Best Practice #1 – Create a Safe and Open Environment

Did you know that annual expenditures on employee engagement initiatives is about $750 million dollars?  It is one of the most written about, debated and discussed topics that the majority of companies struggle with and is always in their top five priorities for the organization.  

This is part of a series of articles I will write about to help you discover Six Best Practices that you can implement that will require little to no financial investment for the organization except your time, commitment and focus.

The Hard Facts

How are you at motivating and engaging your employees? Research shows that less than 25% of employees are fully motivated and productive. In service based industries, that number is alarmingly only 15%.

Did you know that an employee’s relationship with their direct manager is the single most important factor influencing engagement and the number one reason people leave organizations?

Engaged employees are 85% more efficient at their work; are 10 times less likely to take sick leave and have 50% more of a sense of getting things done.

I will be offering you additional insight into Six Best Practices in my future blog posts so stay tuned for additional insights.  Let’s look at best practice #1:

Create a Safe and Open Environment

Successful leaders deflect attention away from themselves and encourage others to voice their opinions.  They are highly skilled at making others feel safe to speak up and confidently share their perspectives and points of view.   They foster and create an open and approachable environment.

Think about it – what if your employees were afraid or did not care to share their thoughts and perspective?  What impact would that have on your results and overall engagement?  

Let me bring this point to life for you through my personal experience.  

Early in my career I worked for a startup company that sold me on how entrepreneurial and employee focused the organization was and how it was a great place for a new university graduate to start a career so I jumped in with both feet.  The individual who interviewed me did a good job selling me on the culture and how I could create a successful career for myself provided I worked hard and was dedicated.  

I quickly came to realize that the environment was quite the opposite of what I had been led to believe, and the most Senior Executive in the company was a dictator, who wanted to control everyone and everything because it was his company after all.  He shall remain nameless as will the organization but imagine the impact it had on the business.  

I experienced firsthand the command control culture he had created. We were not allowed to ask questions or challenge his thinking, let alone share our own thoughts as he led through fear.  We started to lose good people, we struggled to meet our results and people, including me, were afraid to voice our opinions.  

Let’s fast forward just twelve months after I accepted the job – the company declared bankruptcy and good people lost their jobs.  Think about what the outcome could have been if the leadership team created a safe and open environment where people felt included and could voice their perspectives.  We could have had a fighting chance at surviving and eventually thriving if we were shown value by being included.  Collectively we could have figured out how to solve problems and grow the business.

Creating a safe and open environment is one of the many things that you can do to drive employee engagement and results for your organization.  It is all about people and having an engaged workforce makes the difference between struggling and achieving success.  What are you doing to drive the level of engagement you desire for your team and business? Are you engaging your employees and asking for feedback and insight or are you to busy telling and driving results?

Please share your ideas and experiences, we would love to hear from you.

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