17 Tips to Encourage a Strong Work Ethic
Charlette has over 10 years of experience in accounting and finance and 2 years of partnering with HR leaders on freelance projects. She uses this extensive experience to answer your questions about payroll.
Jennifer Hartman is an HR Specialist and staff writer for Fit Small Business, with over 15 years of experience in accounting, payroll, and human resources.
A strong work ethic is directly related to an individual’s productivity and best developed through guidance and encouragement. Individuals with a strong work ethic are more likely to produce quality work, be reliable on the job, and stay committed for longer periods. A lack of a work ethic is exhibited by those who are not as productive and unreliable and tend to seek higher wages without necessarily being committed to their position.
The following tips can help encourage a strong work ethic among all your employees.
1. Hire for Productivity
Rather than hiring based on skills or experience alone, consider candidates with specific personality traits, such as conscientiousness, that can promote a greater work ethic in your company. These traits—which also include self-discipline, dependability, and responsibility—often signify employees who will be neat, organized, goal-oriented, and focused on high standards of work. They not only bring their own strong work ethic to your organization, but can help strengthen the work ethic of those around them.
Hire for personality traits rather than just skills.
2. Create the Right Environment
You can’t compel a good work ethic from employees; however, you can create an environment where people want to work and enjoy being productive. To achieve this, encourage teamwork, train your people managers, and support your employees by focusing on their accomplishments as a whole.
By making it easy for employees to connect their work to their personal and professional goals, you will increase productivity (and happiness), which will align individual contributors’ goals with the company’s overall goals.
Did You Know?
A compelling workplace and company culture can lead to a higher profit and sales and a decrease (72%) in employee turnover.
3. Remain Communication Focused
Communication is key to creating a strong work ethic. The way your company communicates with its employees allows you to understand the motivations for what they are doing. If an individual can figure out their ultimate goal, they will be more successful in achieving it. If they are unsure of their goals, the first step is to make real-time connections with others for advice.
Some of the most powerful communication is not shared with words but through action. The meaning behind what you do—not just what you say—can have an enormous impact on your team and company. Keep this in mind as you plan for and communicate with your employees.
4. Promote Transparency
Related to communication, organizations need to promote transparency so employees can feel confident about their jobs. The lack of clarity often causes employees to worry and look for ways to avoid problems, which only results in more problems. If employees are aware of what is going on in an organization, they will be less likely to take matters into their own hands.
The first step to transparency is being proactive. Transparency does not happen by sitting around waiting for people to reach out to you. You have to be explicit about your policies, practices, and motives. Do not rely on your employees to get information on their own time; instead, use the company’s communication channels to boost transparency.
5. Improve Organization
Organization is critical to the success of any company but can also be one of its biggest challenges. The more organized a team, the more productive they are. With productivity comes growth, which directly translates into profit for any business. There are plenty of project management tools to help team members stay on top of their tasks and responsibilities, some even automating the process.
Organization is key to the success of any company because it allows the business to function properly. Without it, employees would be unable to complete their work and would have to wait for other employees before moving to their next task.
6. Identify Daily Priorities
The workplace can be a stressful environment for employees. Employers should focus on creating practices that help prevent or minimize stress. This includes prioritizing daily duties in your company, so employees are not overwhelmed by everything they have to do.
You can better manage workplace priorities by communicating when something is urgent and when something can wait. Prioritizing daily duties helps employees maintain an organized plan of attack for the day. One way to identify urgent tasks is to create a list of items that must be accomplished each day and rank them in order of importance.
7. Encourage Productivity Rather Than Long Hours
Working long hours can be a sign of dedication to the company, but it doesn’t always mean that employees are more productive. Working long hours can cause burnout, which decreases productivity and increases absenteeism.
Effective time management practices will help employees make the most of their time in the office while earning the respect of co-workers and managers. Help foster a strong work ethic by encouraging employees to work smarter and provide them with resources, such as technology and training, to be as productive as possible.
Productivity can be encouraged through the above measures.
8. Utilize Employee Assets
Successful leaders fully utilize their employees’ varying assets, personalities, and ages to facilitate individual and corporate well-being. The best leaders take time to disperse tasks and formulate teams in ways that play to each person’s strengths. This motivates your team members to be their best as they recognize that you see them for who they are.
Taking time to ensure employees align goals to their strengths will pay off in the long run. Allowing an employee to focus on something they enjoy is motivating and fosters job satisfaction and a good work ethic.
9. Provide Regular Feedback
Many companies seek to improve engagement and retention with strategic feedback. One of the most useful methods is providing feedback that can be used as a teaching moment for both employees and managers. To be effective, it should be specific, timely, personalized, and addressed to the individual or group that can act on it, so it can be transformed into knowledge.
