Workforce Energy – Is that even a thing?
Over the years, I have had countless discussions with business leaders and CEO’s who have asked me how to improve their workplace culture or increase employee morale. What comes to mind as I begin to ask questions about their workforce is, what is the “energy” of the workforce? I’m not talking about the metrics and data that can be documented on a spreadsheet, like turnover, absenteeism, time-to-fill hire ratios, disciplinary action statistics and so on. I am asking leaders much tougher questions:
- How does your workforce view you as an employer?
- How well do the employees think their leadership team is doing?
- Is mutual respect shown between managers and subordinates?
- Are employee needs given attention?
Combining two of my favorite subjects, human resources and energy work (Reiki, Healing Touch® and Tai Chi), I begin to study the company’s “workforce energy.”
As an example of what leads to negative or static energy I share this true story:
Walking the floor, the supervisor sees an employee, John, who is normally cheerful in the morning, quick with a smile and a hello. John seems distracted and not engaged. He didn’t shout out his normal hello. His body language clearly shows something is wrong. However, the supervisor is in a hurry to get things started so he rushes by, making a mental note to circle back later in the day to check on John.
Later that day, word comes to the supervisor that John’s mother died. The supervisor, sadly, had been too busy to check back with John. How different would the energy have been if the supervisor had taken that extra minute of time to engage with John first thing in the morning? Perhaps he would have told John to go home and be with his father and family.
Organizations lose talented unhappy employees to work environments in which they feel they will be more appreciated and taken care of. Many employees I have talked to over the years have told me they left a position to go to another one for less or equal pay – simply because they didn’t feel valued and appreciated. They felt the leadership of the company was insensitive or not emotionally connected to their workforce.
I conclude with one of my favorite quotes, “The real competitive advantage in any business is one word only, which is people.” – Kamil Toume.
How is the energy in your organization?
Written by: Pamela Watkins, Human Resource Management Consultant
