The New Employee PayrollHero Happiness Report

Optimizing Work Productivity with HappinessWe recently announced that PayrollHero can generate employee happiness reports for our clients. What does that really mean?

PayrollHero takes in data in the form of selfies that employees have clicked on the app. The selfies are used to evaluate employee happiness by looking for certain metrics and correlating them to other selfies. For example, smiling for photos results in a different set of facial expressions than a serious face.

We know what you’re thinking. What if an employee smiles but isn’t really happy. Faking a smile is not hard and the metrics used to evaluate a real smile are the same as those used to evaluate a fake one. An employee could easily fool the app into thinking that the employee is happy when she really isn’t. Well, faking a smile has its own merits.

A Harvard study showed that a smile – whether fake or real – can be uplifting for one’s emotional well being. Granted, a momentary smile for a selfie certainly does not equate to happiness in life because a smile can be fake; but the act of smiling itself is a positive way to cope with sadness. Our preconceived notion that happiness causes us to smile is not always true. In fact, the reverse of that can work as well. A fake smile may be a better path towards happiness than others. It signals a willingness to stay positive in difficult times instead of suppressing ill feelings.

How does this relate to happiness reports? Well, from a high level, the happiness reports suggest a correlation between smiling and happiness and therefore suggest which employee or work site is the happiest. But with deeper inspection, the reports find a correlation between smiling and employees’ positive attitude. As a manager, you should consider the happiness report as a way of measuring positive sentiments in your workforce.

Finally, PayrollHero can use this data against employee records to find a trend in employee behavior. We can provide insight into whether happier employees are generally more punctual; whether unhappy employees experience a longer commute to work everyday; whether the happiest worksite equals highest earnings. This information is unique to PayrollHero’s data. Companies can leverage on it to make more informed decisions on what it takes to improve their bottom line.

Want to learn more? Contact us to chat further.

 

Embrace Technology, Grow Your Business

payrollhero-technology-in-singapore

At PayrollHero, we are always pushing for a tech enabled world for our clients. There are plenty of good things that come out of automating processes in your restaurant or retail business.

To name a few: it’s more efficient and saves time, which means there is a higher turnover of customers; there is less room for error; business owners spend less on manpower so overall costs go down.

All around the world we see a preference towards adopting technology. On one hand, it is because minimum wages are expected to rise (like in the US) while on the other hand, a shortage of labour supply is forcing business owners to adopt technology (like in Japan or Singapore).

All in all, the shift towards automation is inevitable. We thought it would be helpful to give you some tips on how to stay ahead of the curve.

Apps, apps, apps

We can’t stress on this enough. There is an app for everything today. Here is a non-exhaustive list on everything that you can safely outsource to an app:

  • Point of Sale Systems: Square is the most famous POS system. It works worldwide, which makes it easier for you to monitor sales if you run businesses in multiple countries
  • Loyalty apps: We’ve talked about Perx before. Loyalty apps help in bringing in more customers and increase foot traffic in your store.
  • Reservations: Chope is the rockstar of reservations in Southeast Asia. The Asian version of OpenTable runs in Hong Kong, Singapore and other countries in the regions, making it the perfect vendor for booking reservations in your restaurant.
  • Inventory Management: Another Southeast Asian favourite, Trade Gecko is your go-to app for managing inventory. With a clean and user-friendly interface, it takes very little for a business owner to realize that inventory management is a nightmare that is solved deftly by Trade Gecko.
  • Food Delivery: FoodPanda takes care of delivering food to your customers, while Slurp is another POS system that helps customers order food remotely. Slurp helps you take orders but doesn’t deliver food itself.

We have a whole other blogpost devoted towards these apps. You can check it out here.

Revamping the menu

Laminated menu cards are a thing of the past. Restaurants like Fish and Co. use tablets for their menus. With a few taps, your customer’s order goes straight to the kitchen. Tablet menus prevent errors in ordering. It is also much easier to change menus on a tablet than to print new menus each time you want to add a dish or change prices.