Paying attention to your employees is essential to maintain the health of the organization and consistent feedback, whether good or bad, helps them grow. Feedback enables employees to know what is expected of them and how they are doing. It allows employees to voice their opinions and concerns about the organization and the way things are done.
10. Encourage a Healthy Work/Life Balance
In today’s competitive environment, it is important that employees maintain a healthy work/life balance. Many employees with a strong work ethic wish to be seen as dedicated, but balancing home lives with career-oriented demands can be difficult. Additionally, with the advancement of technology and a shift to remote employment, the line between work and home has blurred.
Employers can help employees maintain balance at work and in their personal lives by providing flexible work arrangements such as telecommuting or job sharing, and offering rich benefits through employee benefits packages. For example, employers may offer medical leave for pregnant women or time off to care for ill family members.
Businesses with a healthy work/life balance rank among the most desirable places to work. You can enable this with a flexible work schedule and an impactful paid time off (PTO) policy.
11. Align Your Business Purpose
Your business’s purpose needs to align with a shared identity between you and your employees. Therefore, while your business needs to perform in terms of revenue, income, and growth, it must, foremost, have a purpose that resonates with your employees, customers, and community and conveys your company’s spirit and true nature.
A company that wants its employees to produce high-quality work must first establish a high standard and set expectations for its employees. This can be done by communicating the business mission and vision and then providing practical examples of how they translate into actionable tasks for each employee. This will help motivate employees and give them purpose, which will, in turn, lead to a stronger work ethic.
12. Share Company Successes
Employees want to know that their efforts are making a difference. By sharing company successes with employees you can promote a strong work ethic. This will encourage and motivate employees and boost morale, leading to improvements in productivity and even a desire to advance and take on more responsibilities from employees who understand the impact they are having.
Hold regular update meetings with your team to discuss your business outlook and the progress the company is making. This lets your employees know that you value their investment in your company.
13. Set Clear Goals
A key to developing a strong work ethic for employees is to set clear goals and milestones. Employees need to know what they are doing and why, as well as how they will be evaluated on their performance. Otherwise, they will not be able to meet the employer’s expectations. It’s also possible that an employee may not feel challenged or engaged if their tasks lack direction or purpose.
By defining what constitutes success for an employee, it is possible to help them stay on track throughout their job. For example, an employer may create a goal such as “have 60% of projects completed by the end of the year.” This sets a clear standard for the employee to achieve.
14. Be an Example
If you want to encourage good work ethics you must model the behavior you are looking for. For example, if you want people to provide great customer service or excel in their tasks, then you need to do so yourself. Not only will this help keep morale and productivity high but it will help create an enjoyable environment for both you and your staff.
A good manager sets a great example for their employees by showing up on time and working hard every day. When managers model a good work ethic, it will motivate and encourage their employees to show up on time and work hard.
15. Promote Employee Opportunities
Motivation or desire to do good work originates from a variety of places, including an individual’s ability to contribute to their fullest potential. Provide your employees with opportunities to grow and learn.
Taking an interest in developing your employees and providing them opportunities demonstrates that a level of trust is invested in their development and work. This can lead to an increase in focus at work and job satisfaction, ultimately resulting in a better working environment for everyone.
Did You Know?
According to a University of Oxford study, workers are 13% more productive when they are satisfied with their jobs.
16. Mentor & Teach
As a business owner, you can mentor and teach your employees to create a stronger work ethic. Not only will your staff grow through the process, but they’ll also become more engaged and loyal. The benefits are clear: timely projects, happy workers, and satisfied customers.
Additionally, you will increase the productivity of your company by teaching employees to be self-sufficient. Not only will their work ethic improve, but their skills will too. Mentoring is helpful for the employee and good for the manager, who will become better at managing a team.
17. Create Clear Corporate Policies
Organizations need to develop corporate policies that are clear, concise, and transparent. This will help employees perform their work without any confusion or hesitation. For example, organizations need to have clear policies about sexual harassment, discrimination, and drug use.
Transparency is a step in the right direction to ensure that employees are not being given unfair treatment, and also helps create a workplace where everyone feels safe. Start by including all company policies and procedures in your employee handbook. Consistently update your handbook as those policies and procedures change. Even if policies do not change, an updated handbook should be distributed to all employees at least every three to five years.
Bottom Line
By knowing how to encourage your team and developing a culture where a good work ethic is at its core, you will build a strong foundation for your business. Create an environment of excellence by listening to your employees’ ideas and paying attention to their suggestions. Allow your employees the opportunity to grow and learn, and they will be more likely to be successful with you.
