Some business decisions are great, and there’s no doubt about it. For instance, you are insisting on a higher standard regarding your product/service quality or treating your employees with fairness and appreciation. The problem is that there are also some decisions that, although great, are all but intuitive. Today, we’ll discuss some unorthodox decisions that will benefit your business in the long run.
1. Remote work options
You’ll get access to the biggest possible talent pool by introducing remote work options. You’ll get the privilege of hiring anyone in the job market regardless of the location, allowing you to filter only the best.
Most importantly, you’ll save money on office space, furniture, and even hardware. After all, more and more enterprises have a BYOD policy. This is essential for security since some people will take work-related documents home and use public networks to access work-related platforms. All of this can work if you’re proactive enough and educate your staff (as well as set some ground rules in advance).
2. Give flexible work hours
Next, you need to consider giving your employees flexible working hours. You can consider their work done as long as they work for X hours that week. Even better, you should give them a deadline instead of work hours.
This is a scalable method and works great with remote work. This way, your employees will have all the liberty they need. For instance, if they need to make an episode of a podcast for your marketing, as long as it’s done by the due date, you shouldn’t even inquire about their work hours.
Also, if you’re hiring globally, the least you can do is give people with a different time zone a chance to choose when they will work. With flexible work hours or a deadline system, this will never be a hindrance.
3. Create multiple streams of revenue
Ideally, all your income would come from a single best-selling product/service. However, the open market is not ideal, and what works changes occasionally. This is why the only way for your business to stay resilient to change is to have multiple income streams.
So, you want to diversify your offer, create seminars to monetize your skills and knowledge, and set some of your funds for potential investments. Here, you want to diversify.
Your immediate priority is to create passive income to improve your cash flow. At the same time, you want to set a small portion of your funds to invest in assets with growth potential. One such option is crypto, and you should study a list of the top projects and pick the most suitable options.
4. Set a personal development budget
The next thing you want to do is provide your employees with a chance to learn something. People are more inclined to think about what you can do for them rather than what they can do for you. Money is not their only motivation; some are concerned with gaining experience and achieving personal development.
So, you need to set aside a budget that you’ll use to send some of your employees to seminars and pay for courses at your own expense. This way, they’ll be incentivized to stay. You also want to start a great mentorship program. If you employ specialists and experts, everyone will want to work at your company.
5. Hire freelancers
Sometimes, it’s smart to employ freelancers and temporary workers. This is because the model in question is scalable. When you hire freelancers, you can lay them off when there’s no need for their assistance anymore. If some are invaluable assets for your organization, you can always ask them to stay.
You can never know if an increased workload is a fluke or not. When hiring freelancers, you’re not taking any chances. Sure, you have less control, but you also have less responsibility. You should be fine if they sign an NDA and you check their reputation.
6. Set performance-based salary
When you put people on a performance-based salary, you incentivize them to give their best. People on a salary see extra work as a problem or a nuisance. People on performance-based pay or a commission see it as a chance to earn more. There’s a huge difference in intrinsic motivation between these two groups.
However, this is a slippery slope. You see, if you pay them for the quantity of work that they do, the quality may falter. They may rush to finish so much that the quality plummets and the result suffers. You must be very careful when setting up this system and do your best to prevent exploitation.
7. Foster a sense of ownership
People need to feel like they own the business (in a sense), and there are several ways to achieve this. First, you must be transparent about your goals and business’s financial state. During meetings, everyone gets a say, and everyone gets a vote.
Then, you can give people a chance to decorate their workstations. This is a lot easier in a cubicle setup, but it’s not exclusive to it. Also, you could go beyond and give people a share in the business. This way, they’re unlikely to leave, and they’ll become extra concerned with the actual status of the business.
8. Fire troublemakers
Some types of employees are not necessarily bad when it comes to performance but have a bad effect on everyone. Some employees just distract others, others make people feel uncomfortable, or just love stirring office feuds.
As we’ve said, they’re not bad individually. It’s not like their evaluation performance will come up badly. They won’t have bad personal results, and their absenteeism won’t be extraordinary. It’s just how they affect the rest of your team and how they increase the employee abandonment rate that’s problematic.
9. 4-Day work week
It’s not about the number of work hours; it’s about the effective work they put into it. If you motivate people to work harder and achieve great deadlines, there’s nothing wrong with having a 4-day work week.
In fact, according to some surveys, this is amazing for productivity in general. Most importantly, it will make your organization more desirable for potential talent. Many specialists and people of authority, which you otherwise wouldn’t be able to afford, will come to work for you because of a 4-day work week. A 4-day work week is great for work-life balance and your staff’s mental well-being.
10. Pet-friendly workplace
In the majority of workplaces, pets are banned by default. Why not change this and introduce a huge change in the workplace? This will improve employee productivity and even earn you a personal favor with some of your pet-owning employees. This is also a great PR move for your business.
Pets in the workplace can reduce anxiety and make it more pleasant to be around. Some employees rush home to be with their pets or worry about leaving them for too long. This way, they won’t have trouble pulling longer hours. Also, this decision is great for everyone’s mental well-being.
Think about the long-term benefits
You can’t just fixate on the immediate payoff when making business decisions. You also need to consider the long-term benefits of your decisions. Sure, a shorter work week can make your current processes slower, but it will earn you a talent and reputation that you couldn’t get any other way in the long run. Always think about the bigger picture.
