There are so many tools and services that allow organizations to ascertain if their employees are happy. I know this is a gross generalization but let's dive deeper into what we call the pulse of the people. When we think of healthcare we think about taking someone's pulse to learn their heart rate. What affects that heart rate? How often does a change? Can it change instantly? Can it improve instantly?
What prompts employees pulse to change? Let's look at a couple of different factors that are common in the workplace that can cause a pulse to change:
- a new teammate who is negative
- a new policy that prompts change
- a new product that requires extra time to be devoted to training
- a new service that requires new skill development
- a new boss who is less engaged
- a fellow employee who is a friend quits
The workplace is an evolving set of interactions, relationships, and changes that cause employees to react emotionally and behaviorally. These reactions can affect relationships, workplace enjoyment, confidence levels, etc. It's much like in healthcare when a dramatic event occurs, a person's pulse usually will race with anxiety or anticipation. The same principle applies to the corporate workplace where so many factors can affect a person's pulse.
These questions illustrate a typical challenge in the corporate workplace. Yes, companies complete engagement studies that show if an employee is engaged if they are emotionally attached to the job or mission of the organization. These studies reveal valuable information in regard to employee workplace performance. However, I do think it is time to dive deeper beyond engagement studies in a number of ways:
- Learning the pulse of the people from a variety of factors such as their personal attitude level, acceptance of feedback, and their feeling of progress as it relates to their job and career.
- Teaching managers not only how to interpret the results but also how to mentor and coach to them for instantaneous improvement.
- Using the pulse of the people as a strategic initiative to retain and recruit top talent.
- Understanding some factors affect others. For example, an employee who typically lay low and lacks confidence is paired with a strong and confident employee on a project. This can later the less confident employee to feel overwhelmed or even distant from the success of the project.
- Reconciling arduous relationships to retain talented employees.
- Let's say we have an employee typically does not receive feedback well becomes disruptive during team meetings due to this lack of skill? What happens to the team? What happens to the quality of work?
No matter the tool, survey, or assessment that you use, it must encompass the following three factors in order to be successful:
- They must be facilitated on a regular basis to provide visibility of measured improvement and needed improvement.
- There must be an element that allows interpretation of the results and position managers to coach and mentor specifically to the results with proven strategies and techniques that work for the areas being measured.
- Employees must be nurtured based on the results outside of the coaching and mentor relationship to foster a reception of the responsibility associated with the results. For example, how many employees have truly been trained in the art and reception of feedback? How many employees truly have a valuable relationship with feedback? Typically, it's not many!
In summary, there are many inter-dependencies that employees possess when it comes to the quality of work as well as their position in the workplace. If an employee does not work well with others and is also overly confident, you can imagine the reaction of the teammates. If an employee is perceived as lacking motivation and is always late with projects, you can imagine the perception of the manager. If you have an employee who feels they been passed by for the last two promotions, they could, in turn, feel like there is no use in putting in the extra effort.
If we understand people's attitude, motivation, feedback, progress,confidence, levels a manager would be in a better position to mentor and coach to specific areas of improvement. Isn't it time you took the Complete Pulse Of Your People?: Free Webcast on Our "Get Your Pulse Assessment" platform:click here
