This is a question I am constantly asking, both to clients (and prospective ones) and via social media.
Why is this something I feel the need to go on (and on, and on) about?
There are many reasons, but the top three are this:
- Employees want to be seen, heard and appreciated for the hard work and results they deliver. Arguably more so now than in any previous point in time – definitely more so than in my working life spanning across a few decades. And why do you need to care about what employees want? Well, here are just a few reasons: demonstrating you care ➡ employee engagement ➡ attraction & retention of top talent ➡ high performance & productivity➡ organisational success.
- If you want employees to come on the journey with you, to buy-in to the Purpose, Mission, or vision of your business, then you need to engage with them. You can’t just demand their buy-in.
- Employees are your most important stakeholders, of all your stakeholders. Not your shareholders, nor your customers or members of the Board. As Sir Richard Branson infamously said (and yes, I have been known to quote once or twice before)…
Clients do not come first. Employees come first. If you take care of your employees, they will take care of your clients.
Don’t forget that your employees are the ones on the front line. They are the ones delivering service to your customers. They will usually be the ones on the end of a Karen-in-Bunnings type of customer tirade, not you. Which means they have unique insights into how to improve on service delivery including opportunities for innovation.
When should we focus on listening to our employees?
ALL THE BLOOMIN TIME!
A more helpful answer includes when you are dealing with scenarios like any of the following:
- High staff turnover
- Increased staff grievances or conflict
- Program or service delivery review or potential restructure
- Proposed introduction of a new product, programs or methods of service delivery
- When encouraging innovation ie via hack days
- Developing your Employee Value Proposition
- Deciding on your organisational values
- Change initiatives
When drastic shifts are made to a workplace’s culture, it can cause confusion, discomfort, and a disconnect between employees and leadership. This is especially true in a crisis situation, when changes come swiftly and out of the blue. [Culture Amp]
One very topical example centres around the question of flexible work vs remote work vs forcing employees back to the office.
You may desire your employees to come to the office, ideally full time but at a bare minimum, for 2-3 days a week. Your staff might however continue to push for permanent remote work.
How do you resolve this issue? You could lawfully direct them to return full time to the office, and if they refuse, there is the possibility* of termination of employment for failing to obey a lawful and willful direction.
But is this really your best option? Such a hard-line approach isn’t exactly going to foster a great working relationship; and in this era of the Great Resignation or Realignment, you risk good staff walking out the door and onto other employers who are willing to accommodate their preferred working arrangements.
A far better approach for everyone concerned would be if you discuss this issue with your employees, and listen to their point of view.
Invite your people to comment, both individually and as a group. Ask them to explain why they want to remain working from home; and ask them to offer alternatives such as 2 days WFH/ 3 days in the office scenario.
Or discuss compromises such as only needing to come into the office for ‘team’ days, or days dedicated to collaboration and meaningful connection. Deliberate emphasis on meaningful.
In other words – you should listen to your employees, and seek their input and buy-in to resolving the problem.
Equally as important: when / if you decide it is a hard NO for full time remote work, then you simply MUST share your decisions as well as the reason(s) for it.
HOW TO LISTEN TO YOUR PEOPLE
Because infographics have kind of become mandatory in the weekly blogs in Workology Co’s A – Z of Workplace Culture series, may I present to you, the latest infographic which illustrates ways to do just this.
Other ways you can listen to your employees include ye olde fashioned Suggestion Box, engaging an external consultant to hold one:one interviews with your team (yes that’s a plug for Workology Co and be warned, there is more of that below) or via a dedicated channel for internal comms in whichever chat platform your organisation uses.
Of course your efforts to listen to your employees will be greatly enhanced if your working environment is psychologically safe – employees will be much more willing to speak up candidly if they are confident there will be no fall out from doing so.
And equally as important is that managers and leaders demonstrate emotional intelligence when seeking their employee’s opinions and responding to them.
If you need help with your EI level, then here’s something we prepared earlier:
E is for Emotional Intelligence.
But wait, there’s more (and no, it’s not steak knives)
Stakeholder engagement aka helping clients listen to their employees, is one of Workology Co’s favourite ways of working with our clients.
It also happens to be one of my personal superpowers – making people feel comfortable enough to open up to me and share how they really feel about issues in the workplace.
Whilst I am all about you as a leader showing you care for your employees, there are undoubted benefits to having an external, unbiased consultant facilitate your employee stakeholder engagement during times like those mentioned above.
Employees often feel much freer to be open and entirely honest with a stranger than they do with their boss, particularly if the feedback they want to give is tricky or might be viewed as negative.
However, even if you do engage a consultant such as yours truly to help you listen to your employees; don’t make listening only the remit of said consultant.
Listening needs to be active and ongoing.
Do you hear me on that?
**Caution: Termination of an employee is rarely straight forward. Here is an article from The Age that highlights some of the issues to be aware of if you are considering termination for failing to follow a direction to return to office-based work. This blog is not intended to be legal or individual advice. For that, consult a lawyer. If you need a referral, reach out, I know a few…