Yesterday’s post presented that great managers/employers use active listening skills when communicating with their employees to obtain greater understanding.

Having heard what your employees have said, more often than not, will require a response from you.  Second on the list of attributes great managers/employers have is:

* Responding to employees as soon as possible when they have questions or concerns or issues.

Mary was struggling to keep up with the workload assigned to her.  She felt overwhelmed and stressed.  She told her manager that she felt her workload was too much.  His response was that he would discuss it with her later when he had more time.

Several days went by and Mary had not heard from her manager. She really didn’t want to bug him, as she knew he was busy, but she was falling further behind in her work.

Mary saw her manager in the break room and mentioned that she really needed to discuss her problem, as she was concerned about falling behind.  Her manager patted her on the back and told her, “do the best you can, we all have a lot of work to do and it will eventually get done.”

The stress was too much for Mary and she quit.  Her manager’s response was, “she wasn’t the right person for the job.”  He never addressed the issues that Mary had expressed to find out what the problem was.

Businesses with managers/employers who turn a “deaf ear” to employee’s questions and complaints will have a high employee turnover.  Their reason for this will always point to an outward problem, not inward where the issue actually lies.

Managers/employers, who listen to employee issues and then respond, show employees that they are valued and what they have to say is valued.

Most of the time employee questions can be answered quickly.  Very few employee issues require “fast action.”  What they do require is acknowledgement and then given a time frame in which they will be resolved or discussed further.

As discussed in last week’s post, value those you work with, managers/employers need to value those that work for them.  Mutual respect for each person’s position in the workplace creates a more balanced work environment.