Some Very Good Reasons Why You Should Solicit Employee Feedback
The employee suggestion box is something that should be a fixture in every break room around the country. Not only should it be a fixture in the break room, but it should also be used as an active part of the corporate culture. There are a lot of very good reasons why seeking out and utilizing employee feedback is essential to your company’s success. Once you start utilizing the suggestion box and showing employees that their opinions do count, then you will see a significant rise in the amount of suggestions that you get every week.
Employee Outlet
Allowing employees to make anonymous suggestions in the suggestion box gives the staff an outlet for venting frustration that can be healthy and almost therapeutic. The trick for management is to be able to see through the potentially vindictive rhetoric to see if there are any good suggestions being made. You can give employees the option of taking credit for their suggestions, but remember that the anonymous suggestions can have some value as well.
Utilizing Employee Talents
When you have a diverse staff of employees, you have a resource that can deliver a wide variety of suggestions. Your employees all have varied background, both professionally and culturally, and they all see things in very different ways. When you start to pay attention to employee feedback, you begin to realize how beneficial that diverse workforce can be. You will start to get suggestions for resolving issues that your management team may have never even considered. You may also start to see suggestions from employees that could suggest that certain employees may be management material.
When you open up the floor to employee feedback and encourage employee opinions, then you will see exactly how beneficial your staff is to your company. A diverse set of options is a great way to come up with innovations that will set your company apart.
It Will Raise Morale
If your employees feel as though the only thing that management wants from the employees is to show up and go to work, then that does not do much for improving employee morale. But when your employees start to see their suggestions at work for the company, then that helps your employees to feel as though they have a vested interest in the company’s success. If you choose to offer a financial incentive for suggestions that are used by the company, then the quality of those suggestions will go up.
Soliciting and utilizing employee feedback is how you give the workforce a voice and a stake in the company’s success. If your staff sees that the management team takes employee suggestions seriously, then that will increase the interest that employees take in their jobs. Employee attendance will go up, turnover will go down and productivity will improve. All your employees need is a way to contribute to the company’s growth in a manner that helps them to put their own personal stamp on the way the company operates.