Running a company can be really stressful. Apart from all the things you need to do to get your business moving forward, you also have a team of people that you need to manage. Regardless if you have 5 or 500 in your team, the way you manage your team is extremely important. This does not only go for the culture you have in your company or how much responsibility you give them. It also includes organising your employees, and more specifically, making it easy to know where your employees will be, when they have their vacations, and when you will be able to reach them and not.
In this article, we’ll share 5 ways to streamline the way you organize your employees, which means structuring your team internally to make it clearer with who does what and making it easy to know when people are absent and not.
1. Have regular meetings/talks
Having regular meetings with your team members one by one is an exceptionally great way to build and strengthen your relationships with them. It allows you to ask questions about their career ambitions and long-term plans which enables you to understand who they are as humans and how they view their job.
Having regular meetings and talks with your team also opens up for times when you can catch up with what is going on in the employee’s life, both professionally, and if appropriate, also personally. This way, you can know what they are currently working with, what challenges they have, and if they need any help. Doing this also opens up a communications channel that invites employees to open up about potential issues they may see and daring to say something when something is wrong.
2. Establish effective communications channels
Communication really is key for good company and employee relations. Apart from helping you build relationships with your team, having a few effective communications channels makes it easier for your team to communicate with you. And maybe most importantly: to know how to communicate with you.
Normally, companies have employee meetings a few times a year, which is the communication method mentioned in point number one. But in order to catch up with what is going on in their career, you need to communicate with your team more regularly. One way is to take help from technology which is right at everyone’s fingertips.
Communicating with your team for example via WhatsApp, Instagram, or Messenger is a great way to reach someone quickly, and if you make it clear that people can reach you easily via these platforms, then the communication will be a lot easier.
If an employee plans to be absent, they can easily notify you/ ask you, and make it clear what is what.
3. Structure your employees’ absence
As soon as you establish a team of a few people, it quickly gets impossible to keep track of when your employees and team members are available and when they will leave for vacation and other things.
Trying to manage a couple of people’s absence schedules can be really tricky. This is why having good forward planning really is key here.
This ties back to what we have already spoken about regarding having effective communications channels. The goal is to make it as easy and seamless as possible for your team to communicate information to you, and reach you, whether it be about a project or their current work status.
Employee absence tends to be a challenge within most companies. When people are absent, normally for vacation, it can become unclear about who should do what. And the result is often that nothing gets done instead.
As such, it can be really helpful as a company to use some kind of calendar or absence management software to know exactly when your employees will be available and when they won’t. This will also make it easier for you to plan a different type of company activities, whether it be new business plans or anything else.
It can also be good to make this absence calendar public for your employees so that they can plan their job accordingly. Oftentimes, jobs require teamwork and asking colleagues, and in these cases, it’s helpful to know when the teammates are in the office.
4. Have open communication between employees
It’s not only you as a leader and business owner that should communicate with your employees. You also want to make it a habit that employees also communicate with each other. The first step is to encourage them to do so, and another is to build a company culture that invites people to do so.
The better the employee communication is, the better the culture you will have, and the better the clarity there will be inside the company. This will ultimately allow your team to perform better.
5. Have clear employee roles
Most companies give their employees clear positions. Marketing manager, sales manager, assistant, and so on..
Having clear positions within a company minimizes the risk of misunderstandings and conflicts regarding working tasks.
For example, if a task appears and it is unclear about who should complete it, it can cause confusion and unnecessary conflicts. The risk is also of course that the task does not get completed.
With this in mind, give your employees clear positions, but also clearly define what those positions entitle and what you expect them to do, as well as what you do not expect them to do.
Conclusion
Running a company can be stressful and difficult. But managing employees can be an even greater challenge. One aspect is where you organize your employees, which includes who does what, and how they work.
The other aspect is having a clear structure for information and communication between you and your team. With consistent and good employee communication, this can be achieved, which really helps in clarity within the company of what is what.
