How Great Leaders Manage Employee Expectations

Nowadays, many companies are not just competing against each other on the market but they are also competing for the employees as well. The fact of the matter is that employees are the core of every company that helps drive it forward. What’s more, finding the right workers for the job and convincing them to work for you has become quite difficult lately.

Today, people are looking for the right company culture, suitable work conditions and work environment, and not just good salaries. So, when it comes to effective hiring, it comes down to the ability of a company to meet employee expectations.

That way, any company can ensure that their employees are satisfied, engaged, as well as productive. In addition, companies can ensure employee retention and thus avoid costly turnovers. However, it’s up to company leaders and managers to ensure that employees have all that they need, in the first place. Therefore, here are a few ways great leaders manage employee expectations.

Proper onboarding process

When new employees arrive at your company, it’s important to help them adjust properly, as well as help them familiarize themselves with how your company operates. Therefore, the first step towards managing employee expectations is to implement a proper onboarding process.

How you treat new employees is very important for establishing a good first impression. The onboarding process means integrating new employees into your company’s culture and showing them what your company is all about. However, the main issue is that only 37% of companies have an onboarding process that lasts longer than one month. This experience is vital because 69% of new arrivals will stay for at least three years with a company that provides a great onboarding experience. With that in mind, 20% of turnovers happen within the first 45 days. That’s why it’s important to have an onboarding process that’s not only effective but also prolonged enough so employees can settle down.

Avoiding micromanaging

To employers or managers, micromanaging might seem like a good strategy to keep things in check and avoid potentially costly mistakes. However, micromanagement is quite the opposite of being a good strategy.

One of the expectations your employees will surely have is for you to allow them to do their job and at least have a bit of faith in them that they’ll deliver as expected. Micromanaging sends the wrong message and can easily induce a lot of stress among your employees. It shows that you do not trust them completely and that you must oversee everything they do. This type of behavior is a drain for employee morale, motivation and productivity, among other things and you should best avoid it at all costs. Instead, allow employees the freedom to do things their way and revise their work after it’s been completed. If there are any issues with employee work, you can talk to them and point out what they’re doing wrong but in a way that won’t come off as hostile.

Seamless processes

Today, we live in a world that’s powered by technology. That being said, people are generally more tech-savvy these days. Your employees will expect to have proper equipment that will allow them to do their job in a seamless way. Therefore, avoid providing them with obsolete technology and tools.

What’s more, the way your company streamlines its workflows and other processes also reflects on your employees. For example, a lack of communication can badly reflect on employee collaboration and productivity. Also, keeping information in silos will prevent employees from properly utilizing data to do their job.In essence, whatever makes your company culture dysfunctional is not in accordance with employee expectations. As another example, employees expect to be paid on time. You can implement reliable employee income cards, in order to replace the obsolete paper checks. That way, you reduce the risk of errors and ensure that employees will receive their salaries that are properly calculated and taxed.

Work-life balance

Nowadays, many companies treat work flexibility as a privilege when it’s anything but. As a matter of fact, it won’t cost you a dime to introduce more flexibility for employees at work, whereas it will do wonder for employee engagement, motivation and productivity.

After all, employees do expect from employers to look after their well-being. Therefore, striving towards helping your employees achieve work-life balance can yield numerous benefits for both parties. For instance, allow employees to come in late or leave early, as long as they complete their daily tasks.

Also, allow them to work from home if they need to take care of a child or a parent. Any type of flexibility is good for the employees and also good for your company. Not only will you be able to meet employee expectation but you’ll ensure that you’ll be able to retain them, as well as ensure their productivity and engagement.

Summary

Today, meeting employee expectations is a lot more difficult than it used to be. In fact, employees consider a lot of factors to be more important than good salaries. If you’re able to meet these expectations, you’ll be able to not just hire the right people but also retain them at your company for at least a couple of years.