David Friedland
No business can be truly successful and prosperous without happy employees. Morale has a significant impact on workplace culture, productivity, and, as such, profitability.
According to getweave.com, a change-resistant environment, tedious tasks, lazy co-workers, unwanted or messy work schedules, problems with communication with HR and Payroll, or lack of overall communication between different departments can quickly lead to frustrations that can be easily avoided. When both sides are satisfied, the company can function at its best.
The article below focuses on all the things to consider if you notice that your employees aren’t satisfied with their work conditions and the overall atmosphere, especially when communicating with the HR and Payroll departments. Once you assess the situation and work through it step by step, you’ll see how big of an impact your staff’s discontent has had on your business operations.
Identify Problems
Before you can fix the problems, you must identify and understand them. Is the workplace culture changing? Are new employees causing problems due to lack of training or instructions, or is it that they aren’t getting along with coworkers?
Take a look at the overall atmosphere in your office. Are your employees tired of tackling too many projects and tasks at once? Do they feel like they’re working too much overtime and are getting stressed out?
There are several ways to figure out what’s going on and how to take control of the situation. Some companies use surveys and employee satisfaction questionnaires, while others put together focus groups to see if employees felt happy about their job and if they were willing to stay. Still, other companies choose to talk directly to their workers and get the answers from them.
Take Action
Once you figure out what’s causing the discontent, you should take steps to fix it. If employees feel like they’re not being heard, listen to them and find a way to help them do their job better. If they’re not getting along with co-workers, try to address the conflict and see if it can be resolved.
You can even try to look for positive changes that will make your employees happier with their work. Maybe it’s changing their work schedule or introducing new benefits. Maybe it’s giving them more responsibilities or bigger projects.
Bring together the HR and Payroll department to discuss ways to improve the overall situation before things get worse. Communication is key in this case, so make sure that everything goes well between the two departments regularly.
Gather Feedback
The best way to know how happy your employees are with their job is to ask them. You can do this by asking for feedback about the company, the HR and Payroll department, or your own management style, for instance.
Make sure to tailor the questions to get as much information as possible from your employees. For example, if you’re not getting any feedback from them, you can ask if they prefer talking to their superiors in person or via email. If they’re shy, you might even consider using an anonymous survey.
It’s not just a good idea to listen to what your employees have to say, but also to act on it. Make sure that you follow up on your employees’ suggestions and ideas. Even if things don’t necessarily change right away, you can at least show your staff that you appreciate their input and take it into consideration.
Establish Open Channels of Communication
There’s nothing worse than when your employees feel like they can’t get a hold of anyone from HR or Payroll, or any other department. This leads to frustration and discontentment. Make sure that all your employees know the appropriate channels of communication, including phone numbers and email addresses. This way, they’ll know exactly where to go if they have any issues or problems.
There’s no such thing as too much communication. If employees feel like they can’t talk to their superiors about problems or ideas without the risk of being reprimanded, the problem will only get worse.
You should make it clear that your company encourages open and honest communication between departments, as well as with management. If there is a problem and you’re willing to listen, don’t just say it; prove it.
Final Thoughts
In summary, you can’t deny the importance of listening to your employees whenever they want to discuss HR and payroll-related concerns. Make sure that you take their concerns seriously and act according to what they say because they know more about these operations than you do.
Going forward, offering incentives when there are improvements made regarding HR and Payroll operations in your company would be one of the best ways on how you can show your employees that you appreciate their contribution to making things better for all staff members involved in various positions within the company’s management hierarchy.
