Saumya Srivastava: Building Relationships for a Better Employee Experience
VOICE OF AMBASSADORS
Building Relationships for a Better Employee Experience
Employees are more like saplings. Give them a place in the sun, just the right amount of attention
and room to grow and they will reap fruits.
On the contrary, if you keep them in dark, hover over them too much and neglect them outright, they’ll fail to grow!
It’s been said that an employee’s emotional connection with the manager and team makes him/her feel connected to the organisation. More so, it is this emotional connection and professional responsibility that shapes an employee’s relationship with the organisation. Through these relationships, employees find a sense of purpose in the work they do and find reasons to stay. When employees don’t have relationships with their manager or team, it’s much easier for them to walk out the door.
So what do you do?
The journey towards building this relationship begins with introspecting your actions. Have you done what it takes to make your employees comfortable? Or are you living in a cocoon of self-indulgence and assumption? To begin with, ask yourself these questions:
Are You Connected?
To know if you’re connected to your team, see if you know the answers to these questions. What motivates your team? Drivers, that motivate them to achieve their targets and go beyond the expectations? And, What do they care about? If you’re unsure of answers to these questions, chances are that you’re not doing anything to really “know” them.
Is your Door Open or Closed?
Being open is not just about being approachable. It also includes things like your body language, your Emotional Quotient and ability to reason with logic. You’ve heard of an open-door policy, but how many of us actually follow it as Managers? The office door may be physically open, but are you talking? Are you inviting others to stop in and say hello, to ask questions, to just catch up about their day?
Here are few tips for Managers to connect with their team members and build relationships –
1. Appreciate and Encourage
While it is important for employees to feel that their work matters, as a manager, it is important for you to let them know that you personally appreciate their contribution and that you’re proud of it. Employees want to know that what they’re doing is part of what makes the organisation successful.
Regular encouragement actually inspires better job performance and the drive to improve. Have a constant feedback mechanism in place where you can provide quantifiable feedback to your team.
2. Listen
It’s important for your team members to feel that they’re being heard and that their opinion not only matters but is a valuable asset to the organisation.
When Managers do not give their team members avenues to speak or involve them in the decisions impacting their work, the team members do not feel a sense of commitment or ownership in the output they produce.
Companies around the globe have leveraged the ‘Always On’ capability of the LitmusWorld platform where a dedicated channel is deployed to ensure that your employees can reach the right ears at any point in time and the HR professionals make sure that their opinion is acted upon/close-looped.
3. Give and Receive Feedback
Giving and receiving feedback goes both ways, employees need your feedback so they know where they stand with you, but as a manager, you should be seeking feedback from employees as well. Such feedbacks will help you understand individual needs and modify your managing style. This is very much similar to a 360° feedback that leading organisations such as Croma have adopted, to dramatically reduce their attrition rates.
4. Share Frequent Updates
Sharing frequent company-related information and updates not only makes employees feel important, but it also avoids them to come to their own conclusions which may lead to unhealthy grapevine and rumour-mongering.
5. Offer Coaching for Improvement Areas
When you offer to coach, you are helping your team members to improve the area that needs focus for them to grow. This also shows that you’re invested in their personal and professional development and committed to helping them do their job better, in turn, they’re likely to be more invested at work.
Employee relationship management is an art which effectively monitors and manages the relation between individuals either of the same team or from different teams. These relationship management activity helps in strengthening the bond among the employees and ensures that each one is contented and enjoys a healthy relationship with each other.
So what are you waiting for? It’s time to assess each of these areas and identify the gaps. These 5 tips are sure-fire ways to improve employee-employer relationships, reduce attrition and increase employee loyalty. Try it out!
Surveys are important to gather data but Conversations are important to build relationships! Want to know more? Check out LitmusWorld for Employee Experience.
Saumya Srivastava – Sr. Consultant at Cortaal Global (Ex AVP – HR at Kotak Life) comes with 14 years of progressive experience in leading HR function to enhance people efficiency across various industries. She has an extensive background in the set up and management of a full spectrum of HR policies and procedures; employee recruitment; performance management, organization development, and training & employee engagement programs.
