As a business manager, you may wonder what your employees think about you.  Despite your best efforts to try to level with them and have a healthy working relationship, the truth is they may not think very highly of you behind closed doors.  While its true that your job as a manager isn’t to make friends, it’s still essential to build trust and respect with your staff to get the best performance out of them.

Having a good relationship with your employees doesn’t just result in them doing their best work, but also ensures that they represent your business in the best possible light.  Here are some of the best tips for turning your business around and getting your employees to embrace change.

Give Positive Feedback

It’s important to let your employees know what you think of their performance.  If you never recognize their good work or acknowledge their skills, they may start to feel unappreciated.  As a result, they’ll lose their drive to strive to be their best.

Some managers make the mistake of only giving feedback where there is a need for improvement.  However, employees also need to know when you think they’re doing a good job.

Invite Their Opinion

Asking your staff what they think and how they feel things need to change or be implemented shows them that you value their opinion.  Ultimately you don’t just want people who follow orders. You want people who follow a set of guidelines but aren’t afraid to take the initiative to make change where innovation is needed.

It’s beneficial to have meetings at least once a month to get everyone’s input on where they feel things could be changed.

Fair Wages

Regardless of how nice you are, or how respectful you are to your employees verbally, you’re never going to get the best out of your team if you pay them poorly.  If your goal is to retain good employees, then you have to give them the incentive to remain with your company.

Always pay fairly for the work that they do.  Consider offering bonuses and raises for consistent performances ad you’ll find that their performance will drastically improve.

Trust Them

One of the key factors in establishing a healthy relationship with the people who work for you is showing them that you trust them.

Micromanaging shows your employees that you don’t find them capable of being able to do their job alone.  If you can’t step away from your staff and let them work without being under your supervision, then it’s a sign that you don’t trust them and should seriously consider hiring new people who you can trust.

Having to watch and give feedback to your team constantly isn’t just exhausting, but it costs you valuable time and money.