I’m passionate about taking the employer-employee relationship to the next level. A lot of it comes from mindset and approach. One idea I’ve invested in is the concept of “The Employee as an Expert.” The overarching question I consider is:
How might our business benefit from treating our employees as experts in our business?
Employees – and this is doubly true for those with tenure – have real-time knowledge and daily experience with the systems which drive our businesses. While we need specialist experts to program/design/develop/deploy, these specialists often miss important points. When employees are not properly consulted, we create more problems for every problem we were trying to solve.
How would our approach change if we asked employees about daily pain points, UX/UI issues, and processes which are inefficient?
How much more efficient might we be if we included tenured employees as stakeholders when redesigning systems or developing training materials?
How might this subtle change in the employee relationship affect motivation, productivity, churn, loyalty, and the very culture of our business itself?
How to engage employees as experts?
- Create active feedback loops.
- Leverage their feedback aggressively: treat them with respect, treat their feedback as supremely valuable.
- Create new roles for tenured employees, where they can function as an actual expert and intermediary to drive solutions and innovation. Raise their pay accordingly.
- Constantly review your reward systems, and adjust accordingly.
- Do my employees believe they are rewarded proportionately to their contributions?
- Do my employees agree that our reward system is accurate, and provides due recognition?
- Do my employees agree that the rewards they receive are meaningful and valuable, as defined by them?
- Would I personally be motivated and satisfied by the rewards I offer my employees? Would the rewards and bonuses I give them spur me to exert more effort and give 100%? If not, why do I think it would motivate anyone else?
- Solicit improvement suggestions.Ask how current processes or systems could be more efficient.
- Ask employees to define the “ideal end-state” for problem areas.
- Ask what training they are lacking.
- Ask where their current resources are inadequate.
- Ask where their leadership team has failed them.
- Ask them where the pain-points are within processes.
- Ask all questions with the intent of acting upon their feedback and seriously considering their suggestions for solutions.