Making Your Family Business a Great Place for Workers
June 21, 2024 
“Making Your Family Business a Best Place to Work” | Ferguson Alliance
Many companies like to promote their status as a “best place to work” destination, whether through awards, internal surveys, or other means. While potential hires and outside consumers might first interpret this tagline as publicity fluff, it is a good business strategy to keep your employees happy and engaged.
In the same way that companies strive for great customer experiences to generate repeat business and good word of mouth, comfortable and content workers create better business results through better performance. Additionally, a happy worker is more likely to stay with the company for longer, with employee retention reducing the need for frequent hires and the cost and time associated with onboarding and training new team members.
Therefore, if you’re going to run a business, it’s in your best interest to keep your employees engaged and appreciated. However, the question then becomes how you go about cultivating such an environment at your family business. Ferguson Alliance shares three key features to focus on.
1. Demonstrating Appreciation
To be comfortable in their position and their place in the company, department, and team, an employee needs to feel valued. So, what are the best ways to demonstrate appreciation?
The basics and foundation of feeling valued involve things like fair pay, but it goes far beyond that. Being paid well for work is welcome, but it doesn’t establish a connection with the team or company. An employee’s achievements need to be recognized and even praised.
Doing so shows your team that their contributions aren’t being ignored and that you understand what they bring to the table. Spreading this practice across the team and company as a whole creates an environment where everyone is valued as an important and unique part of the business’s success.
2. Effective and Open Communication
No one likes being kept out of the loop.
By sharing information about the state of the company, the organization’s goals, and developments (whether positive or negative), you’re creating a sense of trust through transparency.
Therefore, when workers aren’t kept up to date, they aren’t just less effective and efficient at their jobs but are losing a sense of connection with the company, which is something that takes time to build and can be broken in an instant. Employees might feel that they’re being lied to, or that important information that affects their livelihoods is being hidden from them. If you don’t trust them, why should they trust you?
Conversely, the more your team understands about the organization and its situation, the more they can be engaged and contribute to its growth, success, and goals. Understanding what the business is (and what it aims to be) helps workers better relate their skills and experience to the identity of the company and their place in it.
Additionally, while it’s important to share information with your team, you should demonstrate that communication is a two-way street, encouraging and asking employees to reach out for questions, feedback, and more. For workers uncomfortable with such direct communication on a one-to-one basis, many companies provide anonymous surveys about all manners of things, including how they can better support new hires and existing employees to succeed.
3. Understand and Support Your Team
Leadership isn’t just about setting an example, but also about understanding your team.
By getting to know your team, you can better understand their personal goals and how they see themselves fitting in and growing within the organization. In turn, this information can better help you as a leader support them in their journey toward success. By reaching their full potential, they are also benefiting the business.
For additional information and an expanded look at the topic of building a “best place to work” for the employees at your family business, make sure to read the original article on the Ferguson Alliance website.
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