Glow

If not repaired it doesn’t take long for a building with one broken window to quickly turn in to a building with a lot of broken windows. Fixing problems when they are small will prevent them from developing into larger problems.

The same is true when considering the level of employee satisfaction. Dissatisfaction can spread rapidly throughout an organization and before you know it you can have morale problems that can be hard to resolve.

To ensure that your employees are happy you need to understand what their problems and concerns are and it is important to deal with them early on. It is important to keep the initiative and a good tip is to give a little and often.

This turns out be a vicious circle. Fixing the problem when it’s small is also when it’s easiest and when it’s cheapest. Most employees would prefer their management to take the initiative with any prompting and if the do management can then operate from a strong position. Employees look for strong, confident management and having a proactive approach and taking time to understand the employees’ issues will gain the respect of the workforce.

Compare that with those managers who are out of touch. They arrive late at a problem so they are on the defensive, and with their credibility eroded they have to concede to demands which in turn could lead to further and less reasonable demands. It’s not big and it’s not clever.

How then can a company monitor the morale of the employees without a big budget and an abundance of spare time?

The most obvious solution is to conduct an online employee survey. They represent a quick, easy and low cost solution. Surveys can be created in minutes and deployed in seconds, with the results compiled in real time; and by using email and websites they cost nothing to disseminate.

The perfect delivery platform is the corporate internet.

By linking through to an online survey website a company can regularly conduct surveys so they become part and parcel of the daily operations.

With the ability of an online survey to produce real-time results the mood of the workforce can instantly gauged, concerns highlighted both on a collective and individual level.

By using the findings of a survey an organization can quickly identify problem areas and then use follow-up surveys to target specific concerns. With good information managers are able to get to the root of specific problems and prepare a considered response.

A major advantage of regular surveys is that they allow companies to address relatively small problems in a timely manner and avoid ‘the straw that broke the camels back’ syndrome where what might be seen as a insignificant incident explodes into a torrent of pent up anger.

It should not be forgotten that most employees appreciate being consulted and asking their opinion is not seen as a sign of weakness but an indicator of good decision making.

It’s unusual to find a solution to management problems that is quick, easy and won’t break the bank but here one is.

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