The Importance of Making Sure That Your Employees Actually Like Each Other

Make no mistake about it: a business is more important than any one person. A successful business is truly the sum of its parts. It's a collection of people all working together to form a cohesive whole, helping the business as an entity move forward into the future and accomplish the goals that it has outlined for itself at the same time. Finding the right people to fill the right positions is one important step towards achieving this environment, but it is exactly that – one part. An element that is just as important (but one that far too many business owners fail to pay attention to until it's far too late) comes from the idea that your employees also have to actually enjoy working with one another if your business is going to succeed the way you want it to.

The Business Consequences of Employees That Don't Like Each Other

When your employees don't like one another, it creates a situation where they become disengaged from their environment. This is true regardless of the type of industry that you're operating in. When employee engagement suffers, nearly every other aspect of your enterprise will as well. Productivity begins to decline. The high level of customer service that you've become known for disappears. The individual goals of team members are no longer aligned with the larger corporate goals of your business.

In essence, the entire machine begins to break down. Think of your employees as the engine on a car. Each element is important in its own right, but they're all working together to act as the force that propels the car forward. When they stop working together, the car doesn't move – which is exactly what can happen if your employees don't like each other and if this trend shows no signs of reversing itself anytime soon.

Ways to Improve Employee Relations

Team building exercises like business retreats aren't just a great way to make sure that you're working with a team of high-quality employees – it's also a great opportunity to guarantee that these are high-quality people at the exact same time. Hosting regular events after work with the express intention of increasing relations and improving morale is the type of decision that will pay dividends for years to come.

At Print It Plus we are a smaller company, so retreats are not in our budget, so we found having a monthly employee appreciation luncheon creates some of the same atmosphere, where employees are interacting, engaging and sharing personal and company experiences. It may not seem like a lot, but we take it very seriously. One day a month, typically the 3rd Wednesday of every month, we lock the doors, and sit for 1/2 hour and enjoy a catered lunch. Each month, in rotation, a different employee chooses a restaurant to order from and collects the orders from each person. We make it a point to celebrate any milestones we have reached together, and any birthdays, work anniversaries, etc. we can all appreciate. For instance, Sarah celebrated her 11th anniversary at Print It Plus this past luncheon.

Employees will begin to get more comfortable with one another and will develop the type of rapport that your business will thrive on. It creates the type of business where employees don't just take pride in their own work, but in the work of everyone else, too. People want to see each other succeed, making them truly invested in the process. This creates the type of situation where the larger idea of your business benefits as a result.

These are just a few of the reasons why it is so important to make sure that your employees actually like each other. A (cheesy) old saying tells us that “there is no 'I' in 'team'” - in the world of business, this is very much true. Employees that like each other not only as companions but as people are more willing to help each other when times get tough. They don't just think about themselves – they think about themselves in the context of a much larger whole. They think about success less in terms of their own careers and more in terms of your business. Talented employees who don't like the environment that they're in because of their co-workers essentially accomplish the exact opposite.