6 Ways to Build a Team That’s Passionate About Their Work

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According to the State of the Workplace report by Gallup, 85% of employees are not engaged at their workplace. This number indicates a grave concern in modern workplaces where employees are not passionate about the work they do.

As an entrepreneur, it’s crucial to build a team that’s driven and invested in your company’s vision. The more determined your team will be, the better your performance as a group will be. 

In this article, we discuss the various ways in which you can build and hone a team that believes in the work it does and is determined to scale the heights of success.

6 ways to build a team that’s passionate about their work

No business can operate without employees performing various vital tasks. However, it’s the quality of those employees that makes or breaks a company.

Businesses with passionate, driven employees achieve targets and experience growth. While companies with unengaged employees at best manage to stay above the line. 

Passionate employees bring more than just profit to your company. Here are a few key benefits of having dedicated employees:

  1. Increased productivity — You’ll achieve goals quicker and more efficiently, making the most of your resources.

  2. Positive work culture — Passionate employees make a positive environment where constructive conversations flow and people unite toward a shared vision.

  3. Reduced employee turnover — When employees enjoy the work they do with you, they’re less likely to look for better jobs and stay with you long-term.

  4. Better relationship with employees — Employees that care about the work they do are more likely going to engage with your efforts toward building a long-term relationship with them. 

We’ve elaborated some tried-and-tested strategies to help you build a team of dedicated, passionate employees that take your company forward and bring positivity to the workplace.

1.Make the most of the employee engagement platforms

When it comes to engaging employees at work, employee engagement platforms have emerged as a feasible solution for companies. They are especially beneficial for small to mid-sized businesses that might not be able to allocate many resources to this particular aspect.

Make the most of employee engagement platforms as a part of your employee engagement strategy to help employees become more absorbed in the work they perform. It will achieve this by the following means:

a) Providing performance reviews

The platform lets employees know how well they performed a task, what their shortcomings are, and how they can improve in the future. This helps employees learn about their work and get more engaged with it.

b) Providing perks

This is perhaps the most popular function of an engagement platform. It provides perks and benefits to employees they can redeem by performing tasks well. It motivates them to do well.

c) Employee recognition

Recognizing the hard work performed by passionate employees is one of the most effective ways to boost their engagement with you. The platform recognizes high-performing employees and allows you to reward them in various ways.

d) Gamification of day-to-day work

The platforms convert everyday tasks into quizzes, puzzles, and games that employees can perform to gain points and compete with fellow employees. It keeps employees entertained while also promoting healthy competition.

Using an employee engagement platform simplifies the task of keeping your staff entertained and hooked with the work they do. It ignites sincere passion in them to perform well and excel at their job. This in turn brings excellence to your company’s performance as a whole.

2.Incorporate video to enhancce employee communication

Employee communication has taken a major hit with the rise of remote working. This has directly affected employees’ engagement with their work. Using videos can be an excellent way to enhance employee communication and through it, their engagement.

75% of employees prefer to watch a video than read a document, text, or email. Use videos to relay important messages to your employees and converse with them in general. The use of video brings a human connection to your interactions with them.
It allows them to view your company as a group of people working toward a shared goal rather than a faceless corporation. They’re going to be more inclined to put in their best efforts when they can freely converse with their fellow employees with ease.

Include video content in training and development exercises. It helps them refrain from the information better and engage with it. Use an online tool like Happy Scribe to add optimal value to the video content you provide to your team. 
The goal is to enrich the communication you have with your employees to make them understand your values and vision better. The more they align with your vision, the more passionate they’ll be about the work they do.

3.Hire Passionate People

Your team will automatically be filled with passionate employees when you hire passionate people. We understand that this is easier said than done, but the idea is to be more vigilant in your hiring processes to pick suitable candidates.

Pay attention to the attributes candidates possess during screening, tests, and interviews, and determine if they are passionate about their career and past work. This helps you gauge how they will engage with the work you do in your company. 
If they were dedicated and driven in their past work or possess qualities such as public speaking and problem-solving, they are likely very driven individuals who are dedicated to the work they do. And they’ll do the same when they work for you.

Here are a few tips to identify and recognize passionate candidates:

  • Pay attention to the following sections of the resumes of candidates: hobbies, volunteer work, and awards received. 
  • Include behavioral assessment in the employment tests you conduct during hiring.
  • Call the references candidates list in their resumes. People who know them and have worked with them will be able to tell you better about their drive and dedication to work.
  • Ask pointed questions in the interview about their passion for work and observe their responses.

