8 ideal workplace practices for entrepreneurs to follow Trust is the defining principle of great workplaces - created through management's credibility.
By Swapnil Kamat •
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
You're reading Entrepreneur India, an international franchise of Entrepreneur Media.
A happy workplace is a huge asset. In such places, something happens that transcends policies and practices. It isn't what the companies are doing; it is how their leaders are doing it. Best workplace practices include the day to day relationships that the employees experience, and not a checklist of policies, programmes and benefits.
1. Provide Clear Expectations
People get frustrated and demotivated when they don't know exactly what is expected of them. It starts with the CEO, and is important for every level of leadership in a business. Create a culture where you clearly state:
• Vision, Goals, Roles & Values
• Results, Quality Standards, Timelines, Priorities
• Written lists of agreed actions and outcomes
Encourage your team to ask questions. Ensure the communication is clear, specific and without any doubts.
2. Give people the opportunity to use their skills
Frustration and boredom are counterproductive so you need to align jobs with people with the right skills. Uncover the special skills people could be using, and experiment with projects and roles to get the alignment right. You need to recognise talent and use it. If a person is recruited for a role and then not given the opportunity to use their skills, they will not deliver their best work and may leave.
3. Support your Team
There are many workplaces where managers don't care about their people and make no effort to show interest. This is bad word of mouth. One should know about their staff: what is happening in their lives, what motivates them, and offering assistance when they are overloaded.
4. Encourage people to contribute ideas and get involved in decisions
Involving people, asking their opinions and listening to their advice and feedback makes a huge difference to them and will provide an environment that is open to innovation and improvements.
5. Encourage Feedback and Recognition
Managers are leaders without title, so being open to feedback, and giving positive and constructive feedback is a great way to establish an honest open feedback culture. Encourage day-to-day feedback discussions, and the establishment of recognition systems.
6. Do people have fun at work?
Everyone needs a downtime from work. This could be a casual day, afternoon break with a difference like culturally focused food, trivia competitions, team outing, etc. You need to find a way to build this in as a regular part of your workplace.
7. Encourage learning and development
You need to promote learning, and opportunities to develop new skills. People need to know there is the time to do it, and a positive emphasis on gaining new skills and learning from mistakes. Learning is about developing new skills and improving the ones you have. Give people the opportunity to continuously grow, learn, explore, innovate and you will have the best team ever!
8. Create a great workplace from an employee's view
From the Employee's perspective, a great workplace is one where they:
• Trust the people they work for
• Have pride in what they do
• Enjoy the people they work with
Trust is the defining principle of great workplaces — created through management's credibility, the respect with which employees feel they are treated, and the extent to which employees expect to be treated fairly. The degree of pride and levels of authentic connection and camaraderie employees feel with one are additional essential components.
