Cultivating employee relationships is a skill that needs to be practiced and perfected on a continual basis. If I were to liken it to anything it would be like gardening. Plants need the sun, the right amount of attention and room to grow if they are to thrive. Keep them in the dark, fuss over them too much or neglect them and they’ll wither. In much the same way, providing staff with praise for their achievements, support without micromanagement and providing a platform for them to develop their talents and career are key to developing long-lasting, successful relationships with your employees.



Here are eight steps to help you build better relationships with your employees:

Step 1 – Be Accessible

This doesn’t mean giving your personal number out to everyone so they can call you at any time. By  operating an effective open door policy, where employees can come to you with new ideas, concerns and, heaven forbid, complaints, makes it easier to establish a give and take relationship with your staff.

Step 2 – Be Visible

Advances in technology, from video conferencing to instant messaging, have certainly made keeping up with the affairs of your business easier. However, nothing can replace your physical presence in the office or on the production floor. Make sure you don’t become so busy that you neglect to be visible to your employees.

Douglas Conant, former CEO of Campbell’s Soup Company, credited a lot of his success and the revitalisation of the company, to walking around a different part of the company headquarters every day and engaging with the staff.

Step 3 – Get Involved

Following directly on from step 2, if you want to develop real relationships with your employees, then you need to spend quality time with them. It's not enough just to be present for meetings and other essential tasks, you have to be there for the ups and downs. Offer your help on a difficult project, ask them about their work, hobbies and family and take them out for lunch after a particularly busy period.

Step 4 – Be Fair

Few things breed discontent and ill-will in the workplace faster than obvious favouritism toward certain employees. You're not going to like everyone equally, of course, but the important thing is to treat all employees equally. Enforce rules uniformly, reward hard work and exceeded expectations the same way for every employee. A well thought out staff handbook is a must if you wish to achieve this.

Step 5 – Be Reasonable

No matter how personable you are, or how well your employees like you personally, you're pushing for disgruntled employees if you ask for the impossible. Make sure you set reasonable goals and achievable expectations.

Step 6 – Involve Your Employees

When possible include employees in important decisions. The benefits of this are twofold. Firstly, listening to the needs and challenges of your staff can highlight issues and opportunities that might have otherwise been overlooked. Secondly, when employees work together to create policy, set goals, choose the tools they need to work and make other decisions integral to the organisation, they feel valued and important to the business and to you.

Step 7 – Be Honest

We all heard it as children and it holds true today: Honesty is the best policy. When you lie to employees, you erode their trust, and that erosion of trust results in a damaged relationship. Even when telling the truth is difficult, bite the bullet. Studies have shown that business environments with high levels of trust foster significantly more creative and more productive employees.

Step 8 – Be Appreciative

When employees do something well or beyond expectation, acknowledge it and show your appreciation. It costs nothing but can mean a lot. According to the Harvard Business Review, research shows that the ratio of positive to negative interactions is 5:1 in a successful relationship. ‘You don’t need to pay someone five compliments before offering criticism, but do be mindful of the ratio’.

Step 9 – Create Opportunities to Grow

In order to keep your employees interested and engaged they must see themselves advancing within the business, both in terms of their skills and their position within the business. Encouraging them to continue their education or professional development – and paying for it - shows your support. Your employees will work harder and more effectively with this level of support.

The contents of this article are necessarily expressed in broad terms and limited to general information rather than detailed analyses or legal advice. Specialist professional advice should always be obtained to address legal and other issues arising in specific contexts.

If Government reports are anything to go by, it appears that the worst is behind us; unemployment levels are dropping, businesses are growing and people are looking for new job opportunities. As any good business owner will know, quality employees will always be in demand and retaining quality retaining them is essential to the development of their business. But what if you find yourself losing your top talent? What has motivated them to search for pastures greener and how can you stop the outflow? Funnily enough, it usually has very little to do with money. Here are five of the top reasons quality employees quit.

1.       They Don’t Feel There Are Growth Opportunities

Whether it is in terms of promotion or learning new skills, employees may feel that they are not advancing in their career. Personal growth can be a strong driver, especially for younger employees who are looking for training opportunities and ways to differentiate themselves from the larger pool of fresh executives.

Other times, employees may feel frustrated in their current role and feel that they have reached a ceiling on how far they can advance within a company. In such situations they will seek out opportunities at other companies where a more senior role is available.

The Fix: Establish a clear learning and development programme for your staff that provides opportunities to enhance and expand their skillset. A more qualified, satisfied employee can only be considered a more valuable asset to your company.

Equally, detailing a career path for your employees by identifying the skills and qualities necessary to advance to a higher level will motivate to work towards a promotion. Regular appraisals paired with effective communication will help them identify the areas that need to be improved if they are to achieve their goals.

2.       They’re Not Feeding Their Passion

Employee satisfaction is about much more than their salary. They need to be passionate, or at least actively interested, about the job they do. Nobody wants to be bored at work. Too often employees are assigned to tasks and positions that they have no interest in. Your employee applied for a job because what was outlined in the job spec appealed to them. If it turns out that the job they’re doing doesn’t relate to what they thought it would be, you wind up with a frustrated employee that eventually burns out or leaves.

The Fix: Set clearly defined roles for your staff and ensure that the role is suited to their individual strengths, where they will be challenged, engaged and excited about what they do. If a situation does arise where they must take on some extra responsibilities that are completely different to their area of expertise – be it due to understaffing or a lack of budget to invest in more people – be sure to communicate the issue to them, expressing your appreciation for their flexibility and providing an end date that they can work towards.

3.       They Fee Unappreciated

Unlike you, your employees do not come into work with the company’s balance sheets in mind. Most of them do not see themselves as being there to increase revenues and profits. They are there to work for you, their employer, and to carry out their role in making the business work. If they feel that they are not being recognised for the hard work they do for you then they will eventually stop doing it or move onto another company where such effort is acknowledged and rewarded

The Fix: Develop effective employee relationship strategies. Communicate with your staff regularly and find out how they are doing both in- and outside their job. Most importantly, don’t be afraid to praise good work and acknowledge when someone exceeds expectations.

4.       Lack of Autonomy

Trust is a huge factor for any employee. They want to know that they can trust you to manage the business that pays them but the best employees also want to know that you trust them to carry out their job professionally and autonomously.  You’re worst people are probably happy to have you standing over their shoulder, checking everything is done correctly. However, this will drive you’re most talented employees to madness. If your employees feel that you don’t trust their work, it will not be long before your proofing their letter of notice.

The Fix Autonomy and independence are traits and characteristics that you must encourage in the work place. As an employer you can only provide an environment that encourages such things but it is up to each member of staff to embrace it. One way to help create such an environment is to develop a culture of accountability, where employees own and execute their duties and thus are more empowered within their roles.

5.       They Feel Redundant

As I mentioned before, employees need to be passionate about the work they do. They also need to believe that there is a value in the work that they do and that their role is important to the functioning of the company. Failure to fulfil this need results in a sense of disillusionment that quickly turns into disengagement and poor performance.

The Fix: It is important to sit with each reporting employee and the value of their job and contribution to achieving the business’s overall strategy, showing them the relevance of what they do beyond their role and department.


The contents of this article are necessarily expressed in broad terms and limited to general information rather than detailed analyses or legal advice. Specialist professional advice should always be obtained to address legal and other issues arising in specific contexts.