One of the biggest problems when running a business is failing to understand your employees. Despite what people think, it’s not easy trying to put yourself in the shoes of your employees, but with these following tips, you’ll find effective ways to view your business from different angles.
But first, why would you do this? After all, as a business manager, you have different roles to the rest of your employees and it could seem like a waste of time. For starters, viewing your business from a different pair of eyes helps greatly with understanding how your business is actually running. Statistics only tell one side of the story. If you’re producing fantastic results but your workforce morale is at an all-time low and they’re struggling to meet deadlines, then it’s not a sustainable working environment and it will collapse sooner or later.
Understand your business from the ground up
As a business owner, it’s normal to be lost in translation when your employees start using specific terms or technical jargon that you don’t quite understand. As the owner, you should take more interest in your business so you can understand it better. Some people don’t think that it’s possible to do this, but there’s a very important tool that will be invaluable for this purpose: the employee feedback loop.
This is essentially a method or system that allows your employees to give you feedback. Whether it’s done through anonymous emails or by leaving your door open so that people can come in and have a say, it’s essential to your business operations and you would be foolish to leave this out.
The employee feedback loop is an important system that allows you to see the business through the eyes of an employee and not from your seat of power. It will allow you to identify problem areas that your managers aren’t fully aware of (or outright hiding) and it will give you a better understanding of the tasks and hardships that your staff are going through in order to keep your company afloat.
Improving morale, one problem at a time
Once you’ve established a system to receive feedback, you can then start to tackle each problem one at a time.
Some requests will be vague. For instance, perhaps an employee lets you know that they don’t feel secure at your company. Perhaps this is because they don’t feel like they can keep their job due to the competitive environment you’ve established, or maybe it’s because they lack workers comp so they’re worried about the fines or legal fees they may have to pay should they end up in an accident at your workplace. These are all considerations that need to be elaborated on before they make much sense to you, so it’s important to take all feedback on board and hold meetings to allow your employees a way to further explain their problems.
Once you’re able to tackle these problems head-on with efficient solutions, you’ll find that your business can run smoothly and more effectively. You’ll be more productive, you’ll waste less money and the morale in your office will improve.