4.Reward hard-working employees

Recognition is one of the easiest ways to drive dedicated employees to perform even better in the future. Keep an eye on the performances of your team and single out the ones who perform the best, preferably in front of everyone.
Reward these individuals to let them know their hard work is seen and valued. It makes them feel seen and appreciated and ignites a new vigor in them to perform even better in their next tasks. Make sure to publicly reward them as it has dual benefits:

a) First, It makes the employee happier to be rewarded in front of their peers. It adds to the thrill of being rewarded.

b) Second, it promotes healthy competition in the workplace as the employees who see their peers get rewarded feel pushed to perform better so that they can also be rewarded.

There are many ways you can reward employees. The ideal way would be to reward them according to the magnitude of their achievement. Here are a few ideas, both big and small:

  • Bonuses
  • Paid leaves
  • Lunches/Dinners
  • Gift cards
  • Handwritten notes with flower bouquets
  • Paid vacation

5.Instill trust in them

Trust is the foundation of a positive work culture that fosters passionate and driven employees. To build a team that is passionate about the work it does, you need to instill trust in them as well as make them believe in your vision.

If you can, have a personal chat with them. Let them know about your vision and how you see them fit into the company culture. Ask them about their plans regarding working with you. The openness and transparency you show instills trust in them that they’re sure to reciprocate in the work they do.
You may also indulge in group activities where people converse, interact, and engage with one another. It breaks the ice amongst them, so to speak, and makes the work environment positive all around. This also contributes to building trust in your team.

6.Make employees feel included

Include your employees in activities performed by the company. This lets them know that you view them as a valuable member and want them to be seen as associated with your company. This further motivates them to perform well as the company’s image is now attached to them.

Here are a few ideas to make employees feel included:

  • Making teams eat lunch together to allow them to bond.
  • Sending them to public events on your company’s behalf.
  • Arranging for them to do volunteer work.
  • Establish communication channels in every team for robust internal communication.

Make work fun and employees feel included to build passionate teams

Employee engagement is a pressing concern in the working landscape of today, especially with the rise of remote working. 

To build a team that’s passionate and driven about its work, start by hiring people that fit your company’s vision. Enable and empower your team with the help of employee engagement platforms. Strengthen communication with them with the help of videos.

Recognize passionate employees and reward them. Make everyone feel included and foster a culture of positivity and growth.

Let us know in the comments how you think teams can become more passionate about their work.

By Atreyee Chowdhury

Atreyee Chowdhury is a freelance content writer with more than 10+ years of professional experience. She’s passionate about helping SMBs and enterprises achieve their content marketing goals with her carefully crafted and compelling content. She loves to read, travel, and experiment with different cuisines in her free time. You can follow her on LinkedIn.

6 Tips for Creating a Balanced and Engaging Work Culture in 2023

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In the past, people believed that the only prerequisite to succeed in business was a great idea. While this is a prerequisite, people noticed that some businesses with great ideas last longer than others. It didn’t take them long to figure out the deciding factor was the work culture. 

With that in mind, here are the top six tips for creating a balanced and engaging work culture that will last in 2023. 

1. Become better at solving scheduling problems

The majority of workplace issues arise from scheduling problems. This is what makes people stressed out and causes conflicts in the workplace. So, by creating a balanced and engaging work culture, you have a better chance at creating a balanced and engaging work culture.

First, the easy way out. You can handle most scheduling problems and solutions via employee management software. So, getting one should be a top priority. This level of automation and coordination is hard to achieve manually. 

Still, even outside of this, there are many different areas that you should improve in so that you can create more efficient schedules. 

First, you need to understand the problem, and these problems can come in many shapes and forms:

  • Optimizing employee shifts
  • Meeting room allocation
  • Project timelines

These are just some of the issues that you’ll be facing.

Then, you need to understand that there are many constraints and that the schedule is not completely arbitrary. There are legal regulations. This may not be legal even if an employee agrees to do a 20-hour shift. 

Then, there are employee preferences and even resource availability. For instance, if you have operating space for just ten employees, having all the employees from both shifts appear simultaneously will not increase productivity. It may even decrease it.

Most important of all is the data. By getting enough information on the efficiency of your scheduling (overlapping, missed deadlines, etc.) and employee feedback, you’ll understand the problem much better.

2. Develop a better understanding of staff management

Staff management is an organizational skill that requires a lot of intelligence, multi-tasking, and empathy. Now, even though this description, it’s implied that this field requires a lot of talent, at the same time, it’s a skill, which means that you have a lot to improve.

Once again, ideally, you wouldn’t do this manually but, instead, use appropriate software for staff management. This will make your actions more accurate and proficient at core management tasks.

Other than this, you need to be better at communication. In The Art of War, Sun Tzu states that if the order is unclear, it’s the commander’s fault when they’re not executed. So, you must become better at setting clear expectations. 

Another thing you need to do is learn how to listen actively. Regarding feedback, people want to know that you’ve heard the point they were trying to make, not just nod silently while they’re speaking. You need to provide feedback while getting feedback, which is not nearly as intuitive for many people. 