Feedback systems

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Does that little device look familiar to you? You have probably seen that at airports all over the world. For a feedback system, this one is pretty elementary but it does the trick. One look at it, and your immediate response would be to click on the button that reflects what you feel. It’s an instantaneous feedback loop that can be used by almost any business.

Food bloggers

This one is more of a marketing idea. While it is not really about automating your restaurant, it is about using technology to get your business out there. Tourist destinations, like Singapore, are big on food blogs for suggestions to restaurants.

Some of the famous bloggers have a huge following on Facebook and Instagram. The idea is to get these food bloggers to write a review on your restaurant and let social media take care of the rest. Of course, you need to be confident about getting a solid review!

We hope these ideas encourage you to embrace technology. There is no downside to adopting tech while the upside will result in cost minimization and big returns for your business. Let us know if you have any more suggestions!

How to Keep Your Employees Happy at Work

PayrollHero-Singapore-Payroll-Team

One of the best kept secrets of the top companies in the world is also the most obvious.

Keeping employees happy is very important to the overall success of a company. The simple formula is “Happy Employees = Good Business”.

So what exactly makes employees happy?

Is it bigger pay? Unlimited vacation leaves? Big bonuses? Free lunch?

To get a better idea, take a look at this infographic from Manila Recruitment and find out what the best companies in the Philippines are doing to keep their employees happy.

Make-Companies-Happy

Based on this infographic, money isn’t the only thing that motivates and makes employees happy. Employees value education, travel, fitness, and career growth just as much as they care about monetary bonuses.

You don’t need a HUGE budget to make employees happy. Sure, bonuses are great and will make employees happy, but if you don’t have the budget for it, don’t force the issue. Instead, you can focus on other low cost employee benefits such as additional vacation leaves or hosting sporting activities.

Are you doing some of the items mentioned above? Do share your company’s benefits and perks in the comments section below!

3 Reasons Why Employees Get Bored

3-reasons-employees-get-bored

Happy, engaged, and hard-working employees are important for any business to succeed. That’s why business owners do their best to implement awesome employee benefits to make everybody happy.

But sometimes, despite the company’s efforts, employees are still disengaged and lackadaisical. Yes… employees do get bored.

In this post, we’ll drill down 3 reasons why employees get bored. So if you’re a business owner or CEO, you better take notes!

Repetitive Tasks

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Sure, employees signed the contract completely aware of their job description and role… But doing the same thing over and over again will take a toll on ANYONE.

If an employee keeps doing tasks every single day, it’s expected that boredom will soon strike.

How to counter this? MIX IT UP.

As an employee:

If you’re an employee who’s starting to get bored, you should be upfront with your manager. Let him/her know that you feel like you can do more than what you’re currently doing.

Ask to be involved in other tasks. Have the initiative! Your manager won’t know you want to do more if you don’t say a thing.

As a manager:

Don’t be afraid to mix it up. Give your employees new tasks to do. You hired that person because you believe in him as an individual, so it wouldn’t hurt to try and entrust him with a new task.

By letting your employee do something new, you’ll likely give a jolt of excitement and a strong sense of responsibility to your employee – which is a good thing to boost productivity.

Lack of Compliments / Words of Encouragement

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This may sound strange, but it’s a real issue. A recent study show that 65% of employees feel unappreciated at work.

When employees feel that they’re not appreciated in the office, they eventually get bored.

Employees VALUE their manager’s compliments and words of encouragement. An immediate boost in morale happens when an employee hears simple compliments like “Good job!” or “Nice work!”

As a manager, you can even take it up a notch and give your employee a reward or a token of your appreciation for a job well done.

These little things will go a long way.

Work-Life Imbalance

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Working hard should always be top priority, but play time shouldn’t be neglected as well.

Employees who work too hard end up drained eventually. It’s not sustainable to render overtime every single night.

If you’re an employee who stays at work for 2-3 hours more than your required shift 90% of the time, you’ll eventually run out of gas and get bored at work.

The answer? Find a better work-life balance.

As an employee:

Your job provides for your family’s needs, but it is not your entire life. Don’t spend all of your time at the office. Leave some time for yourself and for your family.

