A Strong Business Environment Builds a Strong Business

How important is your business environment?

The truth hurts: if you have a poor one, you have a poor company. Here’s how to improve it.

Whether you’re starting from the ground up or have been working in the business world for quite a while, a key element for everyone to remember is: there can be no business without people. From customers and clients to actual employees, people are the heart of every company and are the main reason any kind of business exists.

Without the kind of environment that values and puts emphasis on people and the human aspect of business, it becomes much harder for a company to even stay afloat, much less thrive amidst an array of other competitive platforms.

But to gain a true following that only grows with time and word of mouth, treating people right can make all the difference in the world. Here’s how:

1. Start From Within Before Projecting Outward

Clients and customers can often get a significant feeling or vibe from any company they interact with. If it’s a good and encouraging one, that can jump-start a very positive business-client relationship to last into the future. The way to give clients that vibe is to make sure your employees feel and project the vibe.

A company environment needs to be a good place for employees, so they can provide a good experience for the clients and customers they help and your business serves. It’s the best way to not only draw in more business, but to send out a message that yours is a company that has its priorities straight. People come first. Satisfaction for employees makes more satisfaction for clients and customers.

2. Positively Influence Your Employees’ Lives

A business needs to be a positive influence in the lives of its employees in order for the employees to affect the business in a positive way. To really accomplish that, your workers need to feel a balance of their life in their work. All work and no play make Jack, and anyone else, a dull person and dull people don’t bring in other people. A lively environment is one that makes an impact on anyone who visits and makes people likely to come back and tell their friends. When employees feel valued at work, they’re happy to bring more clients in.

3. Be the Business They Want to Work for

Right from the start, when first interviewing new potential employees, it’s important to show them a kind of business they want to work for by being the kind of business people aspire to work for. No matter how much some employers want it to be, work is rarely the most primary focus in anyone’s life. Everyone in the world has other things going on and it’s important for companies and businesses to acknowledge that in their employees’ lives. If work can enhance their employees, then their employees will enhance the workplace.

4. Take an Interest in the People That Work for Your Company

Listen to their opinions and concerns about work and try to address them. Existing employees need to have the chance to let their voices be heard and befriend their coworkers. New hires and potential employees should be able to meet the people who already work with you. Not only will it make them feel more welcome, but as long as your current employees feel like they’re in a good place, they will give off that feeling to the new people on the team.

5. Appreciate Your Employees and the Work They Do

Try to avoid ways that belittle anyone else in the company or pit workers against each other. The goal is to build your employees up and bring them together as a true team that will make them, as well as the business, stronger. Bringing competition and distrust will only weaken the company environment and push you further from the goal you’re aiming for. Naturally, with any group of people, there are bound to be conflicts when there are misunderstandings or personality clashes. The best thing to do in situations like that is to speak with the bothered employees one-on-one to try to sort out the issue and come to a peaceful solution.

No matter what the job they’re doing, employees are people too and they need to be valued and respected as much as anyone else. It isn’t a radical concept, but an important one to understand for the success of you and your entire team. Treat your employees to the kindness and esteem they deserve and they will work harder and perform better in the positive environment they’ve been hired into.

Regardless of what your business is, employees lie at the heart of it and are the cornerstone of making a company worth coming back to for clients and customers. Bosses and CEOs that don’t respect and value the people who make their company more than a thought or a one man show will have a harder time bringing in customer loyalty than places whose businesses feel like family.

6. Every Now and Again, Treat Your Employees to a Lunch or Dinner

   Give them opportunities to talk, mingle with one another, and form the kinds of bonds that can only benefit a workplace. In today’s society especially, no one is looking to take part in the building and prosperity of soulless corporations. It’s the businesses that have heart that gain support and a loyal following. If you want your company to be one people feel proud to apply for, work at, and shop from and support, then you need to make a business worthy of the people as a place to work and a place to enjoy the products of.

Nothing is more helpful for a company than a good atmosphere and environment. Qualities like that are what build a positive reputation, and positive reputations build a strong and successful business.

Written by:
Alex Reddle – marketing manager of Flirt.com. Passionate about digital marketing, business and mobile applications.  Have degree in Psychology, certified business trainer.