Member Article

Could saying ‘thank you’ be the secret to small business success?

A recent report by the House of Commons has found that securing and developing skilled teams is a top priority for small business owners in 2018. Such a sense of importance is being placed on recruitment and retention that the SME community are expecting to make serious investment in their workforce, with more than two fifths (41%) planning to invest in training their existing staff, and a quarter (24%) planning to recruit new talent.

A major part of this process is keeping staff engaged and motivated. It’s no longer the norm for a team member to simply stay with a single company for the bulk of – if not their entire – career. Younger workers in particular are much more open to moving around regularly in search of new challenges and opportunities, with research showing they change jobs on average every three-to-five years.

Likewise, many studies have found that it’s not uncommon for workers to be increasingly motivated by factors like office perks, an exciting job or even a company’s moral values. While increased salary levels and bonuses are tempting and competitive, research is showing that increasing pay will only go so far in increasing motivation - nearly half (44 per cent) of the workforce say they think meaningful work that helps others is more important than a high salary.

So, if we want to motivate our teams in today’s workplace and benefit from their resulting productivity, we need to be looking at recruitment and retention from all angles of the employee package – not just zeroing in on salary.

At Opus Energy, we’ve spoken with 500 SMEs and found that there are a few ways that small business teams are being motivated to try and induce better productivity. Providing employees with perks and benefits was the most popular approach, with two-fifths (40 per cent) offering wellbeing measures such as flexible working hours and a third (35 per cent) giving incentives like bonuses and perks.

All the research is showing us of the importance of motivating our teams, and to do so in a way that’s more inspiring than a simple pay rise (providing we are certain that our pay offering is fair). Here are a few ways in which SMEs can boost their daily operations to make them more motivational. After all, in such a competitive marketplace, a handful of small changes could mean the difference between retaining and losing top-tier talent.

Show you care about their development

We know that most want to do more in the workplace than just work – many people, not just young people, are keen to learn, grow and develop their own skills. And it wouldn’t be unfair to assume that many employees’ loyalties are to their own development first and their employers’ success second. What I’ve recently done, which is something that can be done at a business of any size, is to take some time to speak face to face with your teams. Try to hear where they want to develop and look for ways to provide that opportunity, whether it be through attending training courses and networking events or by spending time experiencing other areas of the business. For our teams at Opus Energy, we recently extended our Apprenticeship Programme to allow our current team members to gain a qualification while still doing their day job – something that had immediate pick-up and is now in place.

Employees who are keen to broaden their horizons are significantly less likely to do so elsewhere if they can see that there is opportunity to grow right where they are.

Recognise when achievements are made

We naturally crave recognition from our peers. Whether it be for winning a new client, making a big sale or giving a great presentation, receiving praise for a job well done will spur many people on to deliver even more high-quality work. Going unnoticed can leave us feeling deflated and underappreciated.

There are plenty of ways we can show our team members the recognition they seek and deserve, without breaking the bank. Having a weekly line manager meeting to discuss a colleague’s work is a great way of making sure that achievements don’t go unnoticed. Alternatively, we’ve found that offering a regular reward programme, presenting a voucher or small gift to a high-achieving team member, is a great way of publicising achievements throughout the company, as well as fostering a little internal competition to spur the team on even further.

Praise doesn’t always have to be structured and pre-meditated, though. We all know that a thank you for a piece of work well done from someone you work for is a welcome reminder of your role in contributing to the business’ success. I do my best to remember this as the business leader, and encourage my direct reports to do the same.

Think about external factors

There’s only so much that we as business leaders can personally do to increase staff productivity, so we need to consider what else has an effect on motivation and enthusiasm levels. This is something else our research highlighted – how the logistics of a business, such as location, can be a benefit or a hindrance.

A particularly interesting finding was that only a fifth (22 per cent) of SMEs set up shop near likeminded businesses, in order to capitalise on an innovation culture. This is despite the fact that, when asked, more than half (56 per cent) said they want to work more closely with likeminded businesses.

It might be of interest for small businesses aspiring to be more productive to research business clusters: geographic areas in which businesses with a particular specialism operate within close proximity of each other. Clusters attract top-tier talent, as well as laying the groundwork for networking and partnership opportunities. High-profile examples include the financial services landscape in Edinburgh and automotive manufacturing in the West Midlands. Opus Energy’s own Cardiff office was set-up to benefit from the great local talent on offer in the customer service sector, and it’s thrived as a result.

Finding a fortuitous location can boost staff engagement and motivation by strengthening a company’s ability to recruit and train specialist staff who are drawn to the area, while employees will be more likely to feel energised by a company that they can see is thriving and successful.

In summary, motivating staff might feel extra-curricular when there are a hundred and one other business priorities fighting for attention. However, all leaders should be considering engagement as a priority. The cost of hiring an employee is thought to be in the region of £50,000, totalling up salary, recruitment costs, employer contributions and training (based on an average UK salary of around £27,000). This is an investment that we need to take seriously, not to mention our responsibility as leaders to our teams’ wellbeing.

The bottom line is that a business is built on its team. Keep them engaged and energised, and they will carry you a long way.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Nikki Flanders, Chief Operating Officer, Opus Energy .