In the course of our work helping businesses identify their problem areas, and to help them manage their shortfalls and gaps, one area that has continued to turn up are communication problems. Just yesterday I was reviewing our services that we performed for our client, and while the brief was the client’s failure to meet the regulations for its requisite industry, deeper down the problem was being caused by ineffective communications across the organisational hierarchy. Sounds simple enough? Probably not.

As per a study conducted by UKG in 2021, four out of five employees in an organisation do not feel that they are being heard. And among those who feel they are not being heard by their managers and organic

ations, three groups stand out the most: essential workers, younger workers, and caregivers.

While the global human resource practice has gone through substantial changes during and after the pandemic, with non-essential workers being able to work efficiently from home and additional resources provided to essential workers to ensure they can continue doing what it is they do, still only one in three employees feels they can freely express their opinions and suggestions to their employer.

What could possibly go wrong with employees not feeling heard, as long as they continue to give results? Some employer might even expect their employees to suck it up and keep fulfilling their responsibilities. In the end, the results are all unsavoury, no matter what shape they might arrive in. Employees may leave; as a matter of fact, it is more probable for an employee to leave than to pursue a matter with their management. Worse yet, employees may not leave, but grow resentful and disgruntled, thus fomenting an environment of distrust and conflict.

To counter this, managers need to keep their ears and their minds open, and move towards a culture of embracing employee feedback, which is exactly what we did for our client.  Armed with a comprehensive communications strategy, the client was able to comply with regulations, while providing a structure and an open space for communications between in hierarchies in a way that the concerns of the line workers were reaching their top management.

Overall, firms that do not listen to their employees are risking significant harm to their organisational culture, employee retention, innovation capabilities, and legal compliance. Embracing a culture of open communication and actively soliciting employee feedback can help mitigate these risks and foster a more engaged and productive workforce.