Do you listen to your employees? This article is probably going to be more helpful for you if you take a good look at the question I’ve posed at the beginning and realize the answer is ‘no’.

The automatic response to this question is always going to be yes. But in actuality, we all need to take a good look at it and be honest. How many of us actually listen? You see if you actually asked your employees this question in a different situation, where the answer wasn’t supposed to be revealed to you, then you’d probably be flabbergasted by their answers.

The reason I used the term flabbergasted is that more often than not, there is a wide disconnect between what employers think and what an employee thinks. Some degree of disconnect is to be expected. We don’t all think the same. But for instance, if you think that your people are happy and satisfied, and they don’t feel the same way, there’s a good chance, you’re not listening to them, or even worse, you are selectively listening to them.

Here’s what happens when you don’t listen to your people. Or even worse, ignore them.

A disconnect of ideas and values

As mentioned above, when you don’t listen to people, it becomes very easy to make assumptions and presumptions. And since nobody is a mind-reader, it is very likely that if you don’t listen, you don’t know what’s really going on and you’re probably far away from feeling the pulse of your organization.

They think you don’t care

See, you probably really like them and care about them. (If you don’t, well that’s something we need to deal with another time.) But if you’re not listening, this is the message you are sending loud and clear – “I DON’T CARE ABOUT YOU”. This message if dangerous because if your people think you don’t care, then they won’t care that much either. And if nobody cares, be it about their jobs, their organization or even each other, the whole thing becomes a sinking ship. Because you aren’t taking the time to listen, productivity is impacted.

Employee engagement suffers

When I say that you are not listening, I don’t mean to say that, you are plugging your fingers in your ears and going ‘LALALALA’. Not listening is when you don’t take into account the opinions of your employee, their ideas, their feedback etc. When an employee thinks they have no voice or say, naturally engagement levels are going to dip. And what happens when employee engagement is impacted? People become disengaged and even worse, might leave the organization because they think they are being ignored. By not listening, you are driving away talent.

Hopefully, these scenarios have scared you enough. Start listening to your people. And by which I mean, listen, pay attention and then do something about it. It is one of the best things you can do, if you care about the well-being of your organization.

Also Read: Is Employee Engagement Only For Leaders?

If you are interested in knowing about how Engagedly can change your organization, request a demo from the Engagedly team!