Building Healthy Work Relationships with Employees: 5 Effective Tips

Although the relationship between boss and employee isn’t a subject that people tend to talk about, it can play an essential part in your company’s success. Having healthy work relationships with your employees is an excellent way to build a positive work culture and environment. It can even affect employees with a remote or hybrid work arrangement, as properly managing a remote team is required to maintain productivity. Building relationships with employees is easier said than done, but it can benefit the entire company, letting it grow and perform better.

Advantages of a Good Work Relationship with Your Employees

Making an effort to strengthen your ties with your employees can have many significant benefits for them and your company. When you have healthy work relationships with your employees, they put more effort into their work and try to meet your expectations as best they can.

Having good work relationships with your employees makes them less likely to leave your company as they feel more comfortable in the workplace. It doesn’t take much for many employees to grab their things and go, which can tarnish your company’s image and cost you in the long run.

Increased work motivation is another benefit of a good relationship with your employees. Maintaining a high degree of communication with your employees and recognizing their efforts within the workplace makes them feel motivated, and it directly reflects on their productivity. They are also less likely to exhaust themselves or burnout.

Improving employee relationships also reduces the occurrences of workplace conflicts, which are incredibly harmful to your company’s environment and productivity. When the trust and confidence between you and your employees rise, you can make better decisions involving your team as you become aware of their strengths and weaknesses.

Overall, good work relationships between employers and employees create a healthy work environment in the company. As a result, it increases productivity as employees feel motivated and can focus entirely on their tasks, leading to an increase in the company’s growth and revenue.

Characteristics of Healthy Work Relationships

If you understand the elements of a good workplace relationship, you can better evaluate the connections you have with your employees and see which areas need improvement. People with good work relationships tend to trust each other. It allows them to complete any joint work efficiently as they understand the roles of each other better.

They also openly communicate, value, and respect each other’s opinions and ideas, and they tend to do so with complete transparency. This lets them collaborate effectively, which in turn allows them to solve problems with more ease.

If most of your employees engage in open communication and good work relationships, they can help your company move quickly and take advantage of the opportunities that can arise. The effect is even more nuanced when you, as the employer, build relationships with employees.

Effective Tips That Help You Build a Healthy Work Relationship with Your Employees

Building relationships with your employees takes genuine effort, time, and dedication. It’s not difficult to understand how it can benefit you, but it can be challenging to foster a good relationship if you’re unsure of what to do. Here are five effective tips that can help you build healthy work relationships and improve employee relationships with your staffs:

Improve Your Communication

Although memos and work emails are great for communicating important information, it’s an entirely impersonal way to do so. Employees may feel that they aren’t a vital part of the company if the communication is entirely one-sided. Communication skill is a must-have skill of the managers.

As they are likely your most valued resource in the company, consider establishing open communication with them to fill in the gap between the employer-employee relationship. You can improve your employee relationship if you try to understand their sentiments and needs while making an effort to be transparent.

Even in remote and hybrid work arrangements, it’s essential to communicate and collaborate to encourage them to keep talking to you and their peers. Avoid making remote management mistakes and keep your remote team motivated if you want to maintain a productive and healthy virtual work relationship.

Establish a Bond of Trust

Trust is the building block of any relationship. If you want to have healthy work relationships, you need to gain your employees’ trust. Be honest at every moment when you’re talking to your employees and avoid twisting your words, but don’t be completely blunt. Idle gossip can harm your work relationships, so don’t take part in them or share their personal information with other workers.

Appreciate Your Employees

There are occasions where your employee may be extenuated with the work they’re performing. In these cases, giving them a simple appreciation gesture for their hard work can keep them motivated. It is a good non-financial incentive for employees to boost their productivity. 

Remember that most employees dedicate plenty of time and effort, much like you do, to make your company grow further. Give them an honest and sincere thank you and let them know how much you appreciate the work they do.

Schedule One-on-One Interactions

Making an effort to talk to your employees in private when they need it can foster a good work relationship. These check-ins can make your employees feel supported. Ask for effective employee feedback about their current project to check if they’re happy with it. See if they need any help from other coworkers or find out if they have any suggestions that can improve the company’s productivity.

Asking them questions lets you understand them better and gives them a good morale boost, which is helpful for building relationships with your employees. It can also make them feel more comfortable about approaching you to ask for advice in the future.

Provide Good Working Equipment

It’s easier to build positive employee relationships when they feel valued in the company. You can improve your employee’s well-being by providing them with good office furniture. Investing in an ergonomic office chair and an standing desk can help them reduce the risk of suffering from common workplace injuries.

This makes your employees have fewer absent days and lets them work in a healthier condition, improving their mood and making them feel grateful to you. You can also consider getting other smart office accessories if you want to help them complete their jobs more effectively.