Know Your People

You put in a lot of effort to know your customers. But, do you know your employees and then apply that knowledge to earn their time, effort, and loyalty?

A great quote from the article below is this one: “I am often struck by how companies obsessed with knowing as much as possible about their customers, bent on following them when they surf the net, read news or click on ads, but that have very little relevant information about the people they work with.”

It is not unusual for management to be so obsessed with their clients that they end up being very uninformed about the lives of their own employees who service the very clients being fretted about.  Research has shown that even a little bit of increased engagement goes a long way.  Assuming that you know your employees isn’t the same thing as making the effort to really know them.  Learning more about what makes your staff tick, their goals, their challenges takes effort but is worth the energy.  Taking the time to listen to your staff brings about a deeper mutual understanding.  That engagement opens up managerial clarity and brings into focus opportunities to better support the work of teams and individuals by improving their training, working conditions, and even intangibles.  Increased engagement increases productivity and effectiveness, thus also directly impacting an organization’s bottom line

There is no one size fits all approach to HR.   It is not simply about mitigating risk.  Learn more and, as Picard would say (for those of you who are Star Trek fans), “Engage.”

https://www.forbes.com/sites/enriquedans/2020/10/28/if-the-pandemic-has-taught-companies-one-thing-its-that-human-resources-one-size-fits-all-approach-has-had-itsday/#116336d6321d