This employee retention speaker and employee retention author is aghast when he hears about bosses that ask for their people’s opinion and then ignore what they have to say. Employees get real angry when they have a boss like this. Every time the boss asks for an opinion, the employees are hoping and hoping and hoping that maybe, just maybe this one time that the boss will listen to their opinion and use their suggestions. Every time this happens the people get more and more frustrated. The results are NOT good.
At first, people will keep trying and figure it is just a fluke. Then they start to realize it’s reality. That’s when the talking starts along with the complaining, the whispered discussions at the water cooler and the outright complaints amongst each other when at the bar. If this boss is lucky, the people will find another job and quit. The worst-case scenario is one that people want to stay for some reason or can’t find another job. What you then end up with in that case is a group of disgruntled or even angry employees that are checked out or actively disengaged dealing with your customers, producing your product or engineering your designs. This can be a disaster for an organization.
As a first step, this employee retention trainer tells bosses that are like this to simply shut up and not ask for input until they are ready to start listening. This at least minimizes the damage. If they then can’t get over their fixation of having all the ideas come from them, I advise them to move into a technical role where they are not destroying morale and sucking the life out of the organization. If that does not work, this employee retention trainer will tell them that should probably leave the organization before the organization figures out the damage they are doing and exits them from the organization. If this does not occur, they will spread discontent like a cancer in the organization. That cancer can destroy an organization.
It’s imperative to seek input from the people that work for you in this day and age as the workforce becomes more collaborative. That’s a must. Don’t compound your problems by telling your people that their opinion matters and then responding like it doesn’t. That is a recipe for employee turnover!
