Regardless of the sector, every workforce is under the most stress in history. 

Increased population, demand, and access to technology have caused every factory and storage facility to operate past maximum capacity. When there aren’t enough employees to facilitate this, burnout is inevitable.

So, how can management maintain retention while inspiring existing employees to do their best work?

3 Proven Tips To Create Happier Workplaces

1. Increase management’s presence

Management teams often need to be more connected to areas where most of the process happens. Production floors or office spaces where laborers complete most tasks that add to the company’s value are separate literally and mentally from management. 

Management spends more time in meetings or off-site engagements, whereas the workforce remains in the same place, adding to a company’s bottom dollar. This separation causes management to dissociate from the foundation of a company’s success.

One of the best ways to bridge this gap is for management to spend time on the floor. Those in leadership may not have been in production positions for decades, and perhaps they never did for the company they presently work for. If management doesn’t know the processes, obstacles, and atmosphere of the workspace, employees will only feel less appreciated and potentially taken advantage of.

Dedicating time to work alongside them on the floor to more deeply understand the nitty-gritty details of the job will inspire coworkers, reminding them what they do is impactful work — so much so that the highest in the food chain is willing to work beside them.

This has multiple benefits, especially as diving into the work could reveal previously unnoticed process improvements. It’s a great time to note these, interview employees, and ask them for their feedback — this will increase the meaningfulness of management’s presence. 

Management can also dive even more profoundly, asking questions about company morale to understand what they could do to inspire them more. If workers don’t show signs of fulfillment or confidence, it’s time to uncover what would motivate people individually. This attention will provide a morale boost until process changes can implement.

2. Differentiate between managing and leading

Being sufficient managers and being acceptable leaders are two different skill sets. Managers provide surface-level oversight, ensuring operations run smoothly and employees perform their assigned tasks on schedule. 

Though someone can be a manager and a leader, leaders are the only ones that can motivate employees outside of meeting organizational requirements. Leaders see the workforce from a macro perspective, whereas managers need to fulfill the day’s needs.

Leaders also operate differently when inspiring others compared to how they accomplish managerial admin. People trying to lead see how assignments could develop an employee’s qualifications and how that may impact the company — leaders will then try to monetize literally and metaphorically on these instances.

This involves softer, more ambiguous skills such as:

• Learning how to be a better listener;
• Having an open mind to different work ethics;
• Being able to deliver constructive feedback;
• Providing genuine reminders to employees that management views them as necessary, and they notice their growth;
• Exercising empathy, especially as management becomes more familiar with employees on a personal level.

Leaders provide more connection to employees, whereas managers can come off as micro-managing and distrusting. This perception that workers do not have agency under management makes it challenging to inspire coworkers. However, company culture will shift if management teams incorporate more leadership skills into their management style.

3. Set clear expectations

If members of a workforce are lost on what to do or how to execute a task, it could be for a multitude of reasons. Workers could lack motivation or confidence, feeling unprepared or undertrained for tasks. Or, it could be management didn’t administer tasks with enough direction, causing coworkers to feel uninspired during daily projects, especially if they make mistakes. 

A way to circumvent this miscommunication is collaborating with staff to formulate process plans. They know their roles intimately and provide the most valuable information concerning time estimates, obstacles, and improvements that could change how a company operates. This will also allow open discourse concerning process expectations and what each employee must do to align with company goals.

This issue compounds if the staff does not know who to reach out to for help — or management encourages staff to reach out to them, but they’re often unavailable or unfamiliar with the work in detail. This creates tension, forming an unsupportive atmosphere where those working in production have to invent solutions to get the job done — and management could be none the wiser in how they got to that point.

Making time to discover how they feel about their work is crucial. Find the cause of performance inadequacies or when guidelines need to be understood. Once the root cause reveals itself, management teams can find ways to refine the language in job descriptions and projects so workers feel more qualified to tackle the work they are already doing.

The strength of company expectations can exceed their value if management incorporates greater purpose within them. Employees feel more inspired if they feel their work has an impact, and if task expectations interweave this mentality, then employees will feel happier by proxy. If every task, no matter how small, benefits a greater mission, the drive will increase.

Conclusion

The best advice management can take to create more inspired workers is to be involved. Too often, there aren’t any verbal exchanges, much less physical meetings between the rungs of company ladders. 

They justify decreasing involvement for progress that only management can affect, such as stakeholder meetings or company-wide improvements. However, these could be more well-informed — and create a more driven workforce — with a few short steps out of the meeting room.