Come home and have dinner with your family. Hang out with your friends on Friday nights. You have a life outside of work, so make the most out of it.

You can work hard without having to kill yourself with stress. Not only is it not good for your company, it’s also dangerous to your health.

As a manager:

Don’t put too much pressure on your employees. Giving unrealistic deadlines will leave your employee with no choice but to work overtime every day. That’s something that is proven to be unproductive in the long run.

If you notice that your employee is working too much or rendering too many OTs, talk to him and encourage him to take a vacation leave. Advise him that he doesn’t need to spend every working day on overtime. Not only will your employee become more productive, it will also be good for his health — which is something you should also prioritize.

Conclusion

Employees get bored because they don’t feel empowered. As a manager, it’s also your responsibility to make sure that your employees feel happy and valued at work.

As an employee… If you feel bored all the time, then you have to re-evaluate yourself. Discuss it with your manager and work on fixing the issue together.

Tweet us what you think!

Best Apps for Busy Entrepreneurs

best-apps-for-busy-entrepreneurs

If you’re reading this article, I’m pretty sure you’re not hoping to find out what the next Candy Crush app is. If you are, we’ll have a different blog post for that soon!

For now though, I’m assuming that you are an entrepreneur on-the-go. Or a busy CEO juggling through multiple hats at work.

You can also be a high level executive who’s embracing tech and the convenience it brings.

The good news? PayrollHero rounds up a few of the best apps for busy CEOs this 2015. This is part 1, and we’ll feature more apps real soon.

Let’s dig in!

Best Apps for Busy Entrepreneurs

Evernote

evernote-logo

We’re not saying classic notebooks are useless at this day and age, but leaving home without one is more and more common these days.

But you know what you never forget when you leave home? Your mobile phone.

And this is where Evernote shines.

An app that you can use in the comfort of your own phone, Evernote takes note-taking to a whole new level.

Whether you need to jot down quick notes during a meeting, or you’re attending a conference and you’re trying to take note of key points, Evernote gets the job done perfectly.

evernote-payrollhero-testing

You can literally take note of anything you want. Even writing a new campaign strategy, or projections for the coming quarter can be done with this productivity app.

Not only does it sport a user-friendly interface, it also syncs smoothly with your other devices. You can access Evernote in your laptop, PC, or tablet as well. So whatever progress you’ve made on your mobile phone, you can see it updated and syncing in real-time with your laptop.

Pretty fun stuff, huh?

Evernote is FREE, but if you like it so much and you want all your employees using it as well, you can consider their premium or business plan.

Pocket

pocket-app

Now this is a personal favorite of mine (author). Imagine your browser’s bookmark tool… on STEROIDS.

That’s how Pocket functions! Any article or content you read from your favorite websites, blogs, Twitter, Facebook, or even YouTube can easily be saved to your pocket.

pocket-dashboard

It’s a bookmarking tool that saves any form of content (webpages, articles, videos, tweets, etc.) so that you can read it later, OFFLINE.

Anything you save to your Pocket, you can read later on even without internet.

The best part is that Pocket integrates with so many other apps you use such as Twitter, and even via Email.

pocket-app-integrations

Now, how awesome is that?

I’ve been using Pocket for almost a year now, and it’s one of the apps I can’t live without. It’s free, and syncs with all your devices. You can “pocket’ an article using your mobile phone, then finish reading it later on your laptop – or vice versa.

I’m having a hard time convincing people that I’m not being paid by Pocket to promote them, because I find myself tweeting about how awesome they are every once in awhile.

Try it out and see for yourself.


HINT:
Pocket this blog post for future reference. 😀

Uber

uber-manila

Need to rush to a business meeting? Or are you just too tired to drive back home after a long day at work? Well, thank your lucky stars for Uber.

One of the top apps in 2014, Uber has disrupted the transportation scene in the Philippines. For a very affordable price, you get to enjoy a comfortable ride, with your own private driver, to literally anywhere you want.

If you’ve been living in Manila for a while, you’ll know how difficult it is to hail a cab or get around the metro through public transportation vehicles. But with Uber, all you need is a few clicks on your mobile phone and your vehicle will be arriving in just a few minutes.

uber-getting-started
Driving to your preferred destination isn’t always an ideal choice, so Uber proves to be a convenient way to go anywhere you prefer.

