1. When I was first starting off in business, employment relations were completely
discarded in our company. Basically, if you were on the bottom you did with
those on the top told you, and did not complain. This heavy-handed approach to
employment relations seemed obvious to the boss, but it actually had some pretty
serious unintended consequences. Morality was always low, and people would burn
out all the time. Because we were all so alienated from our bosses, we were not
very productive workers. It seemed like the more the employment relations policy
would toughen up on us, the less we would do.
A few years ago, however, corporate culture changed in our company. It started
off on a pretty negative note, but there were some positive results. You see, we
were falling on hard times. When the company hired a few consultants, most of us
assumed that there would be a wave of sackings. We were very surprised when it
didn't go that way at all. On the contrary, although a few people were fired,
some of us were actually given raises! Suddenly, management wanted to know our
opinions. They instituted all kinds of systems to help us give feedback, both
anonymously and in person.
I can't tell you how quickly employee relations improved. It was only about six
months before most of us were happy to be working at the company – even proud of
it. You see, it didn't take very much. All we needed, in fact, was to know that
our opinions were valued. Then we could feel like part of the team, and as part
of the team we knew we had a stake in whether the company sank or swam. The
bosses would communicate with us more informally, treating us more as friends
than underlings. Don't get me wrong – we still new who held the power in the
company – but not having it held over your head does good things to your self-
esteem.
Recently, I've moved up into management myself, and I've kept the lessons that I
learned about employment relations near and dear to my heart. The team building
ethic isn't just corporate Newspeak. It really works, and that is a fact. If you
can keep your employees happy, they will make you happy in return. By giving
good pay and benefits to employees, as well as insisting that they are respected
and listened to in their work environment, you can really make the most of them.
That is good for both the company and the employees.