Are Your Employees Telling You Something? Five Messages for Managers

September 14, 2014 Employee Performance and Coaching, Employee Relations, Productivity, Teams and Organizations, The Manager's Resource Handbook

Organizational Health: 5 Things Your Employees May Be Telling You

Have you ever really paid attention to what your employees are telling you? After all, employee behavior is often a sign of organizational health. Sometimes they may ask unusual questions that make you scratch your forehead. Other times, their non-verbal behavior in the workplace can say a lot about a business or about how you are doing as a manager. Spoken or non-verbal, these clues our employees give us may suggest a problem with workload. Or, what may seem like a simple question from one employee may actually be a sign of a widespread concern across the entire department. Other behaviors may suggest boredom or dissatisfaction with the job overall.

Unfortunately, busy managers are often too consumed by daily activities and are unable to regularly meet with employees to evaluate concerns. That being said, there are still some basic things that we as managers can watch out for to gain an understanding of hidden issues or challenges in the office. It is important to be observant and to realize that our employees are always telling us something, somehow. Here are five messages your employees are sending you.

1. Attrition

Let’s start with an obvious indicator that we always take notice of, because very rarely does an employee quit on a whim and without a specific reason. There are typically three reasons why an employee will leave.

First, some employees simply depart for a fresh start, or for personal interest reasons that may be independent of your organization. Second, and far more likely, it is often said that when an employee leaves an organization, they’re really leaving their boss. Perhaps there is some conflict between the two people, maybe there is a lack of involvement from the manager in the employee’s activities, or simply dissatisfaction in the way the manager is running the team. The third reason why an employee usually leaves an organization is because he or she is leaving the organization itself. Perhaps the vision, the decisions or the culture of the organization does not meet the needs of the employee.

Possible Triggers That Motivate Employees to Leave:
Friction / Disagreement with Supervisor
Lack of Opportunity for Advancement
Chaos or Instability in the Workplace
Lack of Professional Development
Excessive Workload / Hours
Dissatisfaction With Leadership
Compensation

If you’ve ever had an employee resign, a part of you will always wonder if it was something you did to trigger that decision, no matter what their cited reason may have been. If an employee submits his or her notice, in most cases it is a sign that he or she felt some level of dissatisfaction or lack of fulfillment. After an employee resigns, take a survey of your team to gather employee feedback on things like career growth, interest of the work
and compensation.

Leaving a company represents a number of challenges and discomforts for the employee, so if one does leave, it means circumstances were compelling enough for them to take action.

2. Is There a Plan?

Stability in the workplace is something that every staffer wants to see. Not only is workplace stability a sign of a good future and job security, but it is also a sign of good leadership. Your employees grow concerned when they see inconsistency in management’s decision-making, or sudden, unexpected changes made by the organization and its leadership. If employees actually feel compelled to ask ‘Is there a plan?’ it’s a sign that they are becoming concerned with the stability and the broader vision of the business.

Of course, it is natural for businesses and companies to change over time and to experience up and downs due to the market or industry. So what do we do? Having even a basic a plan to adapt to these changes and communicating those plans very well automatically has a positive impact because employees will see that decisions and actions are consistent and aligned.

Moreover, communication should be both frequent and effective during difficult times. Ask employees for feedback and questions to ensure key messages were received and understood. Broadcast emails or newsletters once a year are not enough, and generalized or vague messages from management will just frustrate people.

3. What Time is It?

Another way to detect morale issues is by taking notice of your employees’ work hours. Unhappy employees tend to abuse work hours for the basic reason that they are frustrated. For example, you may see an employee leisurely stroll in at 10AM when everyone else arrived at 8. Or, some employees may take long lunches more often than they should. And, some folks may just pack up and slip out the back door immediately at the end of the day, leaving some tasks unfinished.

We can reach similar conclusions when we look at the amount of hours an employee works. When an employee is engaged and satisfied at work, they are more likely to go above and beyond on a regular basis. While we should never expect our employees to work excessive hours, a couple extra hours each week suggests employees are engaged and are not simply watching the clock. However, if you do have workers who are putting in the minimum amount of time, there may be reason for concern.

Possible Reasons Employees Work The Minimum:
They feel taken advantage of by working extra hours.
They do not feel they are compensated enough to work extra hours.
They are dissatisfied and are not interested in going above and beyond.

If you are worried about employee attendance, stop and ask how they are doing the next time you see them in the hallway. A quick conversation may go a long way in determining the cause of the problem or a false alarm.

4. Multitasking Through Meetings

Employee burnout is a big problem for an organization. When employees are mentally tapped out, their attention to detail is lost, their throughput is reduced, and their overall ability to contribute is weakened. Usually, employee burnout is the result of an excessive workload.

When workload is an issue, you may notice that employees are unable to dedicate their undivided attention, often multitasking and working through meetings. I’m not talking about quickly checking an iPhone that buzzed with a new email, but rather, blatant pounding away at the keyboard when they should be listening or participating in the discussion.

In most cases, when employees multi-task through meetings, it not intended to be a show of disrespect, but simply that the employee is trying to use the time to get other work done because there is no other time available to do so. Similarly, when important meetings are repeatedly rescheduled, it again suggests that employees are struggling to balance their priorities.

“Unhappy employees tend to abuse work hours for the basic reason that they are frustrated.”

If you have concerns about this sort of employee behavior, sit down with those involved to understand if their workload is really a problem and outline solutions to making it more manageable. If you’re worried about burnout, give them a day off or ask them to take a sick day to give them a break.

5. ‘How Do I…?’

I once had a 27-year veteran of a company ask me how to submit a travel request. I had only been in my role for a couple of months, but was surprised that this was not a well-understood task. (My employees had to travel regularly, so it is not like this was a rare occurrence).

Unfortunately, many companies only provide a brief overview of the business, its policies and practices when it first hires an employee. After that initial introduction, that information may never again be discussed, leaving it up to employees to figure it out as time goes by.

If you find that a number of employees are asking questions about fundamental operational issues – for example, the budget planning calendar, how the expenses related to a project are accounted for, or protocol for submitting a travel request – it might be time to have a refresher discussion (or maybe a more formal training) to help employees see the big picture.

While you don’t necessarily expect an employee who specializes in developing software to do the company accounting and vice versa, it certainly helps everyone see how the pieces fit and to make sure everyone is following the same processes.

Indirect Messages from Employees: The Takeaway

Certainly, these are just a few of the clues you can obverse just by watching and listening carefully to your staff. The fundamental here, though, is that by watching and taking note of the behavior demonstrated by your employees, you can gain great insight into the health of your business as well as the state of morale.

What other behaviors should managers watch out for? Leave a comment and share your thoughts!