The PayrollHero team loves Uber, and I personally use Uber at least 2-4 times a week.

uber-booked-trips

With courteous drivers, affordable rates, and very friendly customer support, Uber is definitely one of the top apps for ANYONE, entrepreneur or not.

If for some reason you haven’t tried Uber yet, now’s the time. Go for it, and tweet us how your first ride goes.

Google Docs

Transitioning from Microsoft Word to Google Docs isn’t always easy, but it’s a jump I’m more than happy I made a few years ago.

With Google Docs, you can write any document and it auto-saves instantly. You literally never have to press “Save” again.

As you’re usually always on the go, it’s inevitable that you do forget to save your document from time to time. This won’t be an issue anymore with Google Docs.

What makes it awesome though is that it syncs with your entire Google account (Google Drive). So all you really need is a Gmail account, and you can use Google Docs (as well as Google Sheets), anytime.

Google Docs is free, in the cloud, and very easy to use. Give it a go today!

Spotify

spotify-must-use-app-payrollhero

Of course you need to unwind somehow! Spotify is a great way to just relax and enjoy good music.

Spotify is FREE, although there’s a premium plan if you don’t want to be bothered with ads. You can also use the offline mode if you avail of the premium plan.

With Spotify, you get access to a boatload of music, from almost any genre you can think of. Unless you’re a Swifty, there’s no way for you not to enjoy Spotify.

Even busy entrepreneurs deserve some good music!

CONCLUSION

That rounds up our top apps for busy entrepreneurs list. I hope you make good use of some (if not all!) of the apps listed here. Become more productive, and more awesome with these must-download apps!

Keep checking our blog for more of these as we’ll come up with part two of the best apps for busy entrepreneurs in the coming weeks!

44% of Small Business Owners Are Not Financially Literate

financial-tips-business-payrollhero

Modern day entrepreneurs and small business owners are touted as the new Renaissance men.

For one, Examiner.com hailed Elon Musk as the next Leonardo da Vinci. Meanwhile, serial entrepreneur Creel Price, considered one of the most brilliant business minds of our times, founded what he referred to as the Entreprenaissance movement. He believes that we are in the throes of a similar renaissance or revival of the entrepreneurial spirit, with small businesses thriving more than their corporate counterparts.

The unfortunate reality is that many of these modern Renaissance men have a flimsy foundation in terms of financial literacy.

Weak Financial Literacy Among Entrepreneurs

Small business owners and solopreneurs of the 21st century may have the most profitable idea or even the grit to persist after multiple setbacks and failure. Yet, weak financial literacy is one of the top reasons why small businesses don’t make it during the first couple of years.

Last year, The Financial Post reported the findings of an Intuit Canada survey on small business owners and their knowledge of financial basics. Below are the main points of the survey:

  • 44% of small business owners have below average financial literacy skills and only 18% could be considered above average.
  • Statistics Canada data shows that 85% of startups make it through their first year but only 51% survived for five years.
  • 8% of entrepreneurs make their debut with less than $5,000, mostly funded out of their own pocket in the form of personal savings, credit cards, and lines of credit.

In the same vein, the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants have the following key findings in their 2014 report on financial literacy among entrepreneurs worldwide:

  • Small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs), and particularly informal businesses or SMEs in emerging markets, face significant financing constraints that undermine their contribution to employment, productivity growth and innovation.
  • At 8–14% per annum, business mortality rates are substantial even in the developed world and were still on the rise until recently (OECD 2013b). An entrepreneur’s’ lack of financial capability is often portrayed as part of the reason for the substantial churn in the sector (New Vision 2011), even though many business exits are arguably not ‘failures.’
  • After controlling for other relevant variables, self-employed individuals in a sample of developing countries (Armenia, Colombia, Lebanon, Mexico, Nigeria, Turkey and Uruguay) performed worse than the general population on standardized assessments of their ability to monitor expenses, to budget, and to live within their means.

