Why worry about your employees' confidence? Because employees who are confident in themselves and in their abilities are successful employees, and successful employees make a successful company.
If you haven't thought about your employees' confidence before, consider this:
Confident employees want to come to work, they are less likely to quit, and they project a positive image of your company in the wider community. The more confidence an individual possesses, the more efficient and productive they are in meeting their goals. Confidence builds commitment and creates trust among colleagues. A confident work force uses initiative and makes decisions that support organizational goals. Extra benefits—such as an aligned, focused and supportive corporate culture as well as a better and stronger workforce morale—are icing on the cake.
So, how can you help build a more confident work force? Confidence comes when the employees know they have the knowledge and abilities to do what is asked of them. For some people, confidence comes naturally. For others, it needs to be taught. As an employer, you can help build on, or instill confidence through training and exposure to a variety of workplace situations.
Spending the time to train, coach and mentor it’s key contributor employees and managers is ranked as one of the best investments a business can make. It costs a lot of money to hire quality employees, so why not ensure your high potential mission critical and key contributor people receive a high quality employment experience and the tools they need to perform at optimal levels. Treat your people the way you would want to be treated and impact your bottom line by getting the right people, the right training.
In addition to training and development, there is another investment we recommend, and it is free from a money stand point, you build confidence in your people by giving them genuine praise. Take note of the things that are done right, or that are improving, and watch those tasks improve even further. When employees are praised for doing things well, they also respond better to necessary criticism and work harder to make things right.
When you are working with a high potential responsibility driven employee who desires challenge, as most of these types of people do; increase responsibility and build new and more complicated tasks into the job. As employees show mastery of the new work, give more opportunities for training, advancement, and additional projects. People who continually are engaging their brains and feeling good about what they are contributing are a terrific asset to any company. Your job is to keep your people engaged, challenged and to acknowledge the contribution that they are making on a regular basis.
Frequently using these seven basic elements enables you to build a confident and productive workforce:
- people having the knowledge and skills to do their jobs well
- clear objectives for individuals and teams
- authority in decision making and accountability for those decisions
- recognition for achieving personal goals
- investment in learning and development
- opportunities to meet new challenges
- celebration of meeting organizational objectives
Employers want their employees to feel empowered to make decisions in the workplace. Employees want to feel confident they are capable of making the decision the employer wants. However, the only way employees will feel they are able to make those decisions is if they have confidence in themselves.
