How Balancing People and Profit Can Improve Your Bottom Line
Samin Saadat
Executive Director,
Posted on Nov 18, 2024
Every day, companies make countless decisions to drive growth and profitability. However, based on our experience of working with over 500 companies, when organizations prioritize financial gains at the expense of their employees or focus solely on employee needs to the detriment of the business, they risk undermining their long-term success. This imbalance can lead to higher turnover, reduced productivity, and a weakened organizational foundation.
In this blog, we’ll explore how a people-first management strategy can enhance a company’s profitability and how you can make tough decisions without sacrificing employee trust.
Prioritizing people in management isn’t just about ensuring their well-being—it’s also about understanding your boundaries and supporting them in performing at their best. As a leader, you must be able to answer the critical question: “What is my responsibility in this situation, within the scope of my role?”
It's essential to maintain professional boundaries and avoid stepping into roles like friend, therapist, or saviour, as this can create confusion for employees and blur the lines of your responsibilities as a manager.
Here are several ways to implement a people-first strategy successfully:
Communicate Signal, Not Noise
Being transparent doesn’t mean sharing everything with everyone all the time. It’s about sharing the right information at the right time with the right people to empower employees to make informed decisions for themselves.
Empower Accordingly, Not Assumingly
Offering growth opportunities means respecting that not everyone aspires to move into management roles or climb the corporate ladder. Support employee growth by aligning your business needs with their personal preferences and aspirations. If an employee isn’t planning to grow with the business, it can be mutually beneficial to explore alternative paths—just as employees may leave a company if it fails to provide opportunities for growth and development.
Give Time, Not Just Money
Benefits don’t have to mean perks like yoga classes. Often, the most meaningful benefits involve giving employees more control over their time, enabling them to focus on their personal lives and well-being and integrating it with their work schedule. Instead of offering more money to encourage harder work, consider providing more time for employees to recharge and reconnect.
For example, a manager noticed that tight deadlines and constant meetings were causing high stress levels and burnout among their team, resulting in declining productivity. To address this, they introduced focused work periods by limiting meetings during peak hours, allowing employees uninterrupted time to concentrate on their tasks. This simple adjustment reduced stress, improved employee focus, and boosted morale. As a result, projects were completed more efficiently and with higher-quality outcomes, demonstrating how balancing employee well-being with business needs can lead to mutual success.
Corporate success is not measured solely in profits. Building engagement and trust among employees is the foundation of long-term success. Companies can achieve meaningful growth and resilience when they effectively balance people and profit. If you're struggling to find this balance in your organization, book a free consultation with us to explore tailored strategies for success.
With over a decade of experience in organizational and industrial psychology, we at Jalapeño Employee Engagement help leaders and companies create thriving, inclusive workplaces. We use technology and psychological science to drive positive change in organizational and leadership development, strategic planning, and essential skills training and coaching. We offer services and tools designed to enhance well-being, innovation, and productivity for small and midsize teams. At Jalapeño, we combine research with practical expertise to bridge the gap between theory and real-world application. We have designed and delivered courses in organizational development and leadership coaching for master’s students and executives. These programs align academic insights with the evolving needs of today’s workforce.