Employer – Employee Relationship: How to relate with your workers as an employer

Having properly analysed and discussed on how employees should relate with one another;  I have decided to also get more opinions and thoughts on the best way for an employer to relate with his/her employees for a strong and better working relationship. It is quite important that an employer should know how best to relate with his/her employees for a strong working relationship which will lead to more productive results.

A regular visit to some corporate bodies, witnessing their less formal staff interaction would make one wonder how they get things done. A cordial, warm and almost playful environment with everyone on a first name basis even executive level staff seems almost counterproductive depending on how you look at it.

How do successful leaders and entrepreneurs relate with their employees to ensure achievement of organizational goals? Looking closer at the perceived work policy of multinationals like Shell, Exxonmobil, Google, Facebook, KPMG. Do they radiate a strict policy to achieve optimum results? Are they nicer? Do they pay higher? Are they tougher?

A manager may feel his/her job is only to recruit the best and most qualified people for the task at hand but the truth is that employees could be turned into great assets that could potentially transform the business completely if work environment and conditions are right. By this, employees become much more effective and efficient.

Strong professional relationships are based on mutual trust, understanding and respect and this goes a long way in determining the level of productivity in your company.

Firstly, don’t be too rigid or make yourself unapproachable; be flexible enough so people can perceive and understand your goals and aspirations for the company. Be open to your employees as this would give them better insight into what you can and can’t tolerate. Revealing a bit of yourself, makes them understand who you are and the level of effectiveness you need from them. Of course all these should be in moderation. Once in a while, ask to know how they’re coping with the working environment and seek to know their challenges. This will give you another view to which you can help them fit into the system.

Secondly, seek to know your employees and ask questions to better understand them. Create an environment where employees find it easy to express themselves. True, you can’t be a leader and a psychiatrist at the same time but you would be surprised to see how better an employee would  work if given an avenue to get a pressing issue of his/her mind. Don’t stand the risk of losing a valuable member of staff because your company comes across as being too demanding and caring less about staff welfare. Proper understanding encourages employees to raise bad news sooner than they otherwise would so that you can address problems before they do real damage to your company.

Conclusively, there is absolutely nothing wrong in seeking for advice from your employees; remember the big idea which may be a solution to the problem you’re confronted with may come from these employees. Most employers are so accustomed to dominating conversations that they often forget these employees may also have something to share that may be of value to the organisation. The fact they are quiet doesn’t mean that they are in agreement with you; remember that silence is not agreement.

Ask for candid opinions and sometimes on one on one session to know and hear their opinion about certain issues. It signals your intent to hear them and respect their views. Do you create an atmosphere where key lieutenants in your company candidly disagree and express their views? Do you ask for advice or do you passively wait for it?

Every employer must put on a friendly attitude; don’t act too bossy. It only makes your workers too fearful of you which is counterproductive in the workplace. 


@whurmie

Are you a budding entrepreneur with a plan to grow your business but needs to develop the right skills to achieve this? Then this might just be for you.

The young Business Leaders of Nigeria presents the second edition of its Budding Entrepreneurs program, a program specially designed to fully assist budding entrepreneurs with specific training in leadership, entrepreneurship, business skills and many others.

To apply for this six week program, kindly register on their website: http://linktrack.info/.1k1u9 and key into a world of opportunities accessible to young entrepreneurs.

Applications close on Sunday the 20th of March, 2016 at 7pm.