As I see it, employees are a great resource, in fact, the most valuable one for a company. This is true for manufacturing and services industries alike. They have an incredible wealth of information and talent that can help you run your business better. This information may include the general happiness and demeanor of the staff, feedback on how effectively is the company being run, information on potential internal problems at the company, suggested ways to improve, issues that customers have been voicing, etc.
Surprisingly, though leaders know its importance they fail to take full length effective measures to listen to their employees.
To overcome this thick wall of communication, reluctance and hesitance and for better employee engagement, following simple steps can be taken by the management/leaders in a company:
1. Be transparent – Start the proceedings by showing openness on whatever you do. This may include implementing open door policies, sharing the strategy decks and recordings of strategic calls throughout the company. This helps get across the message that ‘Nothing is hidden in this company, we care for you and we want you to listen and participate in what is going around you’.
2. Focus on them not you – Start by asking them what they want. Ask them how satisfied are they in their current role? What more do they want? Are their needs (remember Maslow’s hierarchy!) are being taken care of? How best they would like to contribute to take the company forward? Once they start developing a sense of empowerment, they will come out of their shells and will provide your with their best efforts, innovation and creativity.
3. Be anonymous, when needed – Sometimes, especially in the initial stages, you may have to take anonymous inputs. It takes time for trust to build up. Once they see that their feedback is increasingly being taken into account and the managers are themselves eager to hear directly then the need for anonymous feedback for most of the issues will disappear. But, it will certainly take time and patience.