Do you really need an employee management system?

Imagine if your mother told you to clean your room. But, she didn't inform you that it meant more than just picking up your clothes and actually included dusting and vacuuming.

Then again, she didn’t provide you with a dust cloth or vacuum cleaner, so how were you to know what was expected?

That, in essence, is what a good employee management system resolves. The system should let employees know what's expected of them and give them the tools to complete the task.

The Flower Shop Scenario

Consider the troubles a florist shop could encounter without a credible employee management system. Each employee likely would do whatever was in front of them, rather than stick to an assigned task.

The front counter could be un-attended while employees are out making deliveries. Or expensive flowers could wilt, as employees aren’t sure who is to make the deliveries. Besides, the shop does not have a delivery van. Bouquets would be made from whatever flowers are available because no one reordered supplies. Customers would leave in frustration and the shop wouldn’t be in business for long.

All these problems could be solved if the shop established an employee management system.

It would:

• Train employees on what their duties are, and
• How to accomplish them
• Give them the equipment they need
• Reward them for a job well done 

Methods of Management

To start off, a goal setting management system should be based on the SMART concept. 

• Specific: Management defines specific goals
• Measurable: Progress in these goals should be measurable in numbers, graphs, and charts
• Agreed: These goals and measurements should be agreed-upon by employer and employee
• Realistic: Given the right training and tools, these goals should be attainable
• Timely: Employees should know of any deadlines for the task

To get the most out of employees, while providing them with a pleasant and motivating workplace, there are basically five essential parts to a management system. Including the SMART goal-setting system, the other four include:

• Delegation: Proper procedures make task delegation more progressive. This includes meeting with employees to go over tasks and time lines. It also means discussing the results once the task is completed to identify any problem areas.
• Feedback: Stay in touch on a monthly or weekly basis with employees to discuss the performance development plan.
• Training: Establish training programs to help employees understand their responsibilities and better ways of achieving them. Mentorship or coaching programs with an experienced staff member could improve the business culture.
• Recognition: Reward employees who meet management expectations. This is a prime method of providing feedback and promoting productivity among the staff

The correct system helps employee morale and reduces competition that could hurt team atmosphere. How a system is designed matters, but using it the right way is just as important.

Measuring employee performance by pitting them against each other is bad. It makes for a disruptive subculture of competition and results in two separate tiers of workers: the winners and the losers.

To resolve this issue, management would more likely achieve its goals by measuring employee output by a set standard of markers that each can attain. This would allow employees to work with each other rather than compete and undermine progress.

 

Do bosses who refuse to apologize see worse results on employment engagement surveys? Does accountability lead to engagement?

According to the global Leadership Pulse Survey, almost half (43 per cent) of employees say that their managers rarely or never apologize. At the same time, only 19 per cent of employees responded that their bosses always or often say they're sorry.

"The lack of employee engagement is a huge issue among U.S. workers and our research found that employees who register low levels of trust at work, are also the most likely group to report low engagement,” said Andrew Graham, CEO of Forum Corp.

"When managers aren't transparent in their actions – and that includes accepting responsibility for errors, being truthful with their employees and acknowledging hard work – that tends to breed mistrust among employees."

Their data also shows that:

• 96% of employees say it's extremely important for employees to have a manager they can trust
• 56% of managers say it's extremely important for employees to trust their managers
• 37% of employees say that they trust managers less today, compared to past years
• 78% of managers say they refrain from asking for forgiveness for fear of appearing incompetent, while 22% are afraid of looking weak

If you have any questions about what an employee engagement survey can do for your company, please contact us any time.

It is very important for every business to know about its personality and position whether it is negative or positive. If it is negative then you should diagnose that problem which is killing your business. By conducting employee opinion survey it is possible to detect the problem and it will boost your company’s competitiveness and performance. It also helps to gather information which would be beneficial for company’s growth. It can be seen in any organization whether it is big or small that there is a barrier between boss and the employees. No one can deny this fact too that employees are like backbone of the company and it is because of their efficiency the company runs well and becomes more productive. So it is very necessary to know about the opinions and thoughts of employees about their company. Employee opinion survey permits an association to know about employees perceptions. Every employee generally acts on the basis of his perceptions and management should know about employee’s views.  These days, companies are hiring survey companies for getting more and proper information. They give all reports on time without wasting it on generating graphs or some other reports. There are some organizations which do not take care of these surveys and that is the main reason of their downfall. The companies who conduct this survey get an opportunity to implement changes and to get qualitative and quantitative results While conducting employee opinion survey, give extra care to choose questions which you are going to ask. All information given by different employees should be confidential because people feel more comfortable to give answers when they know their answers will absolutely be hidden. Try to include each and every employee of your organization in this survey so that you will get more accurate results. So conduct this survey in order to get best results and to generate better working atmosphere.

Every organization has a personality and in order to determine whether it is negative or positive, you have to ask those people who are on the receiving end. For this, you need to carry out an employee opinion survey. The whole questionnaire must ask them as to what characteristics they relate with the organization and what features they would want to see in their organization. Most people will only truthfully answer if the questionnaires would be unnamed. They should be made in a way so that the respondents need to tick the boxes only. This eliminates the risk of any identification through handwriting. However, you should also give the respondents the chance of writing comments by putting a box in the end of the form. You must remember that the comment box may or may not be used by all or any, so be sure that the form makes sense without the special comments. Anonymity is also achievable with online questionnaires. You need to tell your staff for checking a web page and respond to questions there. E-mail is definitely not an option here as you can easily trace the identity of the respondents then. Unfortunately, there is an undeviating correlation between your staff’s loyalty and your organization’s image. If your organization doesn’t have a positive image then your staff would probably not feel any loyalty towards it. There can be a chance that they won’t care much about finishing the employee opinion survey. It is actually very important for you to explain to them why their feedback is required as it will get you to know what developments are required in the working environment. You should also inform your staff about the release date of results of the employee opinion survey and give them duplicates of its summary as well. Also, do not just justify your company and be honest about respondent’s negative comments.

One of the major problems that most of the companies are facing today is the decreasing ratio of talented and stable employees. As employees are the key ingredient of a successful organization it is necessary to make sure that every staff member is satisfied with the company. Mostly companies these days conduct employee opinion survey. These surveys are the tools to know what your staff is thinking. It is essential to conduct these surveys in a proper manner so that these would not be just wastage of time and employees will also understand their significance. It is only then they would tend to give true feedback that is necessary for the success of the surveys. Most of the organizations today lack the required experience for conducting the employee opinion survey. Many others do not have enough time to design the questionnaire. There are many off the shelf surveys available. One should not go for such practices. A survey should always be as per the requirements of the organization and also work force. Moreover such surveys would not take much out of the pocket.  Bring a professional from outside as staff generally hesitates to give honest feedback. Thus to take them into confidence it is essential to bring an expert from outside for the survey. Ensure that all of the respondents know all the rules. They should know the benefit of conducting these employees opinion survey for themselves and for the company also. At last it is necessary to communicate the results to the employees. Make sure to give the true feedback only and avoid sugarcoating it. It is must as some of the brilliant performers would come into light and thus contribute much for the growth of the company. On the other hand, low performers would come to know about their weak areas and will work upon those points. Remember these useful tips if you want to see your business reach heights.