As the year draws to a close, you are likely taking some time to review the good, the bad, and the ugly of 2017 as you plan for next year. Such introspection and planning is important to maintaining a successful company and positive business culture. However, if you aren’t keeping your employees in the loop about how the company performed for the year, you could be setting yourself up to lose your valuable employees.

Employees want to know how their efforts contribute to the success of the company they work for. They want to know how the company performed and what areas they can help improve. They want to feel informed, that they have a stake in the company, and that they are more than a replaceable commodity. When communication is lacking, even the most loyal employees may start looking for another position where their contributions will be acknowledged and valued.

Ideally, you should evaluate the performance of your company at least quarterly and share that information with the key stakeholders and employees of your business. However, when it comes to communication – something is better than nothing.

As we gather for our end of year festivities and express our gratitude for the people we work with, you can use this occasion to share the successes of the company with the team members. It is an appropriate time to demonstrate to your team how grateful you are for their contributions while promoting a message of ongoing stability, growth and success moving into the New Year.

You may want to also share resources available to your employees to help strengthen areas that could benefit from improvement moving into the New Year. Quality employees will appreciate knowing that there are resources available that will not only help the company, but build the employee’s resume and help them be more likely to achieve their career goals future.  By sharing resources and clearly setting performance expectations for the entire company moving into the next year, you demonstrate your leadership skills and desire to see everyone on your team succeed.

Your company would not be where it is today without the contributions from each member of your team no matter how big or small. Express an attitude of gratitude whenever you can and keep building on your successes by including everyone on the team with the company knowledge that provides them both security and a sense of pride.   If you would like to information as to how other companies are presenting their teams with updates that might work for you, give us a call.