Hiring your first employee is an exciting step in any entrepreneur’s journey. New team members can help you work more efficiently, scale operations, and keep your focus on the bigger picture. But hiring new employees also comes with an array of challenges, which can be daunting as a first-time business owner. How do you maintain professionalism in a small work environment? How do you manage other people in a kind and respectful manner? In this month’s blog, we explore these questions and provide five quick tips to make your growing workplace effective, professional, and enjoyable!
Open Lines of Communication
Think about situations in which you’ve worked for a supervisor or manager. Your relationship was likely best when your manager was open to and accepting of feedback. It’s essential that employees feel empowered to both raise complaints about workplace dynamics without fear of retribution. A key step to making this happen is ensuring that opportunities to communicate issues occur regularly and often. Schedule 1:1 meetings with the people you directly supervise on a consistent basis. During these sessions, make sure you’re both providing and receiving feedback. To grow as a manager and venture owner, it’s important to understand the perspective of your employees!
Practice Good Listening Skills
While setting up regular meetings with employees is a great first step, it’s important to think critically about the social dynamics of these encounters. As a new employee—especially at a small company—it can be scary to communicate issues in the workplace. And as a manager, it can be difficult to receive negative feedback. With the tension inherent in this relationship, it’s important to practice listening techniques which make your employees feel heard and respected. When a team member raises a concern, try phrasing it in your own words to make sure you correctly understand. Try examining concrete examples of issues, and think critically about ways in which you can improve. Most importantly, remember that receiving feedback isn’t a debate: it’s important to respect the position and feelings of all team members, especially as a manager.
Worker-Input
When designing the processes by which managers (that means you!) receive feedback from employees, it’s important to make sure that your whole team has the opportunity to provide input. A safe work environment is one which acknowledges the voices of employees. When designing processes by which issues are raised, be sure to speak with your staff members about the ways in which they feel most comfortable providing feedback. Not everyone has the same communication style!
Regular Trainings
Workplace dynamics are constantly changing and evolving. As such, it’s important that all employees are on the same page in regards to acceptable and respectful workplace behavior. Establish regular training sessions which both remind workers of existing policies and provide information on relevant changes. In 2025, with a wealth of Human Relations-related resources on the internet, it’s easy to stay relevant on best practices. A great place to start is HR.com, an online publication where SEED SPOT Vice President, Lauren McDanell, recently discussed techniques to create an inclusive workplace.
Conclusion: It’s All About Learning
Ultimately, the key to creating a healthy and safe workplace environment is effective communication. Make sure there are established pathways for employees to provide feedback. And when establishing these pathways, ensure you are mindful of the communication styles which make your employees feel respected and heard. Finally, use resources on best practices in the field of Human Relations to make sure you’re up to date on relevant workplace policies.
