Gautam Garg believes that everyone has a part to play to make this world a better place. He plays the part of the enabler who aims to understand technology innovations, and make it useful and easily accessible to those in need. This passion led him to become an entrepreneur. He is a Co-Founder & CEO of QR code technology-based SaaS applications-Scanova. He is a QR Code enthusiast and a big fan of inbound marketing, CRO, and usability. He also Co-Founded the non-profit initiative Zerocrime.
Why does a business exist? The easiest and most popular answer is — “for profit” or “to generate wealth”.
But most Founders, CEOs, and other people who run good businesses know that generating profit is essential but not sufficient. Don’t get me wrong. It’s essential to generate profit to sustain employment, drive innovation, build customer value, and in general keep the business running for a long period of time. This is common knowledge. But if profit or profit growth is the only metric you’re focusing on as a Founder/CEO, you’ll quickly become irrelevant. This knowledge is not so common.
The first and most important setback that you’ll see is losing good people. People who have actually helped build the business. And this is already happening around the world. According to the 2022 report ‘The Great X’ by Michael Page, 86% of the survey’s respondents said that they will resign and look for new prospects in the next six months. Thinking it’s all about the money? Get this. Of these respondents, 61% are willing to sacrifice salary, bonus, or promotion for greater well-being, mental health, and happiness.
Despite this trend of ‘The Great Resignation’, the companies should manage to keep employee attrition very low. From the early days, companies should build a good workplace culture.
For example, here are some of the thing’s companies should now do:
- Hybrid Working Model: People should be able to if they want to work from home, office, or a combination of both
- No Micromanagement: Train and trust people to take responsibility for their work. Managers help solve problems only when needed
- Flexible Work Timings: People choose when they want to work
- Work-Life Balance: Working after hours and on weekends should be frowned upon
- Bi-Annual Appraisals: Assessment and compensation revision based on performance is another great way to take care of employees
- Learning & Development: All team members should have access to learning resources including online courses, books, internal/external training sessions, and industry conferences
- Life Skills: Get an expert to teach a life skill every month
- Games: Play a game every month
- Outings: Go out in the city every month to foster team bonding
- Travel: Go out on a leisure trip every six months or every year
- Respect: Despite the organizational structure, every team member should be treated with respect and kindness
- Rewards & Recognition: Identify and reward top performers regularly
Many organizations think of HR as a ‘supporting’ function. To us, it’s a core part of the company. The company empowers HR and they help empower the people.
To sustain a business, you need a good product/service that brings customer value, effective sales strategies, and eventually profit. But companies need to start realizing that it’s only the people that can make this possible. And companies need to start investing in good workplace culture to take care of people. A business should exist to make the lives of people better. That’s when people thrive and help keep the company in business.