by Eileen O’Shanassy

Human resource investments tend to wind up on the back burner in most businesses. The focus needs to be on the customers, right? Yes and no. Customers are the ultimate source of revenue, so they need attention. But if you have miserable, undertrained employees that half-wish your business would fail, customers will get terrible service. To help avoid that, there are some HR investments worth making.

Employee Training and Development

Initial employee training is all about teaching people how you need them to do a specific job. It turns out that poor job training is one of the top five reasons new employees quit. Taking the time to train employees properly will cost something, but reduce turnover in the long run. Development is all about offering paths to ongoing educational opportunities. Employees get bored when they master their jobs. Providing a way for them to expand their skills keeps them engaged and makes them more useful to you. Even if you can’t cover total costs, getting your employees discounts on training goes a long way.

Flexible Schedules

Not every business is structured in a way that allows for flexible scheduling, but it’s worth the effort if your business can do it. The benefits to the business are numerous. You’ll usually see a sharp drop off in missed days of work and tardiness. Turnover goes down and morale and engagement go up. It’s a huge selling point for recruiting new, talented staff. Your employees will benefit too. It helps them achieve substantially better work-life balance. Stress levels go down. Fewer employees suffer burnout. It also allows employees to enjoy shorter commute times. 

Cleaning Staff

There is some limited evidence that a messy environment encourages creativity, but a messy, unhygienic work environment is more likely to make people disengage or quit. Since disengaged employees are usually bad employees and replacing employees is expensive, it pays to err on the side of cleanliness. Just hiring a maid or local services for cleaning to come in a few times a week can go a long way toward maintaining a clean, productive environment. 

Outsource or Automate Mundane Work

Every business has some tasks that are tedious and, in all honesty, probably a terrible use of employee time. Look for ways to outsource or automate those tasks. This will free up your employees’ time to work on the higher-level tasks that only they can perform. They’ll be happier, which will make them more productive and profitable.

HR investments don’t get much coverage because they aren’t sexy. They’re inward-focused, rather than customer-focused, so they often seem like they’re of secondary importance. Yet, making those HR investments can go a long way toward creating happy employees that sell your business to every customer they meet. That is something worth the investment.

Eileen O’Shanassy is a freelance writer and blogger based out of Flagstaff, AZ. She writes on a variety of topics and loves to research and write. She enjoys baking, biking, and kayaking. Check out her Twitter, @eileenoshanassy.

Disclaimer: The viewpoint expressed in this article is the opinion of the author and is not necessarily the viewpoint of the owners or employees at Healthcare Staffing Innovations, LLC.