As a small business owner, it can be hard to attract top talent and keep them. Small businesses often compete with large corporations that have the cash flow to lure experienced employees to join their team. However, by being proactive in your hiring and business practices, you can find just the right people to fill your company’s positions.

Once you’ve found employees who are ready to work hard, then it’s time to focus on what will keep them interested in staying with you for the long term. Even if you can’t offer high salaries or big vacation packages, there are steps you can take that will benefit your staff.

Find Out What Motivates Your Employees

It’s important to communicate with employees about what their goals are. Ask pointed questions about their interests, challenges and how you can help them achieve success. Discuss additional responsibilities with your staff that they might be interested in. Cross-training is a great way to initiate interest and skill-building. Create a plan for each employee to help meet their goals, and schedule meetings to assess their progress.

Offer Opportunities for Learning

Let’s face it, doing the same thing repeatedly can get boring. Your employees will be more engaged when they’re learning something new. You can provide in-house trainers for a variety of industry-related tasks or something else like first aid training. Look for other opportunities like offsite roles that your staff can step into such as giving a presentation or meeting with clients.

Listen Actively And Provide Feedback

Encourage your employees to talk about any work-related problems they’re facing or ideas they have to improve the workflow. When you allow your staff to come up with solutions to work issues, it improves their confidence and leadership abilities. Giving timely feedback is an important piece when it comes to keeping employees excited and interested in working for your company. Even if the feedback isn’t good, then it’s better than not knowing where you stand.

Allow Your Staff the Freedom to Lead

One of the best ways to create confident leaders is by allowing them the ability to make decisions. It can be frustrating when you must get permission from management constantly and can lead to feelings being dissatisfied. Trust your people to make balanced decisions when it comes to customer service, providing discounts or purchasing opportunities.

Funding For Your Small Business

One of the biggest hurdles in running a small business is having the cash flow to keep good employees happy. Whether you’re looking for a merchant cash advance or business loan alternative, we can help. You can use a loan to buy state of the art technology to help your employees’ efficiency, or even hire an in-house trainer to help them learn new skills. Getting a merchant cash advance from Alpine Funding Partners can help in an emergency too. Contact us today for an easy business loan alternative that will keep your business on top.