In the world of work, people are too often seen as numbers. You probably recognize the feeling – you’re working in an environment with lots of other people, and you feel like the company doesn’t care about you or your life. You are just a cog in their machine, one of thousands, and your individual personality, the spark that makes you you, doesn’t matter to them at all. This atmosphere can be horrible to work in. If you are an employee it makes you demotivated and likely to quit – if you’re an employer, it can lead to high turnover and low energy levels amongst your staff.
As we can see from blogging, the best way to run any sort of business is with a personal touch. This extends to you, your employees, and your customers.
Here are a few reasons why personalization is so important, and how you can use it to massively improve your working conditions.
Making People Feel Valued
The most important effect of personalization is simply to make people feel valued. The world of business – and any workplace – can be a cold and stressful place. In a recent report, a huge 40% of workers said their work was ‘very or extremely stressful’, and this has massive repercussions for people’s mental and physical health. Feeling like you are working hard in a vacuum with no recognition of your value as both a worker and a human being can be incredibly demotivating. Personalizing interactions can help with this. If you are a boss, it can be as simple as learning everyone’s names and asking after their family. Allowing employees to decorate and adapt an office space for their individual needs is also a massive help.
Finally, creating links between employees and customers and giving everyone the freedom to work at their best rather than following strict scripts and guidelines can help personalize your work and increase engagement.
Personalized Uniforms
If you work in an industry that requires uniforms, the ability to personalize these uniforms (within health and safety guidelines, of course) can have a massive effect. It stops people from feeling dehumanized and allows them to take more pride in their appearance and their work. If it’s important for your uniforms to be standardized, there are other ways you can introduce personalized elements, including bespoke name tags.
There are some great companies out there that offer personalized services on anything from nurse badges to restaurant name tags. These will not only help customers to identify your employees but help them to feel valued as individuals, not just as part of a larger workforce.
Genuine Engagement
Promoting genuine engagement between yourself, your business, your employees, and your customers can be easier said than done. However, if done right, it can create a great atmosphere and strengthen the bonds between you as people, as well as helping your business grow. Real communication is important here – enabling an open dialogue with your employees, and with your consumers.
Let employees know that if they have suggestions they can feel free to come forward with them. Social media is a great way to interact with customers and get feedback on your services which you can use to improve what you are offering.
