Should Management Listen to Their Employees
My wife and I have trained and taught thousands of individuals. However, when we are training on workforce development we usually hear about how employees feel they are treated. They share how they are often met by management with “it’s my way or the highway” attitude. They often feel like they don’t have a voice and that they are not significant enough to listen to. This leaves the employee feeling undervalued, invisible and often disgruntled.
In most cases we realize that the company/organization has a culture problem. Either there is no culture, bad culture or a poorly communicated culture issue. High level management is not usually aware of this predicament but they notice it on the bottom line. Sales are down, predictions are missed, morale is loss and grumblings are at all levels within the organization.
Top level management is usually focused on innovation and the bottom lines. Mid-level management is focused on spreadsheets, sales and operations. While lower level management has to focus on getting the job done and metrics. In the instances when we see employees feeling undervalued, the problem is that little or no emphasis is focused on the people doing the work or the organization’s culture. While top level management may initiate a company culture it is often loss between the spreadsheets, sales, operations, metrics and day to day activities.
When a company or organization recognizes that the people within the organization are just as valuable if not more than the product or service being delivered they will notice a positive jump in the bottom line. When employees are valued, respected and listened to they feel better about the work that they do and become invested in their careers.
An organization that places great value on its employees will produce a company culture that thrives and exceeds their customers’ expectations while improving their bottom line.
• Productivity improves by 20-25% in organizations with connected employees. (Source: The McKinsey Global Institute)
• 58% of employees say poor management is the biggest thing getting in the way of productivity. (Source: Society for Human Resource Management)
• Employees who exercise their strengths on a daily basis are 8% more productive and 6x more likely to be engaged. (Source: Gallup)
• Teams with high employee engagement rates are 21% more productive and have 28% less internal theft than those with low engagement. (Source: Gallup)
• Organizations with low employee engagement scores saw 18% lower productivity, 16% lower profitability, 37% lower job growth, and 65% lower share price over time. (Source: Queens School of Business and by the Gallup)
Allen Forbes
Author, Speaker and Team Building Guru
info@AFspeaks.com