Financial-literacy-for-small-business-owners

Expert – Approved Financial Advice for Small Business Owners

Sure, there are hundreds of financial tips out there to help small business owners navigate the treacherous financial waves.

In a recent study by IGF Invoice Finance, it was found out that a third of the businesses they surveyed rely solely on Google and social media for sound financial advice instead of talking to experts. “Without (expert) advice, SMEs simply cannot make an informed decisions, and in business an uninformed decision is often a wrong decision,” said Tracy Ewen, managing director of IGF Invoice Finance.

The main takeaway of the report is to seek guidance from organizations and licensed professionals who know exactly what they’re talking about when dispensing financial advice, such as investment tactics or how to identify permanent assets.

Once you have set up an appointment with a financial advisor, you can also count on the following practical and expert-approved tips that we have curated from highly reliable sources:

  • Get to know the basics. Start with the basics to understand your accountant or financial advisor’s language. Learn how to read balance sheets, income statements, and inventories. Understand the cash flow and supply chain process.
  • Stop treating your enterprise as your personal piggy bank. This is one of the most common pitfalls of new small business owners. Often, they overlook the fact that what they have in the bank has nothing to do with their own spending power. Several experts recommend paying yourself a fixed monthly salary and to learn to live within those figures.
  • Have a separate business account. Aside from resisting the temptation to spend your business finances for personal matters, this will help prevent confusion once tax season kicks in.
  • Practice the lean methodology. Here’s what financial advisor Barry Glassman has to say about it in The Forbes:

Companies like Starbucks or Proctor and Gamble test new concepts on smaller markets before launching their products worldwide. Small companies can learn from this approach. Develop a prototype to get the product out, launch it in smaller markets, test it, get feedback, pivot, and then refine it.  By using this cost-effective process, you’ll have a refined product or service designed to the taste and needs of potential clients because they told you what they liked and wanted along the way.

 

  • Determine your business priorities. Growth happens when you have direction. What do you want to accomplish in the next 12 months? Do you want to expand with franchises? Or maintain the existing company size but come up with new products? Identifying your specific goals will also help you set a clear-cut business budget.
  • Embrace (rather than resist) technology. Financial management tools and payroll inventory software can make your life easier as a business owner. These technological advancements have even made it possible for both employees and employers to work effectively and be location-independent at the same time.

The aforementioned list is just the tip of the iceberg! We’re eager to hear your opinion and thoughts about advancing financial literacy among small business owners too.

Get Everything Done as a Small Business Owner (And Still Appear Calm and Cool)

Time-Management-Tips-For-Small-Business-Owners

Not having enough time is a struggle that many small business owners deal with.

It’s that overwhelming feeling of trying to tackle everything in your to-do list but you feel like time is racing against you too. Before you know it, dusk has settled in (or dawn if you’re a night owl) but you have nothing tangible to show for it.

Where did all the time go?!

Working long hours to accomplish each task you’ve set yourself for the day is not the solution. We outline three science-backed, actionable steps to leverage the 168 hours you’re given in a workweek.

With this, you can stop feeling you don’t have enough time, and eventually get things done. NO SUPER POWERS REQUIRED

Forget about managing time. Focus on your energy instead.

This may sound counterintuitive at first. Yet there’s actually a science to it. Tony Schwartz, CEO and founder of The Energy Project and co-author of The Power of Full Engagement: Managing Energy Not Time suggested a different approach to productivity in this Harvard Business Review article.

“The core problem with working longer hours is that time is a finite resource. Energy is a different story,” Schwartz pointed out.

Working on The Energy Project, Schwartz and his team consulted with business leaders and owners, and evaluated their time-management efforts in parallel with their productivity. In their findings, they found out two fine points that are actually hurting one’s productivity:

  • Multitasking
  • Infrequent breaks within the day

Multitasking, according to Schwartz, slows you down. “A temporary shift in attention from one task to another—stopping to answer an e-mail or take a phone call, for instance—increases the amount of time necessary to finish the primary task by as much as 25%.”

Instead, he recommends taking ultradian sprints – being fully focused for a specified amount of time and taking breaks in between these specified time blocks.

