All-4-HR Blog Spot: COMMUNICATE WITH YOUR EMPLOYEES!

We wrap this week -- the last week of Cold February with some notes about achieving a great organization. Some thoughts of what makes a great organization. When thinking of a great organization, we can all think of ways to make our respective places of employment better. Achieving a great organization begins with small steps. It is the small, simple things that will make the biggest impact in your employees’ lives and in turn, your life.

The things that employers should always, always remember is (1) to keep the lines of communication open. Communication must be more than management or HR telling employees what the organization’s policies and procedures are. For positive employee relations, employers must let workers know the reason for these rules. It’s difficult for workers to be enthusiastic about following a policy or procedure if they do not know why they are being asked to do so. In the best-case scenario, employees will know about a policy or procedure before it is instituted. Giving employees an opportunity to provide input into the way things are done can provide an enormous sense of empowerment, which improves employee relations.

~Honesty is the best policy is still a Golden Rule.

It is especially true in employee relations.~

In organizations where employee relations are disregarded and communication is not viewed as important, many difficult situations can occur: low productivity, high turnover, absenteeism and even litigation. Employers must communicate to employees what is expected. What is expected of employers from employees?

Appreciation – Employees expect their hard work to be recognized and appreciated.

Respect – Employees want to be respected by their employers and their managers.

Trust and honesty – To earn respect, managers must be seen as trustworthy. If employees feel the employer is giving false reasons for taking action such as changing a policy, trust my falter, and respect may go with it.

Fairness – Employees want to be treated fairly, where everyone is subject to the same standards.

In many ways, employees desire the same things in their professional lives that they desire in their personal lives. Regardless to what level you are in an organization, we all want to be appreciated and respected and valued.

Our focus for the month of February has been Employee Engagement. Studies have shown that employers who improve employee engagement reap benefits in the form of better financial performance. Some tools you may use to improve employee engagement are:

Gain sharing – a way for employees to see how their work impacts the bottom line.
Pay for performance – directly relating an employee’s pay to an employee’s effort.
Involvement – keeping employees informed of company matters, and keeping the lines of communication open.
Incorporating learning – encouraging employees to continually improve themselves in their knowledge skills, and abilities.
Autonomy, creativity – promoting an environment where employees can be creative in their jobs, and be relied on to be responsible for their own work.
A sense of community – employees who have friends at work are more highly engaged than those who don’t; recognize employees for their achievements.
An atmosphere of respect – when things don’t go well, focus on the cause, not on placing blame.