You might have drafted a series of new policies and strategies to bring change for better management direction in your company. However, implementing the same poses only one major problem: employee resistance.
One of the strongest reasons why employees are not happy with the plan you offer, is because of their absence and lack of involvement in the decision-making process. You might be thinking, isn’t it a part of obligation from employees to follow business direction and abide by the manager’s command? Well, not necessarily.
How about this: employer and employee relationships should never be a form of dictatorship. Employers should not act as dictators, who create rules and impose them on the employees.
On the other hand, employees are also not merely robotic minions who serve only to follow orders from their bosses. More than this, both parties should work together to form a solid teamwork and partnership.
One explanation behind the failure implementation of certain regulations is due to lack of employee enthusiasm and willingness. Employees’ lack of interest toward the change is caused by the absence of their voice in the decision. Everyone tends to resent the situation, where they are forced to follow particular orders without any consideration of their concern.
The truth is, employees do not mind change, as long as they recognise the idea beforehand and are given opportunities to have an impact on the direction.
Owing to this, it is critical for employers to involve employees early on, in the process of crucial business decision making. You need to create a workplace culture that empowers employees to initiate change, by establishing a system where everyone can express their opinions and ideas for the greater good.
Still not convinced yet? Take a look at the following reasons on why you should improve employee involvement:
See: SAP Reveals New Technology to Eliminate Unconscious Bias in Decision-Making
Trust is the fundamental key to motivate employees, boost performance and facilitate talent retention. When you are unable to perform transparent decision-making process and tend to keep employees in the dark, you could lose their trust. You might of a belief reasoning upon – why involve employees or key talents in business decision making, when final decision rests in the hands of the senior management.
However, as a matter of fact employees like to stay informed and need to know inner workings within the company and, especially if a business decision will impact workflow of the team. If you keep business plans as a top secret, it results to suspicious behaviours from the employees and they act uncooperatively in return. Therefore, be it for good or bad, it is best to gather employees thoughts and involve them in the discussion early on.
Giving employees the opportunity to express their minds, means they gain professional returns in the overall business’ success. When employees are fully aware of their commitment to a business, the impact is directly felt on productivity and efficiency. Sharing the same vision and mission for success, the employees feel more responsible to give their best efforts to make the business plan succeed.
Employee’s active role in the decision-making process enables them to share knowledge with others. During the discussion, they can exchange ideas and share experiences with their fellow workers. This method will encourage a culture of open dialogue, while building solid teamwork amongst your workforce.
Resting the decision-making authority into a handful of people might be not adequate to represent the whole organisation’s views, especially if the matter on hand is sensitive to impact the overall business operation.
Inviting more people into the decision-making process means inviting wider perspective on board. By involving more employees into the talk, you can seek breakthrough approaches and innovative ideas that have never been discussed before. Through this approach, you will stand fairer chances to gain more objective and valuable outcome for all parties.
Employees who are actively engaged in the decision making process tend to have higher morale, commitment, and retention. When people take ownership for their jobs, they feel valued as a significant part of the organisation’s success.
When employees possess the power to influence important decisions for the business, they feel better job satisfaction and showcase positive attitude.
You might have not realised it yet, that your workforce represents a great source of knowledge and ideas. Unfortunately, these resources remain untapped due to employer’s reluctance to invite and encourage active employee participation in the decision-making process.
While in fact, employee involvement could make great difference between happily engaged employees and gloomy foot-draggers. When employees are trusted to give their inputs for organisational growth, you will not only be able to make better decisions, but will also strengthen employee commitment with the organisation.
Read also: Understanding the 7 Daily Decision Making Styles
