Are You Listening to Your Employees?

Listening to your employees is an opportunity to build trust, learn something new and deepen connections. This skill is called active listening which is a way of listening and responding to other people to create mutual understandings. Active listening is an important leadership skill and has proven to reduce anxiety, promote mindful thinking, and reduce depression.

If your employees do not think they are being heard, they will take their voices someplace else. Studies have shown when an employee feels heard and know that what they say matters, they feel more valued and connected to your business. Feedback is a valuable tool for your business's success, and listening to your employees may give you business improvement ideas that will promote that success.?

Why Listening to Employees is So Important

If you want your employees to take a more active role in your company's goals and success, you have to listen to what they have to say. The number one reason employees don't take more initiative in the workplace is that their leaders fail to listen to their input before making decisions.

A study done with 675 professional workers revealed sixty-four percent of them said the biggest problem in their job was that their leaders made decisions without asking for input. Another significant factor that keeps employees from stepping up is how their leader reacts to their input and ideas.

If a leader listens to an employee's idea and then dismisses that idea without an explanation, it results in employees stepping back and not engaging in further conversations to provide ideas. The result is employees will refrain from initiating any future input.

If your company wants more employees to bring their ideas to the table, you will have to recognize them and provide them feedback on how you feel about all the ideas given. This feedback must be provided to all, even the constructive irritants and those who take initiative even if breaking the rules a bit.

When your company builds a culture where employees are allowed to bring their ideas up to the leadership, you will see some important outcomes. Some of those outcomes include more employee engagement, better productivity, increased innovation, and better employee retention.

Strategy for Listening to Your Employees

A strategy for listening to your employees involves understanding the experience of employees through an integrated approach. This approach includes requesting feedback, involving your employees in decisions, and making improvements within your business by incorporating their ideas. The goal of this strategy is to do the listening and implement ideas while keeping your company's mission and objectives in line.

This strategy has to start at the top of your organization with the top-level management and HR. To create the strategy, you begin by looking at your company's objectives and goals. Knowing these two things will allow you to understand what questions should be asked of your employees, and what type of feedback you can expect back from them.

Implementing this listening to employees strategy is not just a one-time thing. You have to make it a constant process of asking for feedback, reviewing what you obtain from that feedback, and then making the changes that meet your company's goals.

How to Find Employees Who Will Provide Great Feedback

Grow Simply helps you find employees that will fit into your company's culture. We verify information given on job applications to ensure you hire the best talent possible. When you hire someone who will fit into your company's culture, you have a valuable employee who will contribute to your success and submit quality feedback. Contact us and learn how through background checks and screenings we can find the right talent for your open position.