Are Your Employees Invisible?

From an employees' perspective, managers and senior leaders hold all the power. And if the company does well, management almost always bags all the credit. At least such is the case in, still, too many organisations feels Chester Elton, co-author of The Invisible Employees. As a result, employees feel 'overlooked, ignored, unappreciated and invisible'. Simply put, they label their jobs as 'thankless' and stay hidden in the corporate shadows doing just enough to get by, 'grumbling about this and that, and passing these techniques along to new hires.' But why does it happen in the first place?

Going back to the root of the issue, Chester reflects, 'We have all been labouring for years under a flawed management mind-set. Conventional wisdom says that increasing customer, investor, and employee loyalties are three different and distinct business objectives. We extrapolated that to believe they were mutually exclusive.' As a result, he says, in the 1990s and 2000s, the collective mindset focused on shareholders and employers turned away from what was most important to busines - the people. Even today, he feels, while almost all senior executives say that people are the company's greatest asset, when it comes to rank the strategies most likely to bring success, 'they put the people's issues - performance and investment in the workforce - near the bottom.'

'But, as an employer, to achieve your goals of profitability, growth, client satisfaction, or innovation, you have to have employees who care and are committed. How many times do employers offer criticism and how many times do they offer praise or express gratitude? He stresses how, employees have to feel good about what they are doing. They must be able to trust that company leadership will listen to and recognise their accomplishments.

'And their ability to do all that hinges on the ability of a leader to do three simple leadership steps: set guiding core values that will bring greater productivity and profitability for their team or company; see employee behaviours that support the core values and create value; celebrate those behaviours in a public manner through recognition by communicating what activities are most important to the organisation and by encouraging repetition of such activities. When a leader does these things, he or she is destined to succeed,' he confirms.

The end result is an organisation of productive employees who feel noticed, valued and appreciated. In other words, they feel visible. A simple formula, but one that still eludes too many managers and organisations. HRM