A company’s employees are the key to the success or failure of the entire organization. A great employer is one who can keep their employees happy and drive morale, goals which are typically met by providing competitive pay with opportunities for bonuses and/or raises, extensive benefits plans, thorough training and advancement opportunities. Not only are these factors generally responsible for company’s health, but tends to play a large role in their executive search and hiring processes as well, serving to attract highly talented and successful candidates. Unfortunately, given the current state of the business market with so many organizations just struggling to stay afloat, many companies do not have the resources available to provide quire so lavishly for their employees. However, in such situations where certain monetary and resource oriented rewards may not be a realistic means for employers to motivate their employees, their remains one fundamentally important point that employers can provide and which many overlook. That factor is self-respect.
Far, far too many employers overlook the value of treating their employees with the self-respect that they are due. That is not to say that they treat their employees disrespectfully – though that may be the case in some situations – only that employers should make that extra effort to do what is right and treat their employees with all the dignity and respect that they would like to be treated with themselves. Fundamentally the effort to extend such simple support to their employees starts and ends with the managers.
One of the primary problems here can be that, as often as not, most managers won’t even realize when they might be behaving slightly less than respectful to their employees. This can be a simple matter of manager raising their voice a bit too high, rolling their eyes at an idea or question they find unhelpful, responded sarcastically, or any number of other ill-chosen comments and gestures that will demonstrate to the employee the manager’s ire or mockery, all of which is guaranteed to have a negative impact on the employee’s morale and sense of self-worth, not to mention instilling in them a damaging view of the individual who is supposed to be their leader.
When an employee makes a mistake, one which mighty typically elicit a negative response such as those mentioned above, rather than stooping to such unproductive methods of response as these, managers should instead take the time to sit down in a one on one setting with the employee in question to discuss the problem in a calm, productive manner. Kindness, civility, patience, and understanding are the hallmarks of an effective, high quality leader, and it is just this kind of individual who can really make a difference within an organization by uplifting their employees and inspiring them to strive for success. In most cases when an individual quits a company the most highly cited reason is an issue they had with their managers. Conversely, good managers who help build up their employees rather than break them down, can do wonders for an organization, its environment, tone, and culture, and help make up the difference in a company’s executive search and hiring strategies where they may not have the resources to do so in other ways.
Published by Conselium Executive Search, the global leader in compliance search.