This approach is grounded on human physiology. Psychophysiologist Peretz Lavie referred to it as “ultradian rhythms,” or natural cycles that take place within the 24-hour sleep wake cycle. In a nutshell, humans have 90 to 120-minute cycles during which we gradually shift from a high-energy state into feeling burned out. This is why taking frequent breaks are crucial.

In another Harvard Business Review post last year, author Ron Friedman examined why foregoing breaks at work is a recipe for disaster:

Studies show we have a limited capacity for concentrating over extended time periods, and though we may not be practiced at recognizing the symptoms of fatigue, they unavoidably derail our work. No matter how engaged we are in an activity, our brains inevitably tire.

Still not convinced? Ferris Jabr of The Scientific American laid out several studies in this in-depth look of how frequent breaks can actually help you regain attention, be more creative, and improve your decision-making skills.

The Action Plan

Devote all your attention and focus to a specific task for a certain time block such as responding to emails or crunching out your team’s current payroll.  Figure out what works for you – experiment on 30, 60, or 90 minute intervals – and ride the waves of your own ultradian rhythm rather than go against the flow.

Next, step away from your work to do non-work related tasks for a specific period of time too. Logging in to Facebook doesn’t count! Why not have a short chat with one of your employees? Or play foosball with the team?

In hindsight, not all hours were created equal. Therefore, it is best to schedule your tasks based on when you are feeling the most energetic and engaged!

Sketch out your ideal work week.

As a small business owner, planning things ahead is most likely second nature to you. Yet apart from scheduling meetings or outlining what needs to be done for the entire work week, have you thought about designing your ideal week?

Michael Hyatt, author of the New York Times bestseller Platform: Get Noticed in a Noisy World wrote in this short yet succinct post:

Sure, you can’t plan for everything. Things happen that you can’t anticipate. But it is a whole lot easier to accomplish what matters most when you are proactive and begin with the end in mind.One of the ways I do this is by creating a document, I call “My Ideal Week.

The Action Plan

Hyatt suggested that it’s like drafting your weekly budget, but instead of allocating your finances, you are planning out how you will spend those 168 hours you have in a week.

But structures are supposed to hinder creativity, right? Well, it turns out that small business owners like you need a system in place to empower yourself into regaining focus.

Georgetown University professor Cal Newport who runs a blog on productivity has this response:

Sometimes people ask if controlling time will stifle creativity. I understand this concern, but it’s fundamentally misguided. If you control your schedule: (1) you can ensure that you consistently dedicate time to the deep efforts that matter for creative pursuits; and (2) the stress relief that comes from this sense of organization allows you to go deeper in your creative blocks and produce more value.

Newport further explained:

A 40 hour time-blocked work week, I estimate, produces the same amount of output as a 60+ hour work week pursued without structure.

By and large, you are less likely to get frazzled once Monday kicks in because you have already made the decision by designing time blocks (including the breaks in between) in your calendar within the week

Delegate and automate.

You can be the most awesome small business owner in the world but this doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re also the most prolific blogger, most proficient accountant, or the most welcoming receptionist.

In a survey of small businesses, it turns out that “day-to-day store operations” is the most time-consuming task identified by the owners and managers.

So how do you  go about your mission to gain new customers or forge meaningful relationships with your existing clientele if you’re busy with the day-to-day store operations? Impossible, right?

The Action Plan

Do more of the things that you are good at and quit wearing multiple hats. You can either delegate accounting functions to an independent contractor or start automating payroll and inventory management tasks.

It all boils down to embracing newer technologies to find more time for the things that truly matter to your small business.

The Bottom Line

The key takeaways to getting everything done in your small business are to manage your energy rather than time, sketch out an ideal week, and consider delegating and automating repetitive tasks.

What time management tips are currently working in your favor? Which ones didn’t work?

Share your thoughts in the comments or join the conversation on Twitter. We’d love to hear from you!

Be a Better Manager in 10 Minutes or Less

managing-your-employees

Many would like to believe that people quit jobs because of greener pastures such as better pay and greater benefits. In reality, employees leave because of their managers.

