Last month’s column explained how being a good employer can improve your profits, business sustainability and customer satisfaction – and offered practical suggestions to position your company as an employer people want to work for. This month’s column continues the same theme with six more tips on how to be a good employer:

1) Recognize and reward team and individual performance. One way to acknowledge your staff’s valuable contributions to your corporate targets and goals is with tangible rewards dispensed through a creative compensation plan. The plan offers raises, commissions, bonuses or gifts tied to achievement. By first establishing effective benchmarks and measurement tools, you can then create an incentive plan that rewards people for exceeding the benchmarks.

The prize does not need to be monetary, however. For deserving staff who take pride in their work, public recognition can be the sweetest reward of all. It can take the form of a plaque, mention in the company newsletter or a creative gesture that typifies your company’s personality.

It is important to acknowledge the contribution – not just to the contributors themselves, but also to their peers and significant others. By making a formal presentation or posting congratulations, you demonstrate that the company cares about its employees’ efforts and inspires other staff to perform better.

A thank-you note to contributors’ families lets relatives know that the employee is valued and reinforces your appreciation for the time and hard work the top performers have contributed to the company.

2) Provide training and professional development. Enable people to succeed by giving them the professional training necessary to do their jobs well. Training acknowledges the employee’s value to your company and recognizes that you have a future together.

Realize also that the best employees seek opportunities for challenge or advancement. Without the chance to assume new responsibilities or work on new teams or committees or projects within your organization, they may feel they’re stagnating and might move on. People are motivated to work for – and stay with – companies that nurture their careers.

3) Be proactive to improve team interactions. Start from day one by implementing an orientation process that integrates new team members effectively. Additionally, people leave managers and supervisors more readily than they leave companies or jobs, so any measures you can apply to improve the quality of supervision your employees receive will aid in employee retention.

4) Adjust your physical environment to help staff meet your customers’ needs efficiently. Functional work spaces and work surfaces, adequate task lighting and appropriate safety and environmental conditions can all boost your staff’s performance. In an industry that now operates 24/7, employees’ safety getting to and from your building is also an important factor.

5) Give staffers a forum for open dialogue. Employees are the ones who see your operation from a day-to-day perspective. They are stakeholders in your business. Value that. Encourage and empower them to contribute ideas for improving your operations using well-thought-out reasons to substantiate their points of view. In exchange, provide them with meaningful feedback, including an explanation of how their input was considered or acted upon – or if not, why not.

6) Use humour. Some organizations have devalued humour and laughter at work, seeing them as unprofessional or unproductive distractions from getting the “real” job done. Yet, a recent study of financial institutions found managers who facilitated the highest level of employee performance used humour the most often.

The great psychotherapist and Holocaust survivor Viktor Frankl defined humour as “one of the soul’s weapons in the fight for self-preservation.” In a crisis, it can be an effective mechanism for defusing stress and giving people a break from the disruptive negative emotions of anger and anxiety.

Physically, laughter has been proven to lower blood pressure to a healthier level, oxygenate the blood (thereby increasing energy), relax muscles and stimulate production of endorphins – natural “feel-good” painkillers that raise both our mood and coping abilities.

Psychologically, appropriate workplace humour promotes self-detachment, emotional and mental flexibility, problem-solving and improved morale. It can also serve as a social lubricant to break the ice, soften criticism or conflict and strengthen staff relationships and esprit de corps.