Determining If Your Staff Is Happy

Feedback both positive and negative is important for personal development as it helps us to become more aware of what we do and how we do it. Both in good and bad ways, this feedback can then be used to self-develop and improve our practice.

Ensure staff are consulted and encouraged to contribute ideas on improvements to the delivery of their own professional area. Promote an open and honest working environment. Encourage communication between specialists and practitioners within the company to examine results, issues and identify solutions.

- Find what motivates your each of your staff to keep working so hard for you, and provide it.

Encourage feedback: Conduct periodic meetings with the staff giving them a chance to provide feedback about their work and processes followed. Taking their suggestions into consideration will help improve satisfaction and thus retain employees to a greater extent.

Encourage an open dialog with your workers about any concerns they may have about their responsibilities and performance; respect their privacy and do not postpone giving praise; make your employees feel they are part of the system by asking for suggestions or solutions. If you apply these changes consistently, they will reap rewards in the way your workers perform and the way they perceive you. People want to be treated honestly and fairly. Even if there is bad news concerning the company, share that with your employees as soon as possible. Do not let them hear it “on the street.” The proverbial grapevine is very efficient. through the media. The more your employees know they can trust and respect you, the better a company you will have (Sykes. n.d.).

Two important aspects of the communication process are hearing and listening. While both are fundamental to the process, they have two separate and distinct functions. Often, people use these terms interchangeably. To do so is incorrect, their true definitions are different. Understanding the differences can enhance relationships with employees, co-workers, and superiors. Knowing the difference can even improve job performance. Here is a good analogy of the terms: “Hearing is the physical sense of perceiving sound. Listening is a mental exercise requiring diligent intention and constant practice. One is a sense we are born with; the other a skill to attain” (Meiners, July). Wallace and Roberson wrote a list of tasks a good listener performs. They are concentrates on a speaker, interprets the speaker’s words, evaluates the meaning, and responds effectively. There are four variables that will affect this list of tasks; a listener must be able to take in what is being said, the speaker must be able to have the ability to keep the listener’s attention span, the speaker must also be able to keep the listener’s interest peaked, and the environment in which the communication is taking place should be conducive to listening.

* Seeking feedback is important because it gives a worker some idea of how they are working - what they are doing well and what could be improved.

In one stage of communication, the quality of conversation can be improved when the workers are engaged in active listening. For instance, note taking during meetings which challenge both individual listening and writing skills, encourages co-workers to improve their sort-term memory to be more active later that day (Hybels & Weaver 2008,). It helps listeners to verify their understanding, and it gives the other person an opportunity to elaborate on main point of the information. Active and effective listening behaviours have a huge impact on the growth of business in the work place, because it shows the interaction between co-workers and how they deal with problems in their environment (Eunson 2012). Active and effective listening demonstrates the ability of workers to hear and feel what the other people want so say without judgment. Thus, active and effective listening skills have positively impact on the workplace.

Let´s focus on communication, specifically listening. , As employees each of you have a leadership role based on your positions. In these positions you are required to take instructions, present guidance, make decisions, and implement policy. If you cannot listen effectively, you will miss critical instructions, mislead guidance, make less informed decisions, and hopefully never implement the wrong policies.

Use Body Languages: our body languages can deliver our messages quicker and better. We need to understand the arts of applying body languages when communicating with our staffs. The examples can be by standing up straight, using smile, handshaking and eye contacts.

“To speak kindly, to act sincerely, and to choose accordingly,” these thoughts help describe the act of good listener. What are techniques for being a good listener? Within today’s society what is considered to be effective communication? With the evolution of health care whether health care to animals or to people utilizing proper communication within our workplace is crucial to ones well being, over all health status, and ensuring efficiency.

As soon as someone believes that you are listening to what they have to say, they will be able to trust that your actions are in line or empathetic towards their views. This will result in a greater effort in cooperation from that individual and by feeling heard it may even improve the productivity of the employee.

Effective listening skills are vital to professional business communication. Learning reflective listening skills are the main ingredients for healthy communication. This type of communication requires an attitude of total acceptance. Respecting what your employer shares without judgment will encourage them to confide in you. People at times allow personal feelings to cloud their judgement when it comes to listening to others. This can cause your demeanor to change and come off as aggressive. For example, folded arms or pointed fingers communicate a need to control and could give a wrong impression. Here are some great techniques to help establish better listening skills. First, people should establish eye contact with whom they’re talking to. Second, a calm tone of voice is important especially when people hear something that shocks them, this is crucial to conveying the total acceptance of that person’s feelings. Third, body language projects whether people accept or reject what is being said. Our body should be relaxed with unfolded arms and hands, and retaining a smile. Effective listening sometimes requires a person to be silent and just be listening ear.

Listening - You have to pay attention to the contents of conversation to have a meaningful conversation; simply hearing is different from listening courteously. Hearing is a passive attitude, whereas listening has a proactive meaning. Listening can be defined as the ability to accurately receive and interpret messages in the communication process that requires sustained effort and full attention to the other party. (SkillsYouNeed, n.d.)[1] The basis of communication is listening in the business; listening is important to maintain relationships among employees and customers to develop trust between each other. For example, if you listen to other employees that will develop trust between each other as the employee knows you are sincerely interested in what they have to say. (Tingum, 2016)[2]. In order to develop listening skill, ‘Free Management

Communicate! Give feedback, but don’t become obsessive with it-hence the micromanagement comment. Listen to your employees! Take their advice. Let them know that their comments are valuable to the work environment. A valued employee is a good employee. Be specific in what you expect. Make sure you are clear and concise.