Employee Relations:
Communicating With Your
Employees
As the manager of a small business
you not only have the day-today responsibilities of operating the
business, but also the responsibility to establish and administer the
disciplinary procedure and to effectively handle grievances and
complaints. Your actions are the major factor in determining the human
relations climate in your firm. Communication provides the "key" to
successfully meeting these responsibilities.
Large corporations recognize this responsibility and use many different
media to assure that employees understand, and are kept informed of all
matters of interest to them. Small businesses often fail to recognize this
need, even though, when compared to large organizations, they have a
distinct advantage.
It is certainly much easier to communicate with 5, 10, or 100
employees, than with thousands. Yet, in spite of their advantage, many
small companies have poor and inadequate communication with their
employees.
Part of the problem lies in recognizing what your employees need to
know about the work they're doing, and the company itself, and part of it
is that owner/managers often believe that they do keep employees informed.
The more employees know, the more they feel part of the company.
There are many things on which employees should receive information,
either regularly or when the occasion arises. These include:
- vacation plans
- holiday plans
- benefits
- overtime and other special work schedules and
- any plans about changes in the work or work environment such as:
- new products and services
- moves of furniture or work places
- etc.
In addition, it is desirable to keep employees informed about matters
affecting the company:
- how it is doing, and where it is going
- improvements in company operation
- laws or regulations affecting company operations
- new contracts
- new product plans
Employees want to know most everything about their company, and more
importantly, matters affecting them; keeping them informed, therefore,
satisfies an important need.
There are two channels of communications through which employees obtain
information:
- The informal communications network which includes any conversations
you have with individual employees or small groups of employees. The
informal network also includes the rumors which spring up when there is
concern about something but no direct information.
- The formal communications network includes such methods or
procedures as:
a. Any regular meetings you (or your supervisors) may hold with
employees to brief them on matters of interest and to discuss anything
of concern to the company or to them, including problems with production,
standards or rules, as well as any concerns they may have. Such meetings
provide considerable feelings of belonging to employees and bring many
suggestions on how specific projects, as well as overall operations can be
improved.
b. A small employee manual, which proves useful in the orientation
of a new employee to your company, but also serves as a reference on
policy benefits, important rules, safety programs and procedures for
handling grievances.
c. An organized bulletin board with current information. Notices of
holidays, changes of shift or work schedules, new policies, emergency
telephone numbers and any other information that would prove of interest
to employees, can be posted on such a bulletin board. Notice of personal
information regarding your employees - congratulations on birthdays,
births, marriages - can also be posted.
d. Posters promoting safety, health, and good housekeeping procedures
can also add to a good communication climate as long as they are kept
clean and neat, and changed regularly.
Food For Thought
Just about everything new
that you attempt is difficult at first. You've never done it before,
so you don't know what to expect. You don't know how much time things
will take. You don't know where to go for information. You're not sure
you can do it.
The best approach is to jump right in and try. If there's something
you want to, or need to do, then just get started. Take the first
step. That first step may be awkward and slow, but you learn from it.
Experience is the best teacher. Sure, you can prepare by reading and
watching and analyzing. Don't develop analysis paralysis, though.
Don't spend so much time preparing for something that you never get
around to doing it. At some point, you just need to get started. Once
you've done that, once you've made that commitment, you have momentum
on your side.
And your experience will teach you things that no book ever could.
Do you have trouble making decisions? Is it difficult to juggle your
priorities? Do you find it hard to say "no", even when you really want
to? Do you sometimes sit and wonder what you should do next?
Perhaps you need to clarify your sense of direction. We all have a
general idea of where we want to go, though very few people take the
time to really think in specifics. But if you don't know exactly where
you want to go, you tend to stray off track. Distractions come along
and pull you in a lot of different directions. Decisions become
difficult to make when you don't have a clear direction.
Knowing exactly where you're going can focus your efforts like nothing
else. Do you ever find at the end of the day that you haven't
accomplished very much? A clear sense of direction can change that.
When you know exactly where you're going, exactly what you want to do,
you can use that direction to evaluate everything you do. Ask
yourself, "Is what I am doing right now getting me any closer to where
I want to be?" If not, then why are you doing it? If not, you'd better
stop that and start doing something that will get you in the right
direction.
A ship sailing across the ocean is off course 90% of the time. But
because the navigator knows the final destination, he can make all the
necessary course corrections along the way, before the ship gets too
far off course. Those mid-course corrections are vital. And they are
impossible without a specific destination.
The same holds true for any endeavor. Everything requires adjustments
and corrections along the way. But in order to make the right
adjustments, the final destination must be precisely defined. Only
then can you keep yourself on track for success.
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