Building a culture of learning, engagement and continuous improvement takes a whole lot of little initiatives. These 9 simple ideas can help ensure your employees go further.

1. 9 Ways to Take Your
Employees Further
@SilkRoadtweets
2014

2. Will your
employees
Flourish in 2014?
Here are some simple
things you can do for your
employees in the coming
year.

3. Do talent reviews
for everyone.
Find at least one meaningful
developmental activity for
everyone—a new
assignment, responsibility or
training program will stretch
them and demonstrate the
company isn’t taking them for
granted.

4. Enable employees to
learn from each other.
Casual lunch and learns can be a nice
opportunity for employees to share a tip, a
skill, or some knowledge. Try a “knowledge
café,” where small groups converse about a
business issue or something they have recently
learned.

5. Make space by
(temporarily) killing
programs.
You can’t do new stuff without getting rid of old stuff. Try giving
up a stale program just for the year. If it is a worthwhile
program, add it back. If no one misses it, then it stays gone.

6. Implement the secret that
sits at the core of
continuous improvement.
Empower people to make
suggestions for improvements
they can implement in their
own department. It is not just
the improvements that
matter, implementing
suggestions gives employees
a sense of ownership of their
workplace.

7. Nothing brings more energy to a process than new
blood. Shifting responsibilities around can be a
good tactic for creating interesting projects people
can take on. You will be surprised how even junior
people will step up with hard work and good ideas
when challenged to take responsibility for a
meaningful project.
Shift responsibility for
programs around.

8. Get your executives
on the front lines.
Employees love to see the executives
spending a day doing front line work.
It helps employees feel connected to
the mission of the business and helps
executives understand the issues that
stand in the way of workers achieving
peak performance.

9. In HR we know how motivating it can be to have a chance to express
yourself. Encourage employees to blog—then get out of their way. If you
have concerns, all you need is a policy that says HR will remove any blogs
that are offensive. Experience shows offensive postings are rare. Try it and
you will find the benefits far outweigh the occasional hiccup.
Let them blog!

10. Wellness initiatives have the
unusual property of being good
for employees while saving the
company money. Where
organizations fall down is that
they create programs without
figuring out how to get
employees enthused about
them. Focus on making
participation fun and the
program will pay off.
Tap the fountain
of wellness.

11. Ask employees
what they need.
Often, the best thing is just to
ask employees what they need
and what they would like. You
do not need surveys, focus
groups or a task force. Just
talk to people. Talk in the
elevator, on the way to the
parking lot, over a coffee, or in
the hallway. Asking people
what they think in
casual, everyday chats will
generate all the insights you
need.

12. Building a culture of learning, engagement and continuous
improvement takes a whole lot of little initiatives. These simple
ideas can help ensure your employees go further.
Download 9 Tips to Taking Your Employees further:
Download
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13. Thank You!