No matter what management style you have, it’s important to listen to your employees.
They are the ones sitting at their office desks day in, day out. They’re the ones doing the work, and they’re the ones who know the system inside out. For that reason, your employees are the ones who hold the key to your overall business success. If you don’t ask for their opinions, then you’re missing out on some vital information and you’re lowering morale within the office.
One of the main causes of low employee morale is when employees simply don’t feel listened to or valued. This gives you a very unhappy band of employees with productivity falling every single day. Of course, this is pretty damaging for profits, because of the link between productivity and profits.
So, how can you ask the opinions of your employees?
Firstly, you could go around and ask every single person about a specific thing you want to know. Or, you could go down the route of a focus group.
What is a Focus Group?
A focus group is a small group of people who are selected to discuss and report back on a specific subject. For instance, if you were thinking about renovating the office, you could put together a focus group to gather opinions and feedback.
The focus group contains a multidisciplinary approach, e.g. managers, employees supervisors, basically all levels within the organisation. Members of the focus group gathers opinions, suggestions, and concerns from those within the office and they report back to the group. Then, things are discussed and anything decided or anything of note is then reported back once more, through the focus group people.
Within that, focus groups keep everyone informed about what is going on and they’re a way to ensure that everyone has a say. The downside of a focus group is when “rank” takes over. In that, managers will simply make the decisions and won’t pay much attention to what the employees are saying. So, whilst focus groups are a great tool to use, it’s important that they’re used in the right way and that all views are taken into account when making decisions.
We all know that morale is vitally important within a business and having someone to report to and report back to, on any issues that are under discussion, is a great way to show employees that their views are just as valid and listened to as everyone else’s.