How often have employees come to you saying someone mentioned “an unmentionable” in the smoko room this morning or passing on feedback by the water cooler.

We have long held the opinion that if an employee has a gripe and doesn’t come to the manager themselves then the issue probably isn’t as big as being reported.  Having said that, we have been caught out on numerous occasions where a timid employee, or even a loyal employee, may feel aggrieved or would like change in the business but they don’t want to ‘rock the boat’, be a ‘negative nancy’ or they simply don’t have the courage to talk about the issue.

 A few years ago we subscribed to an employee engagement platform that sends each of our employees a question to answer each fortnight.  The questions have ranged from a simple scoring system from 1-10 of “Are you happy at work?” to written answer questions like “Are we a better organisation now than we were 6 months ago – please explain why you feel this way?”

Both of these questions give the employees an opportunity to tell us different things.  The question,“Are you happy at work?” allows us to measure the team’s happiness and the employee can give us an indication of how they feel right now.  The other question allows the employee to provide feedback.  If yes, then why? If no, what can we do about it?

Before the survey commenced, we explained to our team that their voice would be anonymous but it allowed them a voice! Each month we take the time to review the feedback provided and have asked them to be honest and practical – this gives us the best chance of being able to action their feedback or suggestions.

If you would like to know more about the subscription we have, please contact Melinda Doidge who would be happy to discuss how the subscription works and the benefits we are seeing in our business!

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