Get more from your investment

Investment in staff is probably one of your biggest expenses, yet many businesses are unable to capitalise on it, experiencing high turnover and low productivity. Matthew Nolan offers tips on how to improve your returns.

As a business owner you probably know all too well that staff salaries make up a large portion of your monthly expenses.  Maximising the return you get on this investment doesn't mean you should cut back on staff numbers or their salaries - in fact that could be counter-productive. There are however ways to drive greater productivity and retention, enabling your business to achieve accelerated growth with little additional costs.

Healthy and Happy
Your staff spend more time at work than they do at home, so ensuring the workplace is a pleasant environment is vital. Providing your staff with amenities such as a water cooler, fresh fruit and maybe even an espresso machine will show your staff you care for them and want to make their workplace comfortable. For you, these small costs will save your staff spending their time out of the office getting that quick caffeine hit, and save them losing their focus on the task at hand.

Although you can't directly implement a no-smoking policy outside the workplace, encouraging your staff to kick the habit by offering to reimburse the cost of nicotine patches or gum has benefits for you and your staff. Doing this gives them an opportunity to improve their health, reducing sick days and increasing productivity. A 10-minute cigarette break, several times a day adds up quickly to hours in a week - hours you're paying for.

Long Term Commitment
Investing in your staff's professional and personal development will improve their skills and abilities - a benefit for both you and your employee.  Making this investment will also promote a sense of loyalty to the company and improve retention. Improving your staff's knowledge and skill sets will not only help them as an individual, but these new skills can be implemented in your workplace.

If you can't afford to reimburse your staff for costly external courses, providing them with time off from work for study leave, or during an exam is still showing your support. An alternative to paying for formal study is to provide your staff with individual development programs, which in a couple of pages outlines their development at work in the next year and how this will be achieved, such as learning new skills.

Australian employers have listed 'finding the right staff' as one of their primary concerns in countless surveys and recent media reports. Be sure to advertise to potential employees the great environment and team culture that exists.

By Matthew Nolan