As a business owner or manager, you wear many hats. On the one hand, you have the overall bottom line of the company to look out for. You want to achieve as much revenue as possible, while still growing your business and living up to the vision you had when you started the company. At the same time, there are employees to look out for. You need to take care of your staff in order to retain the best possible talent. It is important to effectively manage these core principles, so consider the following four ways to help you handle tensions that arise between employees and managers:
Have an Open Door Policy
If all of your managers are stuck behind closed doors all day, unavailable to your employees, you will likely have some unresolved tension to one degree or another. Managers should be approachable. Implement an open door policy that allows employees to have access to their manager when they need them the most.
Engage in Team Building Activities
Team building activities help everyone in them organization to get to know one another. It is important from a morale perspective because it enables managers and employees alike to engage in a social gathering that does not involve work related tasks. The next time a disagreement occurs, the individuals involved will be more approachable and amenable to work out their differences.
Provide Employment Law Education to Managers
Managers need to be aware of legal issues when it comes to employee rights. This is often a major source of tension in an organization. When an employee feels that they are being treated unfairly or in an illegal manner, problems can arise. The potential for this can be minimized by providing some education relation to employment law to every manager in the organization.
Promote From Within
If employees feel that they are valued and that they have the potential to be promoted, tensions can ease. Create a culture of advancement in your organization. This will help bridge the gap between employee and manager.
While tension within an organization can never fully be eliminated and can even be positive to an extent, these four ideas will go a long ways towards improving the relationship between managers and employees. At the end of the day, that goal is to help everyone believe in their position within the company and to strive to do their best. If you can do that, then your overall bottom line and morale is likely to improve as well.