While managers try their best to keep their employees engaged and uphold their productivity, their efforts to do so keep on failing. While the modern culture of task management software, fun n games in the workplace, and office trips to take care of most of the problem, there are certain issues that are inconspicuous.
Here are 3 of such obscure issues that lie hidden in your workplace hindering all your efforts toward engagement:
1. Using Technical Jargon
Have you ever come across a scenario when an employee spends his time working hard on something only to find you meant something else? And when confronted about it, they stay quiet. What happened here was that they did not understand your message clearly enough.
It’s not uncommon for employers to use technical terms in their presentations that employees could have trouble understanding. This establishes an inferiority complex and they would rather let it slide than expose their lack of knowledge. Also, nobody wants to be the guy who keeps interrupting the boss in the middle of the meeting. This creates an obstruction in communication and severely hinders engagement. If they don’t understand what you’re saying, it only leads to misunderstandings.
Refrain from using too much jargon and explain it when it seems necessary. Make good use of body language when conveying a message. Make sure to spend a few moments taking questions after the meeting or the speech.
2. Existential Crisis
Have you ever felt like your contribution to the organization is next to nothing? Well, that’s how your employees go through every now and then. When your only value the work they do and account the time taken, they start viewing their lives as nothing but a rat-race.
Timely ask for their feedback and share yours. Your employees need to know that you value their presence. Make them realize that you do. Existential crisis isn’t something that can be cured with a simple pat on the back. Organize learning sessions to motivate them and boost morale. Their greatest motivator is your appreciation. You can do miracles with engagement and morale by simply showing them that you really want them around. Your greatest weapon is the magical words: ‘Good work!’.
3. Overlooking Their Problems
WOne of the biggest issues that employees raise is how managers keep overlooking their problems. While it’s not the fault of managers entirely, they do try. The problem is the inefficiency of their efforts. Employees go through tons of issues in the workplace, they encounter stress, high workloads, office politics, and sometimes more serious issues like bullying and harassment. While managers try their best to detect and resolve any problems that come up their radar, they can’t do a very good job. The reason being their idiosyncratic perspective on these problems. They can’t do a very good job detecting and resolving an issue without any insights from its victims. Managers need to upgrade their radar and get better at identifying these problems as they come. They need to communicate more.
These issues can be sensitive in nature and employees might not be very forthcoming about reporting them. Implement YourSafeHub, a secure communication channel for your employees. It allows your employees to report and address such problems with the power of anonymity.