Best Practices in Hr

Summary:

In the article, Giving Employees a Say, it expresses how employee suggestions are having a significant impact on business productivity, revenue, and the overall effectiveness of the organization. Utilizing the ideas of employees could potentially save employers money, after all, employees are typically considered to be the experts in the company.

        In ManpowerGroup Inc., a middle manager questioned why the CEO of the company, Jeff Gunther, tracked workers’ sick days and vacation days but not the extra hours they put into the company. As a result, he allowed employees to make their own schedules and he would evaluate them based on whether or not they met their goals. This experiment led to the company’s success and also gave the employees the power of implementing their ideas in addition to creating their own work schedules.

        Jim Harter, the chief scientist for workforce management and well-being at Omaha says, “If you solicit ideas from people who are engaged, they provide more-useful ideas”. (Lytle, p.69)  For instance, an employee at a local Subway in Florida initiated the “$5 footlong” ads from Subway. The employee started this ad in his franchise store because of the decrease of sales after the start of the recession. After the company’s co-founder, Fred DeLuca, noticed the franchise’s promotion while on a Florida trip, he turned it into an international campaign. Furthermore, their success continued when a Houston franchisee constructed a flyer reflecting the health benefits of their low-fat offering. As a result, they hired Jared Fogle who lost 248 pounds while incorporating Subway sandwiches into his everyday diet.

        James Campbell Quick, a professor of organizational behavior at the University of Texas at Arlington suggests, “People need to be listed to even if their ideas don’t work or don’t make sense. By not listening, it makes people psychologically withdraw and you may miss the million-dollar suggestion.” (Lytle, p. 70) He continues to express how many CEOs are too concerned with being the center of the universe rather than getting to know everything and actually being in charge.

To make a company more successful, it is important to train managers to help enforce future suggestions. The more engaged the employee is, the likelihood of making a good suggestion is higher. Also, having the employee gain a positive attitude about their manager increases the positivity and potential engagement they would have in the company. Due to this, it is suggested for companies to pick managers who have a natural ability to connect with people and that could clearly communicate with workers about their company goals.

Application

I currently work as an account administrator for Academica, an Education Service Provider that offers services to over 100 charter schools in Florida, Texas, California and Nevada. As we have opened new charter schools, our company has continued to grow at a rapid place. When I first started in this company, we were about 20 employees. It was so small that it felt like we were a small family. With the growth of the company, our internal company started to lack certain qualities they had at the beginning. For example, the communication started to weaken and having the proper communication in any organization is essential for its success.