MightyRecruiterOne challenge that many businesses in today’s economy are encountering is keeping a realistic view of what is going with their employees. Many organizations are so concerned with their bottom-line that they aren’t in tune with their employees. This bias can give rise to differing views, poor employee management and a decomposing work culture that can create problems. Evidence already proves that when employers and employees are on the same page, it becomes easier to create and maintain a happy and healthy work culture to improve operations and productivity. To help you to improve the transparency and productiveness of your organization, you need to know what employees want. Here are some ways you can know for sure so you can make better and more intuitive decisions.
Encourage Feedback
To get a more accurate picture of what is bothering your employees so you can give them more of what they want and need, implement measures that will enable them to tell you. Place comment boxes around the workplace. Hold meetings and ask them to tell you what they would like to see change in the workplace. Make sure you are probing them by asking questions that require them to provide detailed answers. Some good questions to ask are: – Why do you like working here? – What do you like the least about working here? – What bothers you about working here? What are your concerns? – Would you recommend this place to your job seeking colleagues? Why or why not? Take note of the answers you receive. Pay special attention to any common responses as they are strong indicators of what employees want from your organization.
Probe New Hires and Former Employees
For every new employee that is hired and for every one that resigns or leaves the company comes the opportunity to discover what employees want. Start with onboarding and investigate what lured new hires to apply with your company. During the exit process, ask former employees why they are leaving. If they are leaving for better opportunities, find out what about those opportunities attracted them. Their responses can provide you with vital information as to what is right and wrong with your company’s work culture and offerings. Look for common reasons as they are strong indicators of stress undercurrents in your company’s work environment.
Monitor Your Staff
A great way for you to learn more about what employees want is to monitor them while they are unaware. Watching your employees in action can give you a bird’s eye view of what they really don’t like about their jobs. Even though you are encouraging them to speak up in meetings and on feedback forms, they may not remember everything they are unhappy about at those times. Also, you will gain better insight into any complaints that are floating about in the workplace.
Incorporate More Employee Activities
Give employees more opportunity to engage with each other outside of their work duties to encourage them to communicate. Pay attention to the atmosphere that is created for all of these activities and listen for dissention and dissatisfaction. After each event, ask employees what they would do better and what they would change.
Add Challenges
In today’s work culture, there is a fine line between challenges and additional work responsibilities. Employees who are not motivated or challenged enough at their jobs are more likely to be unhappy and dissatisfied. They are also more likely to create workplace drama and be less productive than their counterparts. Motivate your workers so they’ll find their jobs more meaningful. Encourage them to make better use of their skills and talents so they can create better opportunities for themselves and their coworkers.
Be a Problem Solver
Identify workplace problems, issues and conflict situations and get to the root of them. It doesn’t matter if the problems are the result of employee conflict or the workplace, the fact that they exist are strong indicators that your employees are unhappy. Solving these issues and implementing protocols that will help to keep workplace conflict down to a minimum may help employees to open up to you when they are unhappy so know exactly what they want. Caring about your business requires you to genuinely care about your employees. Find ways to improve employee satisfaction so you can better manage your resources, expenses, workforce and bottom-line. Keep track of what employees want and always strive to implement ways to improve employee satisfaction. For more information on how to improve employee satisfaction and your organization’s culture, use the resources available here at Mighty Recruiter to do so.