Building a Great Place to Work: Five practical tips for your business

Running a business isn’t easy. With stretched resources and a seemingly endless to-do list, keeping employees happy can easily slip down your list of priorities. But keeping your best people happy in their jobs is crucial for long-term success, and here’s the secret: creating a positive work environment isn’t just about the kind of perks that only big businesses can afford.

Even small changes can make a big difference in attracting and retaining talent. And so, from a recently named Great Place to Work®, here are Zen’s top five practical tips that any business can put into action.

1) Make work matter: Help your team feel involved

For most people, work is about more than the next payday. They want to feel like their work has meaning, but in a small business especially it’s easy for employees to get bogged down in daily tasks. The good news is that making an effort to keep them involved costs nothing. Taking five minutes at the start of every week to provide quick updates on recent company wins or upcoming projects can make your team feel like a part of your success. Some other tips include:

• Sharing is caring: At regular weekly or monthly intervals, ask your team to share their own individual progress, success stories, challenges or even work-based anecdotes. It’ll help the to feel part of your business and invested in your ongoing success.
• Who we are: If your company has a mission statement or set of objectives, remind employees of it regularly. But even more importantly, explain how their daily work supports that mission. At Zen, our most fundamental long-term objectives are ‘Happy Staff’, ‘Happy Customers’, and ‘Happy Suppliers’. That’s a mantra that every Zen employee knows off by heart, and we’re regularly reminded how our individual roles and contributions can help make those objectives a reality.
• Success stories: It’s important to share positive customer feedback with your team whenever possible. Knowing they’ve made a difference in someone’s life can instil a sense of pride and strengthen your people’s attachment to your business.

2) Open Communication: Encourage feedback and ideas

In a small business, it might seem like everyone is always in touch, but meaningful communication goes deeper than a bit of office banter. It’s important as an employer to establish clear ways for employees to share honest feedback and suggestions. This could be through:

• Regular one-to-ones: Brief weekly or monthly check-ins with managers can build trust and help to open up honest conversations in a less intimidating setting. The more this type of communication becomes the norm, the more productive it can be.
• Anonymous surveys: Want to really know how you’re doing? Make it anonymous. Online tools like SurveyMonkey can offer a safe space for honest input from your team. This isn’t something you should do often, but a company-wide survey once or twice a year can help you to better gauge how things are going.
• Communicate back: Open communication shouldn’t be a one-way street. Getting feedback from your people is important, but it’s equally important for you to keep them in the loop. We’re not saying share top secret information, but letting your people know about company decisions and the reasoning behind them can build trust and help staff feel invested.
• Don’t be afraid of tough topics: Sometimes it’s hard to talk about certain subjects, but creating a culture of honest discussion can help confront and deal with potential problems before they become damaging. From concerns about workloads to company direction, or anything else affecting employee morale, it’s worth having those conversations.

3) Invest in growth… it costs less than you think

Employees want to feel like they’re developing, not just stuck in a rut. Providing opportunities for growth shows that you value your people, and despite what you might think, it needn’t cost the earth. Here are some budget-friendly ways to develop your team:

• Skill sharing: Do employees have specialised skills that they could teach others? Why not set up some drop-in learning sessions for a low-cost way to cross-train.
• Mentorship: It costs nothing to pair junior employees with more experienced colleagues for informal learning on the job. Your new starters will appreciate the help, and your experienced staff might just appreciate the responsibility handed to them.
• Free online resources: Platforms like FutureLearn and LinkedIn Learning offer many free courses that employees can complete in their own time. If these platforms offer real value, you might even consider investing in a licence for access to thousands more paid training courses.
• Career planning: During your regular check-ins, ask employees about their long-term goals. This simple strategy shows that you’re interested in their future and could even reveal untapped skills within your team.
• Stretch assignments: If they’re up for it, offer employees opportunities to work on projects outside of their normal responsibilities. This can aid personal development while also directly benefiting the business.

4) Recognise and reward: Little things can add up

Big bonuses, frequent pay rises, and company away days are all well and good if you can afford it. But celebrating success needn’t break the bank. It’s possible to keep employees happy for much less with small but consistent recognition, including:

• Verbal appreciation: A sincere ‘thank you’ can mean a lot, and it’s free! Make it specific and timely, and obviously don’t overdo it. If the only recognition your people ever get is thanks it can quickly start to feel hollow and cheap.
• Team treats: Everyone likes a free cake or even a meal out now and then. It needn’t cost too much and can help employees feel valued as well as build team morale.
• Early finishes: When feasible, offer an early finish on a Friday as a reward for hitting a goal. This can feel invaluable to an employee but can also really benefit your business. After all, if they know you’re willing to allow them to knock off early at a quiet time, they might just be more willing to put an extra shift in when you need it.
• Peer appreciation: Encouraging employees to recognise each other’s work can foster a team culture of appreciation. You might have a dedicate channel in your internal messaging tool (Teams, etc.) or encourage your people to vote for their own ‘superheroes’ in your business once a quarter (that’s what we do at Zen!).
• Celebrate milestones: Don’t just focus on big wins. Apart from a bit of cake now and then, it costs very little to recognise birthdays, work anniversaries, or even small personal achievements.

5) Flexibility fosters trust

Rigid work schedules can add unnecessary stress to employees’ lives, and one of the best ways to make your best people feel valued is to allow them a little flexibility. It shows you trust them, value their wellbeing, and are prepared to make adjustments to keep them happy. Consider:

• Flexible hours: Allowing slight variations in start/end times helps ease commutes and childcare pressures.
• Remote work (where possible): Do all your people need to be in the office every day? Even a few remote days a month can offer massive work-life balance benefits. Find out what works for you and your employees and don’t be afraid to embrace home working.
• ‘Core hours’ only: For roles where it’s feasible, designate hours where everyone needs to be available (for meetings, etc.) but allow flexibility beyond that. Working in the evenings for example might benefit some members of your team and if it doesn’t adversely affect the business, why not give it a try?
• Judge on results: Employees often tend to underperform when they feel like they’re being watched. Instead of tracking employee hours, try shifting the focus to evaluating their output. This empowers staff to manage their own time, while emphasising quality of work over physical presence. You’ll probably find that most of your people will reward you for their new-found sense of freedom. It doesn’t mean they’re not working, only that they don’t feel like you’re watching their every move.