5 tips to take better care of your employees!

1. Show empathy and take time to listen to your people, they need it. Plan for instance a walking meeting. While walking you will get a different dynamic and conversation compared to the official yearly evaluation meeting behind screens.

2. Forget the 1 size-fits all approach and establish a culture that allows individualized working conditions. Example: check who prefers to work from home and who needs social interaction from the office. Offer maximum flexibility for maximum employee satisfaction.

3. Keep your employees engaged by giving them a high level of self-responsibility. Focus on what result you desire from your people. Forget that controlling attitude that it has to happen within the boundaries of offices & office hours.

4. Leave people more room to work and let go of the meeting culture. Plan 45-minute meetings and give people those 15 minutes to wrap up the to-do’s, and meeting notes, or take to a stroll to the toilet. Dare to question if everyone in the meeting room is necessary. Entrepreneur Jurgen Ingels once calculated the cost per minute of a meeting to give a clear insight into how much time – and thus money – was wasted. You can understand from that he clearly is not a fan of long and crowded meetings ;-).

5. Put purpose first in your strategic plans. Fueled by younger people, more and more employees are looking for companies that lead purposefully. Sure your products or services matter, but what really will convince talented people to choose for your company is what impact your company wants to have on societal issues.

Think thoroughly about what you care. Communicate your purpose clearly internally first and turn your own employees into your number 1 brand ambassadors!