Not convinced? Survey results by the market research firm Gallup released last April revealed that half of the 7,200 respondents left jobs “to get away from their manager.”

As a manager, you may have failed to realize that your small yet talented team of employees are walking out the door not to pursue fatter paychecks, but because of management.

Put simply, it has to do with you.

Such sobering statistic should be treated as an opportunity for small business managers to build a team culture of supporting one another. Like most relationship issues, there is no one-size-fits-all formula to becoming an excellent manager.

The following tiny, yet meaningful gestures can certainly make a difference though. The best part is you can do them in 10 minutes or less!

Call everyone by their first name.

In this book How to Win Friends and Influence People, Dale Carnegie wrote:

Remember that a person’s name is, to that person, the sweetest and most important sound in any language.

Likewise, social experiments proved that calling people by their first name makes it more likely for them to comply to your requests.

Make an effort to get to know everyone in your team. Your employees are humans too. They have lives outside of work — they have a family that they deeply care about or hobbies and interests that keep them busy outside the office. Take the time to figure these things out and greet them by their first name the next time you are in the office. By doing so, you build rapport that will eventually lead to trust in the long run.

Dig deeper into each employee’s resentment.

Most employees have their own version of what they are currently bitter about in their jobs. For some, it’s working extra hours and not being able to spend dinner with their family. Or missing a few drinks with friends every Friday night. Perhaps, it’s the lack of flexible hours within the workweek.

It varies for everyone but the takeaway here is to check on these resentments regularly. Subsequently, ask your employees about an activity outside of work that they consider important and pry them for possible solutions (they can extend work hours the next day, shorten lunch breaks for a couple of days, or ask someone to cover for them temporarily).

Doing this quick exercise will prevent resentments from evolving into a full-blown mess of hatred and bitterness.

Ask your employees for advice.

Ha! Why would a manager do that? Isn’t it supposed to be the other way around?

Social psychologist and author of Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion Robert Cialdini offers one seemingly counterintuitive yet effective suggestion to making your employees like you: Ask them for advice. This could range from personal advice like book recommendations to professional advice such as asking their opinion about social media platforms that they deem are ideal for your digital marketing campaign.

By and large, this gives the impression that you, as a manager, value their opinions. Bonus points if you follow their advice and update them that you’ve done one of their suggestions!

Provide specific compliments and insert a negative comment in between.

The keyword here is specific. Sure, it’s easy to give out praise. “You’ve done a great job” or “Keep up the good work” are nothing but empty words of encouragement. Go out of your way to specifically determine the things that each employee has done well. Sincere forms of recognition are always appreciated.

Additionally, don’t be afraid to give out constructive feedback when an employee is obviously off track. In this Harvard Business Review article, the authors talk about the ideal praise-to-criticism ratio:

The average ratio for the highest-performing teams was 5.6 (that is, nearly six positive comments for every negative one). The medium-performance teams averaged 1.9 (almost twice as many positive comments than negative ones.) But the average for the low-performing teams, at 0.36 to 1, was almost three negative comments for every positive one.

The key point is to keep your negative comment as objective and rational as possible. Furthermore, consistently giving compliments ensures that you are within the ideal 5.6 to 1 praise-criticism ratio.

Offer one thing (no matter how small) to help an employee achieve a personal long-term goal.

Everyone has their own set of side-projects, long-term goals, and bucket lists. Say one of your web developers has been thinking about learning Python. Or someone from your sales team is keen about filling in one of the graphic designer posts.

Every so often, employees are interested in upgrading their arsenal of skills or learning things outside of their expertise. Why not do one thing to help them achieve these goals?

Offer to shoulder half of the paid online Python course to the web developer. Or ask the sales rep if he would like to shadow one of the designers for an hour each week? These little things will keep your employees motivated. The more they’re excited about their work, the greater the chance that they’ll work hard for you.

Final Thoughts

Tiny acts of appreciation and kindness are often overlooked, yet they have the biggest impact to becoming a better manager. Put them into action today and see what happens next.

Tell us about the results in the comments or join the conversation on Twitter!