Freedom & Security

Employees tend to look for 2 things in their lives and jobs, Freedom and Security, and quickly realize the need to pick which one they want first. Freedom comes with the ability to set your own path regarding your work, which ofter means running your department or starting your own business while Security often comes in the form of a job with a stable company providing a reliable and adequate paycheck. As a business owner what are you doing to fill either of these desires in your employees? What can you do? How do you increase your employees’ level of Freedom or Security without jeopardizing your business?

Let’s start with what not to do, which is trying to balance the pair. Balancing Freedom and Security instead of guiding your employees toward one or the other will lead to neither desire being met. Balancing will not help you at as as you won’t get credit for getting close to meeting one of the desires, you need to help them fill one. Focusing on one will give you a better chance of having a happy employee. So how is this accomplished? For Freedom you’ll need to make the employee feel like they are in charge and can do things the way they want. This means giving them control and responsibility for tasks and parts of your company. For Security you need to pay well enough for their ends to meet and for them to be able to live a comfortable lifestyle. You’ll also need to run a solid business so they know your company will be around longer than they will.