Conflict resolution is one of the most important tasks of any manager. You’ll often be summoned as an arbitrator in a conflict you know little about. At this point, you must offer a compromise and remember that you can’t take sides even if one party is 100% at fault. You need to be fair and just but also conciliatory. Preserving the unity of the team is your high priority.

Your work culture is a great idea that needs to be enforced. You can achieve this through good management. 

3. Allow flexible work arrangements

You must allow people to work independently and under their conditions. This is incredibly important for many reasons. First, it can help people achieve a much better work-life balance. Second, it may drive productivity up. Finally, it will make you more appealing as an employer and drastically boost your talent attraction rates.

Just remember that setting this up isn’t a small thing. First, you need to make a choice:

  • You can set up a deadlines-based system where you put people on performance pay.
  • You can monitor their work via employee monitoring software like HubStaff. 

Each of these two has its advantages and disadvantages.

Second, with a flexible working model, you’ll likely allow people to use their devices from home. This means you must introduce a BYOD policy to ensure a higher level of cybersecurity for your entire enterprise. 

You also need to ensure that you have a positive hybrid work culture. Believe it or not, even a hybrid workplace can become toxic if you’re not careful enough. While remoteness changes workplace dynamics, this change won’t always be for the better. It also won’t eliminate some of the worst aspects of the workplace. 

By giving people a choice to work in a remote or hybrid setting, you’re not forcing them into this business model. You’re just giving them more options. This is always positive and may even help increase their sense of ownership over the workplace. 

4. Put more emphasis on recognition and rewards

One of the first things you need to do to create a better work culture is to base your organization on the appreciation and recognition of your staff. Your organization is made of people putting their work and effort into reaching your goals and objectives. Your organization is not your vision, mission, or brand – it’s the people.

Your employees must know their work is appreciated to give it their best. So, you need to learn how to do this the right way. Generic praises are not efficient enough since people can easily read the intention (or the lack thereof). So, you might even want to consider getting an employee engagement platform. This way, you’ll always have all the insight you need to guide these conversations to their successful outcome.

Next, we need to discuss the rewards. Sure, your employees will love it if everything they do right could result in a pay raise. They would also prefer to get promoted at least twice per month. The problem is that this would be utterly unsustainable from the perspective of your finances and your organization’s structure.

Instead, you must learn how to give proper micro-rewards and create this promotion/pay-raise scheme so your staff never feels underappreciated.

You also want to think about the concepts of autonomy and trust. If you micro-manage everything and insist that your employees seek your confirmation for every decision, you’re not just slowing down your process but also ruining your relationship. Give them more autonomy!

5. Provide a platform for growth and development

Many managers see talent turnover as a negative thing and refuse to acknowledge it for what it really is – an inescapable rule of the business world. Your employees, even the best ones (especially the best ones), will probably, eventually leave. Even those you promote and reward. Even those you consider friends.

You can, however, affect:

  • How long they stay
  • How hard they try while they’re in your employ
  • How well they talk about you to their future coworkers

These three things are monumental, so you must ensure they’re happy in your employ.

Now, it’s only normal that people only look for themselves and your employees work for you for one of few things. They want a decent salary and great work experience to further their career.

You’ll be seen as an ideal employer if you allow them to grow. You need enough room for them to advance and a prospect for their advancement. 

You must also provide opportunities for lateral movement within your organization, a mentorship program, and many training opportunities. Generally speaking, even some of the best books about success and affluence, like Rich Dad, Poor Dad, by Robert Kiyosaki, speak about experience and skills as more valuable than pay. Some of your most ambitious employees will feel the same. 

6. Introduce wellness programs and social activities

To show your employees that you care, you must go beyond activities that generate profit. Buying your employee a new laptop is a nice gesture, but it’s an activity that indirectly boosts their productivity, which you directly benefit from.

At the same time, by starting a wellness program or creating social activity opportunities, you’ll show that you care about more than just productivity. 

You can introduce daily exercise (or deskercise), introduce healthier options in your work cafeteria, or introduce a mandatory ten-minute meditation break.

This will result in stress relief, morale boost, increased creativity, and more.

You can also combine social activities with employee appreciation (which we’ve discussed earlier) by celebrating milestones. 

The only way for your staff to stay competitive in 2023 is in a balanced ad engaging work culture 

Your employees are the only ones who can decide how hard they’ll try and how long they’ll stay. With an engaging work culture, they’ll feel the intrinsic motivation to do more. A balanced workplace will protect them from burnout and make them feel more pleasant overall. In the end, everyone wins.  

By Srdjan Gombar

Veteran content writer, published author, and amateur boxer. Srdjan is a Bachelor of Arts in English Language & Literature and is passionate about technology, pop culture, and self-improvement. His free time he spends reading, watching movies, and playing Super Mario Bros. with his son.

