The Voice of the Employee

The Employee's Words

Managers and organizations often make the mistake of underestimating the power of the employee opinion. The unfortunate truth about the employee opinion is that it makes not come until the end of the employment, often gathered in exit interview questions. The employee has input that is valuable. Managers need to attempt to gather these opinions and input before the employee decides to leave the organization. The employee input should be viewed as strong information leading to improvements in strategic decisions, operations, and processes.

Bottom Up Decisions

The employee often has a different perspective on the work. Their view is more streamlined and thus, can bring more examples of how to perform a task the right way. Oftentimes, a management team may not have as succinct a view of the front line work. Therefore, decisions based on information from the front line employees may have the most positive effect on the work environment. The task of management is to encourage employee input and develop those ideas into strategic decisions.

Recognizing Employee Input

When employee input is valued, it should be noted that a recognition of the efforts of the employee drives further encouragement. Recognition is key in building strong relationships between management and employees. The recognition should go beyond a simple "Good Job." Employees are usually receptive to recognition that is visible and noticeable by others. Employee recognition helps develop the employee and triggers further ideas and input toward a more solid organization.

Customer Focus

The front line employee faces the customer directly. They are the first line of interaction between an organization and a customer base. Therefore, the ideas the employee generates usually are meant to improve their workplace. Management should take heed to serious ideas that can be developed into plans for strategic change. Once these decisions are put into action, and the changes are made, the focus on the customer increases. The input from employees may help customer satisfaction and customer retention.

As an example, imagine a large call center. An employee in the call center typically handles between 100-200 calls a day. In a focus group between a select number of employees and management, a particular employee gives input about allowing one hour out of the day for follow up on customer issues. The idea becomes reality. Employees have one hour out of their daily shift to follow up with customers. The call queue eventually reduces in size, cutting wait times for customers. Stress on both the customer and employee is reduced. With one idea, the employee was able to affect change in a positive manner that helps both the organization and the customer. In addition, the one hour to follow up with customers helps improve customer service and feedback.

With this example, you can see how an employee makes all the difference. Since they understand the nature of the job and how customers respond, they are able to give a different perspective that is more conducive to developing relationships between management, employees, and customers.

The relationship works in a triangular pattern. A customer contacts the employee with a problem. The employee resolves the problem. The problem, however, leads to an idea with the employee. The employee gives input to the management team. The management team follows up with the employee, maybe even the customer, and develops an actionable items from the idea. The item becomes a strategic decision and is then implemented. Once the idea comes to fruition, the problem the customer originally had no longer exists. Therefore, the customer and the employee worked together to resolve the problem. Management, as the third stage in the triangular pattern, made the decision based on information.

Conclusion

The input of the employee is an important step to building a business. The employee often directs the motion of an organization by simply being vocal and giving feedback to the management.