Employee “caretaking” is a crucial, though often overlooked aspect of personnel management. At Peoplescape, we are always “team employer” but we also know that having compassion and a strong desire for employees to succeed is a core value in most successful organizations. Employees who work efficiently, have opportunity for growth and feel they are treated fairly are the strongest assets to the employer, and our goal is to partner with our business clients to ensure their workplaces are as happy as can be! We conduct workshops on a wide variety of training topics including new hire orientation and onboarding procedures, effective management tools, sexual harassment and bullying. Our comprehensive training programs can be customized to the client’s industry. One example is our annual hospitality workshop recently conducted for a long-time client of ours in the beautiful desert region of Southern California.
During this annual training, we focus on ways that the employer can be protected, as well as strategies for employees to succeed and reach the highest of expectations. Tools utilized in this process are employee engagement surveys and employee focus groups to discuss ideas and plans for future improvements. During our fall training, we ask the employees questions about what is working in each of their departments, whether they feel that their supervisor is managing the team effectively, areas that the managers can improve on, and many other questions to help us assess how processes can be enhanced throughout the organization. For this particular client, we had an 85% participation rate across all departments, which was a great turnout for us to accurately gauge the needs of the employer and employees involved!
Surveys were conducted to discover if employees felt they were being adequately compensated in total rewards (pay and benefits). Questions were also asked on the survey about overall satisfaction with the employee’s position in the company. We then used these results to conduct focus groups and get more in-depth with the employees on specific issues and concerns. There were clearly apprehensions about the relationship between managers and employees, as well as job security and opportunities for growth within the organization. These concerns were addressed by a skilled employee relations facilitator from Peoplescape’s team, so that the employees felt comfortable sharing their honest opinions. The results were tabulated using graphs and metrics, and then presented to the management team to review areas of strong importance discussed with employees during our focus groups. By allowing a third party expert to conduct these surveys and focus groups, the employer was able to recover solid intelligence on how their employees were feeling and what areas could be improved upon throughout the company.
