How to Keep Your Employees Happy
Learnings from big organizations to tiny tech startups
When I first left University I went to work for a large charity. The team was great, I loved what the company stood for and the role was interesting. However, this was a large organization and in large organizations, there is a lengthy decision-making process. Employees had little autonomy and ideas could become stagnant while waiting for someone to sign them off.
Thinking I needed a significant change I went rushing off into a completely new area, working for a series of small sales and recruitment businesses. Here you generally worked side by side with the business owner. There was a flat structure and often you were all doing much the same job. The potential for earnings was high, but so were expectations. Hours were long and there were so many KPIs it was hard to keep track — do you focus on your sales target, call times, numbers dialed, client meetings, job offers, number of temps? Some people thrive on this pressure, for me, the number of measurables simply caused anxiety and reduced my overall levels of productivity.
At this point, I realized I had been following a path that I thought would lead me to make my fortune. I was earning a decent salary but I was completely miserable. I decided to make a drastic change, moving from a largely new…
