I’m not happy. The printer has still not been fixed and now my chair is broken. The company is falling apart. The boss really doesn’t seem to have a clue as to what is really going on.
A young lad started last Thursday, no one bothered to introduce him to me and they gave him a job that he had no idea how to do; why didn’t they just ask me? For a start I could have let them know them a new set of plans have been released so even if they did know what they were doing the drawings they are using are out of date anyway. Sometimes I don’t know why I bother turning up.
Some of the guys and I went for a drink last night after work. No one is happy and Sally from Accounts says that she has just about had enough and is thinking of asking for a rise and if they don’t give it to her she is going to quit.
The management here just don’t have a clue, we are haemorrhaging money through our inefficiencies and they think that sending out memo’s telling us that they are introducing new procedures for claiming expenses is going to make a difference – whoopee do.
I’m going to ask for a pay rise, if Sally can get one so should I.
And on it goes.
These are the sort of thoughts that start to go through the minds of individuals when an organization loses touch with their personnel; the chair that is broken, no feeling of appreciation, blaming ‘management’ and for some even questioning the futility of what they are doing. Trivial problems fester and a suspicious and unhelpful frame of mind develops. Can you be sure that this isn’t the sort of thing that is going on right now in your organisation?
What should be social events held outside the office become no more than a forum for complaints and negativity grows among people who feel unable to effect change. Diverse frustration will often amalgamate into a demand for an increase in remuneration, as though like a cheap fix more money will briefly reduce the pain.
Left by management, undiscovered and unaware, the concerns of this employee will inevitable find solace with their colleagues own individual concerns, where the only common demand will be for an increase in remuneration, more paid holidays and a reduction in working hours, all of which will not fix the broken chair, ensure that new personnel are in future properly introduced, trained and managed nor help management identify areas of inefficiency.
Organisations have a habit of pigeon holing people, physically through offices, cubicles or workstations and also in terms of responsibility. It can prove productive if there is effective and strong management in place to support this structure, but over time weak or inappropriate management can infiltrates the management chain and if it does it can be expected that cracks will start to appear.
From the top down all can appear rosy in the corporate garden as the weak and inappropriate manager reports that all is well in the engine room, oblivious to the fact that their coal stocks might be dwindling.
A very skewed view can be the result of relying on a limited number of indicators, just as a one eyed person finds judging distance difficult. Good management will therefore establish procedures that sample the mood throughout the organisation from different perspectives providing a rounded picture.
There are both direct and indirect benefits of establishing good, frequent and extensive communication channels.
A senior management team that is known to have their ear to the ground will command great respect and will keep middle managers from becoming complacent knowing that they can no longer dismiss the senior managers searching “How is everything going?” question with a non-committal “Fine”; It is my experience that if someone replies with “fine” you need to dig deeper and ask if they really know what is going on.
Most principals of an organisation will not have the luxury of spending time walking the floor and discussing the issues of individuals but through online employee satisfaction questionnaires they can achieve the same benefits and almost become omnipresent.
Online surveys provide an ideal method to establish effective communications between the employee and employer. Using a survey hosting service they can now be created and published with ease and speed.
Surveys can be deployed in seconds by utilising the Internet and intranet, they can be completed easily by employees and the results analyzed in real-time exposing the ‘problems’ and giving early warning towards common themes of dissatisfaction.
With their ability to get to the heart of an organization online employee satisfaction surveys can confirm that all is well in the engine room and that there is sufficient fuel to keep it running.
The benefits that online surveys bring are considerable, not only are the real issues identified, but employees feel that their voices are being heard and that their views, right or wrong, have a forum.
Online surveys will not in themselves resolve a problem but what they will do is give senior management the opportunity to address the problems and concerns of their employees, if people then leave the organisation they will at least hopefully be doing it for the right and not wrong reasons.
The grass will always appear greener on the other side but the underlying reasons for good people leaving an organisation are rarely purely monetary (although it is often cited as the reason) and more often to do with one or more of the following:-
- the working environment;
- a lack of accomplishment
- insufficient training and feedback;
- lack of career growth;
- over work;
- lack of trust and respect with their senior managers.
Good communication between the employer and employee can help identify the individual and common concerns of the employees and will give the senior management team the opportunity to address root problems and not just the symptoms of employee dissatisfaction, enabling them to demonstrate to their employees that they are valued as an important resource.
Each individual organisation needs to customised their own employee survey so that it is relevant for them. I invite you to put yourself in the place of an employee and complete the short sample employee survey, then view the results of the satisfaction questionnaire and just think of the benefits to management being able to measure so easily the heart beat of the organization.