or be better teammates can really pay off in the long term. Getting a better feel for both organizational goals and interpersonal relationships will likely go a long way for all involved.

2) Encourage open communication

All too often, businesses struggle because employees and managers alike are not always clear and open about what they need from other people on their teams, or the frustrations that bubble up in the course of daily work, Business 2 Community warned. With a stronger organizational commitment to communication and feedback, many companies may be able to identify problems when they're still relatively minor, or avoid them entirely, to foster a more efficient and transparent work environment.

You should always be responsive to what your employees are telling you.

3) Make mentoring a priority

Whether you have seasoned employees take new hires under their wing or encourage stronger ties between managers and those looking to move up the corporate ladder, this is a great practice to undertake in general, according to Socialnomics. In doing so, you encourage greater interpersonal connections between your workers at different levels of the organization, and increase your likelihood of keeping successful employees in-house for longer periods – or even permanently.

4) Make your central vision clear

Workers can typically become confused about their daily duties is to not describe how those duties tie into your overall mission, Socialnomics noted. While you as an executive or owner may think it's relatively self-explanatory and can see the A-to-B relatively easily, that kind of connection isn't always simple to make for employees who are more focused on just what they or their broader department are working on, so giving them that big-picture focus could be especially helpful.

5) Trust that they know what they're doing

While some workers don't mind being managed closely – or even prefer it – many do not, and may feel they are being "handled" by management too often if you keep them on a short leash, according to Jamie VC. For employees who are in good standing and generally get their work done expertly, consider loosening the reins to give them more freedom to pursue the goals you lay out as they see fit, without much interference or too-frequent check-ins.

6) Allow for a strong work-life balance

Too often these days, companies seem to demand that their employees be reachable almost 24/7/365, and that kind of attitude is only going to encourage burnout and frustration, Jamie VC advised. While you may not have the flexibility to ensure their jobs are truly 9-to-5, you strive to get as close to that standard as you possibly can so workers still love their jobs.

7) Improve onboarding

Effective employee engagement and management begins at the point of entry, especially because many workers may form a long-term opinion of the company shortly after they are hired, according to Small Biz Daily. If you can tie your onboarding efforts more directly to the company culture, what that specific employee's goals or duties are, and do more to make it actually engaging and challenging – rather than a mere obligation  – that's likely to pay off in many unexpected ways for years to come.

8) Prioritize their needs

Finally, small businesses can very easily feel like families, and just like your family at home, it's important to listen to and understand what workers need, Small Biz Daily noted. A little extra scheduling flexibility for someone with kids who just started school, or added professional development for those who want to advance their careers, shouldn't be out of the question – even if it's not standard company policy. If you can accommodate those needs, engagement and productivity should continue to flourish.

When you can do more to carefully consider how your company handles its relationship with its employees – from top to bottom – you may be in a better position to both attract and retain talent that helps you take that all-important next step as an organization. Moreover, avoiding the set-it-and-forget-it attitude is crucial, as your employee needs today will likely look different from those you see a year from now.

Categorised in: Starting a Business in Arizona

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