How to Support Your Staff

The best businesses invariably have the strongest employees. A company, as they say, is only as good as the company it keeps.

That's precisely why supporting your staff, all the way from the top managers to the greenest new hires, should be a business leader's top priority. Keeping communication lines open, motivating and challenging your workers, and aligning your employees' vision with your own are all crucial to your company's success. "Happy employees equal happy customers," says Rick Galbreath, founder of HR consulting firm Performance Growth Partners, which is based in Bloomington, Illinois. "The final recipient of any misunderstanding between employee and boss is always the customer."

Whether it is encouraging extra vacation days, scheduling additional time to talk to your staff, or even offering up midday yoga lessons, as a leader it is your job to build and maintain morale in your organization. We've talked to the experts and compiled their advice on ways to support your staff and, in turn, get them to support your organization.

Supporting Your Staff: Ignite Your Purpose

Trite as it sounds, the saying remains true that honesty is always the best policy. And being honest with yourself from Day One of founding your company is part of that communications strategy.

"The reality is people want to connect with what they are doing," Galbreath says.

Before a worker can do so, their boss must. Galbreath says oftentimes businesses neglect to find a greater good out of the products or services they provide. Simply by getting employers to tell the grander truth about what they do and why they do it helps find what it is that resonates with workers. Galbreath says in his consulting practice, companies he works with who open up about the big piture with workers achieve a 30 percent reduction in turnover rate.

For example, a company like Yodle, an online advertising firm based in New York, shows its sales reps the impact they can have right from the outset. Mike DeLuca, the company's senior vice president of sales and marketing, says he is "upfront and honest" with them about how great an opportunity they have. Particularly for his business, which aims to enhance profits for small businesses, there is a very real potential to change people's lives. "Small business is one of the most vulnerable types of business that's out there today," DeLuca says. "We help them thrive, and there's a lot of gratification in doing that."

Even if there's no direct connection to some greater good, it's still important to infuse workers a sense of purpose and importance in their jobs. Seth Besmertnik is the CEO and co-founder of Conductor, a SEO measurement-and-technology firm based in New York. During each staff member's initial orientation, Besmertnik encourages that person to always question the highest paid person in the room.

"Just because someone makes more money than you doesn't mean that they're smarter than you or that their ideas are better," Besmertnik tells his employees.

Without bestowing the virtue upon his employees, Besmertnik fears they might shy away from opportunity and lack the confidence to reach their full potential. This open understanding and flattened hierarchy have led to tremendous success over the past few years, bringing Conductor to No. 145 on the 2010 Inc. 500 list.

Another benefit to having a transparent, honest approach is avoiding the unpleasant element of surprise. Galbreath says that if you spell out for people during their interviews exactly how much time they will need to commit and what projects they will be working on, they will know right away whether or not they will be happy doing it. "If people come in and are surprised by the reality, immediately it causes them to be distrustful about their organization," Galbreath says. Most companies do not actively lie, Galbreath says, but often neglect to mention aspects of the job that workers might find unappealing. If someone understands the mission and purpose of your organization, he or she will dedicate whatever is necessary to bring about a desired result.

Dig Deeper: How to Build a Corporate Culture of Trust

Supporting Your Staff: Keep it Fresh and Challenging

We know that stacking any worker's plate too high with unexpected challenges can hinder that person's motivation and performance. Yet allowing employees to get too comfortable can work to their detriment as well.

Both DeLuca and Besmertnik challenge their workers to innovate and excel beyond their potential as a way to keep things spry in the workplace. Motivation doesn't have to take the form of a cash incentive, either. "Having some sense of autonomy is one of the things that drives employee satisfaction," Besmertnik says. "There's nothing more motivating than having success at what you are doing, that feeling of accomplishment and being pushed in a healthy kind of way."

At Yodle, DeLuca believes the motivation flows inherently from the satisfaction in the results. He knows how important it is to keep things fun, and every day encourages some form of competition among his sales team. "They are fierce in terms of people wanting to win, but it's all done with the desire to help our customers succeed," Deluca says.

Much of Yodel's staff is comprised of young, entry-level workers with similar sets of interests. Amy Gutmann, a political theorist and president of University of Pennsylvania, last month told Inc. that 70 percent of "millennials" say that giving back and being civically engaged are their highest priorities. In an effort to support this spirit, Yodle holds monthly community service events in which its workers can get involved. Its latest initiative provided computers for underprivileged, inner-city schools in Boston. "It's a combination of keeping things fun and creating a responsibility to the communities that we serve as well," says DeLuca.