Your business is your baby, and your employees are an extension of your brand. If your clients have a negative experience with a member of your team, that experience influences their perception of you and your baby. As such, while there are professional boundaries between the employer and the employee, it behooves you to take an interest in the personal lives of your team members outside of work. Beyond the basic inquiries you may make — “Did you run that race on Saturday?” or “How was Grandma Edna’s 90th?”, it is also useful to be connected to your team members via Facebook.
Mark Zuckerberg may have infamously declared, “Privacy is dead,” and to a certain extent, he’s right. People share intimate thoughts and details of their lives on-line in these closed (yet vast) social communities, and you should have a basic idea as to what your employees are up to – not only so you can ask, “What’s up?” at the water cooler with greater knowledge and combat any inflammatory or politically incorrect behavior not in line with the comfort level of how you conduct your business, but also, and just as importantly, so you can use the interests and individual strengths of your team members to help you build a stronger and better business.
Maybe you have an employee running a race to raise money to fight cancer, starring in a play, or teaching yoga on the side. So then maybe your entire team signs up to run the race, and it becomes a fun thing to do that boosts morale and raises money for a good cause. Or you go see that employee in that play and he or she appreciates your support and feels even more loyal and willing to go the extra mile for you, the awesome boss who sat in an audience. And maybe that yoga certified employee you didn’t realize you had would love to teach a yoga class at work every Friday over lunch hour. On the flip side, on those very rare instances when you do have someone blasting out inappropriate status updates on their Facebook page, you can speak to that individual about it and take the appropriate course of action if necessary.
When you’re the mother or father of a child, in this case the business you created, you never stop worrying. You have to have your finger a little bit in all the pieces of the puzzle in order to stay on top of things, protect your brand, and keep your team happy, healthy and productive. Being in the Facebook know is just another part of your job description.
Contact Shannon at sha@dashawellness.com to book your custom-tailored health event at your company today. DASHA® is a wellness lifestyle brand and Manhattan-based wellness center created to offer a truly holistic approach to wellness. DASHA®’s corporate health initiative is to educate, motivate, reward and inspire employees to instill better health habits and make educated decisions. DASHA® understands that if your employees are able to stand tall, feel healthy and confident, they will be better people and can contribute more productively to their work environment. DASHA®’s motto is “enhance your well-being.”
