We are now full swing into 2015, and your employees are feeling it. They’re tired, looking forward to their vacation, and are lamenting the fact that the major holiday season is still too far away to reasonably looking forward to.
Today’s employees need someone to listen to them, just as the average employee has throughout history. What’s different about now, is that the average boss wants to listen. Not hearing the concerns of the employees can be a major productivity killer, but there are still major misperceptions about employee engagement floating about today—things that your boss may not know.
Employees Aren't as Engaged
Why? Business is great, and everyone seems happy in the break
room, but what many bosses don’t know is that their employees want to talk!
Whether that be about the lack of support they are receiving from a particular
department, or a workplace squabble, there are far too many instances where
employees don’t feel they have an opportunity to speak up.
The Feedback Culture is Lacking
As Sal Falletta, EVP & MD of Organizational
Intelligence Institute noted, creating an environment where
employees not only know that their thoughts and opinions matter, but are taken
seriously by the company, is vital to the ability of the company to properly
enact with their employees.
“This is a culture that is conducive to pulsing their workforce
on a regular basis but more importantly you have to demonstrate the willingness
to take action on these results,” said Falletta.
The fact remains obvious: employees will divulge only the
amount of information that they feel comfortable giving. There are numerous
factors that go into this, and all of them will affect the average employee’s
respective response. But by creating an environment where feedback is not
only permitted—but encouraged on a regular basis—companies can rely on the
feedback that they receive to reflect what their employees are actually
thinking.
The Employees are Overwhelmed
While the saying goes, “knowing is half the battle,” it doesn’t
account for what isn’t known. If a
boss knows that he or she needs to engage their employees to best understand
how they are operating, they feel as if this will somehow remedy whatever
issues they perceive to be present in the environment.
What they are failing to see, however, is that their employees
are already stretched too-thin, and the act of taking part of their day to
discuss things that they feel won’t be taken seriously, or don’t matter, will
only make them less efficient.
The Best Tools Available
Just as there are the bosses that assume their weekly sweep of
the cubicles will suffice as employee engagement, there are also the bosses
that feel as if they need to really understand what their employees are
thinking. When it comes to employee engagement, most bosses don’t understand
the tools available to them.
FlashLet, for example, gathers information
from employees via frequent bite-sized questionnaires that serve to collect
relevant information from day-to-day, but also does not bother the employees
into feeling like they are being pestered by their bosses. By gathering this
information, the company will be able to see how an individual’s work/life
progresses, and how they can make it more efficient.
Want to learn more about employee surveys and how
they can work for you?
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