People always ask – What is the KEY to employee satisfaction and engagement? Of course, there is no single answer. However if your employees feel they are NOT in the KNOW, the rest of the answers tend to be fairly irrelevant.
And here’s why. You can have all the perks and incentive programs in the world and if employees think there is something going on behind the scenes that they don’t know about – they’re not working, they’re gossiping. And understandably so – they’re trying to figure out what on earth is going on in their world that might affect them! Reasonable enough.
So instead of letting false morale damaging rumors fly, give ’em the goods.
What are the opportunities that the company is considering? What are the concerns – financial or competitor-wise that the company is trying to resolve? And then even better – how can each and every employee help or contribute to the opportunity or challenge?
Once you get them “in the know,” you can then get their buy-in, their support and watch your bottomline get better.
Employees are the ones making the donuts. If they don’t know the donut machine is broken and are guessing that the CEO is talking about the donut dough consistency behind closed doors – I can tell you one thing, the donuts aren’t getting made. AND the employees can’t help fix the machine, and are probably trying to fix the perfectly good dough and wasting time and resources – or worse, creating a new problem of inconsistent dough.
Help your employees be focused and help them help you be the best company you can be. The only way to do this is to share what’s going on – the good, the bad and the ugly. They will respect you for it. Because you respect them enough to share the inner workings, struggles and opportunities that you are challenged with. You will be amazed at how they will rally behind you! You can even start the conversation off with “I need your help.”
Leaders lead people who help them achieve the dream.
Join the Culture Tips Newsletter!
Leave theory behind and start taking action, today.
With Culture Works in your hands you’ll know exactly how, and what to do to manage your workplace culture.
No other workplace culture book empowers you to take on workplace challenges like the researched and proven 8 Critical Factors found in Culture Works.
