As a small business owner the amount you can pay your employees for their hard work and loyalty is often limited compared to large corporations. That said, unlike large corporations small business owners are in a position to build a much more personal relationship with their staff which can really add a lot of value to an employee’s life and increase their loyalty to your company.

There are many ways that you can show your employees that you appreciate them, but if you are looking for a starting point these four tips will help steer your company in the right direction.

Treat them as individuals

Each one of your staff are different. Take the time to get to know them individually so that you can ensure they don’t begin to feel like a worker bee. You don’t need to be a creepy about it and take them out drinking all night or over step your boundaries by telling them to break up with their partner. You can simply spend a little bit of time each week checking in with them and finding out how they feeling about work, their clients and to make sure they are happy in their personal life.

Reward excellence

If you have a staff member that has received a great client review, performed a task really well or has gone above and beyond, make sure you acknowledge their efforts. You can do this by talking about their achievement at a staff meeting, personally thanking them or via email or by surprising them with a small gift like a coffee card or lunch.

Rewarding excellence will encourage further excellence while making the staff member feel appreciated.

Have an open door policy

As the owner it is important to make sure that your employees feel comfortable talking to you about work related issues, client issues and the occasional personal issue. You need to be open to their feedback and value their input if you want them to feel respected and valued.

That said you also need to be clear that although their input is valued you are ultimately the owner of the company and will be the one making the final decisions.

 Set realistic expectations

As a business owner it is easy to get carried away when setting goals and expectations for your employees. If you set goals that are unrealistic then you risk destroying employee moral and hindering their productivity. Don’t set your employees up for failure, remember that their investment in the company is different to yours when setting goals and most importantly remember that they have lives outside of work when determining your expectations.