Listening to your employees concerns

If you want to establish an open-door policy with your staff members, you better be a good listener. Understanding why an employee is upset or concerned will help you with employee morale and retention. When you truly listen to your employees, they will feel comfortable coming to you with problems. You want your employees to feel safe when they talk to you. This can be achieved by listening to them and then doing something about their concerns. Far too often managers do not understand how to address their employees concerns and they end up embarrassing the employee by telling their co-workers about their issues. For some managers, they feel that getting the problems out in the open will help to solve the issue, avoid doing this approach. This will burn the trust bridge you have built with your employees and they will not come to you with your concerns anymore.

Give your employees ample opportunities to voice their concerns. This can begin by having an open-door policy and inviting your employees to come in whenever they feel like it. It also works when you have a suggestion box. The suggestion box should be completely anonymous, this will help employees express some concerns they may have that they do not feel comfortable talking about. When you get suggestions from your employees, make sure to thank them and let them know how their suggestions have changed your company. Even if their suggestions were not used, inform the employees that you did consider what they have said and you chose to go another route because of different reasons.

Active listening is one of the most important things you will do as a manager. What is active listening? It is listening with your eyes, not just your ears. When an employee comes in to talk to you about something, look at them directly, don't doodle on a notepad or click your mouse on the computer screen. You need to give them your full attention when they are talking. You also need to nod your head when you agree with certain things, this reinforces to the employee that you are listening to them. Active listening also involves repeating some of the concerns the employee has addressed. Try to say a sentence or two back to the employee, this way they know you actually heard what was said.

Of course listening is not the only thing you need to do, you need to find a solution for their concern. Perhaps they share an office with another employee and this employee tends to listen to loud music or has a hard personality to work with. If this is impacting the employee's performance, move them to another office and speak with your other employee about proper office etiquette. Loud music may be acceptable in some offices, but it should not distract an employee from their job. If multiple employees have come to you with the same concern, you really need to find a solution. You may need to call a staff meeting and address the issue with all of your staff members. Ask them for their input when it comes to finding a solution. When you make your staff members a key part of your decision-making process, they feel valued and respected and their morale is lifted.

Not every employee is the same, while your listening skills may work fine for one person, they may seem rude to another. Subscribe to mailing lists to learn new management skills so you can try new things that may help you become a better listener for your employees. The easy rule to remember is to maintain eye contact with your employees while they are talking, this shows respect and active listening.