How workplace happiness and other issues affect your bottom line

Happy employees are more energetic, more productive and more invested in your business – that’s a fact. But if your staff aren’t thriving and there’s a stressful, negative vibe around your workplace, you can bet it’ll affect your business and your bottom line overall.

The good news is, you can take steps to turn things around and boost productivity and job satisfaction. Here are three things that can affect your business profits, and how to fix them.

1. Bad customer service

Retail jobs and hospitality careers are all about dealing with people – and some employees have this skill down pat. Those who don’t, or who are openly rude or grumpy when dealing with customers, can have a detrimental effect on your business. You can train your staff to always be polite and provide good customer service, but if they have attitude, aren’t helpful or prompt – or are just generally off-hand, you’ll know about it: customers won’t come back and your Facebook page or Google My Business will be flooded with poor reviews and ratings.

How to fix it? Turn it around by setting clear expectations about customer service with your staff and keep an eye on them. You could also offer training, give warnings for poor service – and remove workers who continue to actively damage your brand and business.

2. Hiring the wrong people

It’s a job-seekers market right now – and that can make businesses desperate. But hiring someone who’s not quite right simply because you need staff can backfire. A bad hire could lead to numerous issues, such as mistakes being made that affect key processes. They might not follow protocol when dealing with clients or customers. They might be unproductive, leaving other staff to pick up the slack – and miserable employees with a bad attitude can eventually affect other members of your team and lower company morale overall.

How to fix it? Realise that a few bad eggs can cost your business more than you’d ever contemplated – in fact, some studies say a bad hire could cost up to $50,000. If you’ve tried everything to fix the problems including training and warnings, it could be time to let them go.

3. Not doing anything about high turnover

Any recruitment specialist worth their salt will tell you that hiring is expensive. In fact, one study of over 1500 HR professionals in Australia and New Zealand found that hiring a single employee could cost a business a whopping $23,860! Obviously, it’s far more cost effective to retain the staff that you have – so if you’re finding that your employee turnover rates are especially high, that’s a sign people don’t like working for you (sorry). Having to constantly recruit to plug the gaps in your team does add up – but even more importantly, it’s an indication of other more major problems within your company.

How to fix it: Look at your corporate culture – are you fostering a positive, inclusive work environment for your staff? Are staff happy at work? If not, and you have stressed staff and not a lot of job satisfaction, it’s time to overhaul your workplace, talk to your staff about how to change things and work at creating a happier, more motivated workforce.

Looking to hire new employees

Our team at Frontline can help with that! We have teams that specialises in retail, health, hospitality, education and construction. They have an in-depth understanding of the unique opportunities and challenges within each sector. Our talent guarantee also means that we are committed to making sure we’ve found you the ideal fit. Reach out to us today and we will help you find your ideal fit.