If You Give Your Employees a Voice, Do You Listen?
This article first appeared in The Journal for Quality and Participation, Fall 2002.
By Peter W. Lilienthal
Making it easy for employees to share their feedback is the first step. Being willing to respond quickly to their input builds commitment.
What do the majority of organizations do to demonstrate to their employees that they have a voice? Most organizations still cling to such traditional communication tools as intranets, telephone hotlines, open-door policies, and employee satisfaction surveys. Whether or not they use these often ineffective mechanisms, do they ever let their employees know management is listening? Do they provide positive feedback by making and publicizing changes in response to employee input?
