Do you ‘hear’ your employees?
One of the important factors towards creating a motivated, committed and most importantly, an involved workforce is having proper employee voice system in place. To keep things simple, by voice I mean all forms of opportunities (including participation) where employees can have their say and exert some influence on the organization’s decision making process.
Research shows that voice has mediating effects on employee attitudes and behavior which in turn results in higher employee engagement, lower turnover and consequently positive organizational performance. And not to mention, employee voice is also critical from the perspective of social legitimacy.
Direct and indirect voice
Voice could be both direct and indirect. Direct voice ranges from simple daily face-to-face meetings, email, intranet to more formal attitude surveys, teams and other problem solving groups. Whereas indirect voice includes unions, employee representative meetings, works councils, joint consultative committees etc. Research suggests that combination of direct and indirect forms (i.e. ‘dual’ voice systems) is linked to superior organizational performance.
Discretionary effort and performance improvement
Voice gives employees the means to express their opinions and concerns. When employees realize that their voice is heard and management acts upon them, this creates the much needed trust, commitment and job satisfaction and employees are more likely to offer their support and discretionary effort, which ultimately leads to improved productivity and performance.
Handy during change
Voice is also important for successful management of change. Employees are aware of what is happening and why, and they can communicate their concerns and ideas which positively contribute to the change program.
Better and informed decisions
Employees are rich source of shop-floor knowledge and a good voice system ensures such knowledge are channeled properly. If management can incorporate workforce tacit knowledge in their decision making process, they are more likely to make better judgements and informed decisions.
Keep conflicts at bay
Also because voice allows employees to express their dissatisfaction and concern before it’s too late, conflict can be averted and more effective and timely solution can be reached. Such peaceful settlement means there is less chance of disruptive behavior and firms can potentially avoid financial distress.
Developing voice
When developing and encouraging employee voice, it is important not to consider voice as merely a fashionable fad. Clear expectations regarding outcomes of voice regime should be established. At the same time it must be remembered that if employee voice is disconnected from organizational decision making, there is a high possibility that this might eventually lose appeal and become short lived.
Some questions to be addressed when designing voice scheme:
- What goals to achieve?
- How much say or participation is envisaged in the scheme?
- Over what sort of decisions?
- What type of voice? Direct, indirect or both?
- Who is involved and, if a representative, how elected or selected?
Employee voice is a sensitive issue and source of much tension and debate. Careful consideration is paramount when designing and introducing such measure, and from the onset, management must make it clear what could be expected out of such scheme. Most importantly, management must listen and act on the information they receive, because end of the day, voice is meaningless if the message is ignored.
Photo credit: SandyAbrams
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