Why Team Building Is An Essential Investment

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Team building does not have the best reputation nowadays. Most people imagine being stuck with their co-workers for 1 or 2 days doing meaningless exercises that technically are supposed to increase productivity and collegiality.

Even though its reputation for being ineffective, team building has become one of the most important investments organisations can make for their employees. Despite the negatives emotions, it gives people, team building does build trust, alleviates conflict, boosts communication and enhances collaboration. Effective team building is what every company is looking for because it means a higher level of engagement in employees, which is fantastic for the bottom line. It can also be extremely fun if it’s done right.

It is clear as the light of day that the most successful team-building activities are the ones that make employees feel at ease and not all as having to go to work. Activities that are not at all subtle about aiming to reveal leadership and talent are obviously lowering enthusiasm amongst participants. By simply just spending time together and sharing experiences into completing a common goal allows co-workers to bond in a more natural way and it is by far more effective.

Unsurprisingly, happiness and learning have been correlated to work very well together. Most of the time, all companies have to do is introduce their employees to new things and activities which will, more often than not, will generate a feel-good factor which obviously translates into good news for the organisation. In the majority of cases, exercises that are out of the ordinary get people to work together in various new ways.

What is the purpose of team building?

Numerous analyses have revealed that people who participate in team building feel more positively about their team. This positivity is manifested in various ways such as more trust in their co-workers, more satisfaction that they’re part of a certain team and a lot more confidence that the team will achieve its targets.

Furthermore, employees that complete team building sessions together have better interactions: they communicate, coordinate and manage conflicts better. These processes are key in accomplishing the team’s ambitions.

However, team building may not directly improve team performance. Despite a better line of communication and more trustworthy workers, team building by itself doesn’t have a direct impact on performance. The reason for this is simply because performance relies on so many other factors besides team interactions that it shouldn’t be the only thing a company does if it wishes to improve performance levels.

When is team building the most effective?

Amongst team building activities, some are more effective than others. What sets apart most sessions is this: team building activities that focus on achieving goals and/or clarifying roles have the most beneficial impact. Achieving goals refers to define and clarify both individual and team objectives, and planning what actions need to be taken in order to turn objectives into reality. Clarifying roles purely means team members discuss what is and isn’t their task and understand their duties better.

On the other hand, team building exercises focused on improving interpersonal relations or solving already existing problems bring smaller, but still relevant benefits. Improving interoffice relations sees team members work on their trust among themselves whilst also building connections on a more personal level. Solving problems means identifying what doesn’t necessarily click between team members and planning on how to improve future situations.

Organisations must always remember that team building is not a splurge but merely an investment in the future! For example, one of the partners of NASCAR was invited for a day out on the tracks. 350$ for each employee wasn’t the most expensive nor cheap investment but at the end of the day, everything made sense. Everyone felt appreciated, given the fact that they were going around the track at over 233 kilometres per hour.

Daily Team Building Opportunities

Team building can include the daily interaction that employees engage in when working together to carry out the requirements of their jobs. This form of team building is natural and which can be assisted if the team takes the time required to come up with their own set of norms. The criteria help group members know how to appropriately interact with each other and the rest of the organisation.

Team building can also involve structured activities and exercises that employees on the team can lead, one way in which team criteria are established. As an alternative, with the proper budget and benchmark, managers can contract out for facilitation with an external resource. External facilitation, by an experienced person, can give your team building a boost.

No matter how an organisation chooses to build their group of employees into a team, the resulting bonds will enable them to accomplish the work and goals of the organisation more effectively than a group of people who don’t really know each other. As long as the company’s focus is dedicated to team building opportunities that lend themselves to the accomplishment of the actual work of the team, you are effectively building a team.

There is a real value in providing companies with the tools to carry out regular organisational assessments and this is where Great People Inside comes to your aid. Our online platform offers the best solutions and tools for your company to thrive in every type of industry and any possible situation your organisation may find itself. In terms of lowering your employee turnover rates, we recommend our GR8 Full Spectrum assessment for hiring and 360° Survey for retention. Finding the right talent, the best fit for the job and your organisation can be a very challenging task. It requires deep knowledge of your own organisation’s culture and a keen understanding of the candidate’s personality, strengths, interests, work style and other characteristics. Our technology and solutions will do the work for you, helping you find employees who can flourish and reach the highest performance required to constantly bring your company forward.

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Sources:

https://www.thebalancecareers.com/what-is-team-building-1918270

https://scienceforwork.com/blog/team-building/

https://www.forbes.com/sites/brianscudamore/2016/03/09/why-team-building-is-the-most-important-investment-youll-make/#1ba7fb90617f