How Can Bosses Keep Their Employees Happy Here's when entrepreneurs can be true leaders and come to the rescue of their employees

Meet a bunch of young professionals and whether it's over drinks or dinner or even a chance meeting, the topic of conversation is often same – the tyranny of the boss and the curse of the working life. And the cause for the conversation is a disrupted work-life balance due to overworked employees.

In a start-up, often the pressure is high but here's when entrepreneurs can be true leaders and come to the rescue of their employees. They have to learn to identify the signs of stress and give perks to their employees to ensure they are not overburdened.

Entrepreneur India spoke to experts and entrepreneurs about what are the ways in which they can truly lead by ensuring their employees are happy.

Help Them Learn, Not Just Work

An important thing to understand is that employees aren't just working for your company's growth, they are also working for their individual growth. So, you can't take away the learning aspect of their job. Shanti Thakur, Associate Partner, Sapphire Human Solutions, said that employees crave for job satisfaction at work, no matter what industry they work in. "Employees spend a lot of time at work, most important perks that an organization can offer its employees is a push to learn new things while at work. This helps them enhance their practical knowledge," she said.

Work From Home – An Option That Can't Be Avoided

More and more employees have one growing concern – the amount of time they spend at work. This usually deprives them of a proper work-life balance leaving them with no time to do anything else. Also, keeping in mind the growing need to de-stress or an emergency situation, it is important to offer employees the option to work from home.

Payal Sondhi, Manager, Human Resources, SILA believes that today, especially millennials are looking for options like remote working and flexible working hours for a simple reason, to maintain a work/life balance. "They want to exercise this option as the focus is shifting from hard-work to smart-work which they should be able to accomplish from anywhere, any time," she said.

Rewards/Recognition

To ensure that your employees are motivated and happy at work, it's crucial that their work doesn't go unnoticed. As a leader, it's always good to stop and appreciate your employees. The idea is to keep your employees engaged and involved, for which the perks can be both tangible and intangible. Sondhi said that you can look at quarterly rewards and recognition while Thakur added that one of the most important value additions include involvement in the decision making process of the organization and being appreciated at the work. Thakur also said that the timeliness of these perks play an important part in overall growth of an employee.