Google has a weekly gathering of employees. Whether it be a meeting online or face-to-face, they gather as many employees together as possible to discuss topics and happenings that occurred during the week. The best part is that employees can ask any question that they want. Senior members and other employees must answer the questions to the best of their ability. Google believes in being as honest and open as possible. It’s the only way that employees give their trust to the company. The company has to earn it.
Your company can do this by opening the channels of communication.
You may not need to meet every week if your company doesn’t have the ability to do so, but you can meet once a month. By gathering your employees to discuss topics out in the open, everyone is held accountable for their actions. This can be tough because it has the potential to put people in an awkward position, but this isn’t such a bad thing. When people are held accountable for their actions on a regular basis, they base their future decisions with regard to their employees. This levels the playing field, giving the employees who care about the company and want to see it succeed, a chance to voice their opinion and bring up discussions that can improve the company.
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I would love to work for a company like that.
Are they hiring?
Hi Karl: Keeping the lines of communication open with employees is definitely important. Even if it’s bad news, the best thing to do is to talk openly about what’s happening and answering employees’ questions honestly, instead of letting the rumor mill distort the situation (which is what happens in a lot of companies).
Hi Buddha, only the best of the best.
Hi Marelisa, I know the rumor mill. I’ve lived it plenty of times. The more open and honest a company is the more enjoyable it is to work for them.
You touch on two things I firmly believe in – open and effective communication and accountability.
I don’t know how or why communication became so complicated, but boy keeping the lines open and honest definitely makes a difference.
Hi Karl – One thing I’ve learned over the years is if employees feel they’re REALLY being heard, it’s often reflected in their performance. Accountability is another great trait. Although it’s often the employers who are being held accountable, it important for employees to know they need to be accountable, too. Employment is definitely a two way street.
Hi Karl,
Where I work, we are an employee owned company. There are no outside shareholders. What makes this unique, I think, is that not only am I an employee – I’m also an owner. One of about 150 people who own the company. So, I have a vested interest in the company doing well – as does everyone else. We have quarterly meetings where everything is shared – and questions are encouraged. As well, from the president on down, everything is very open-door. This leads to the ability to really have open communication – which is one of the great things about this place. While it’s not perfect, that communication is considered as important as it is (and is not just fluff being said because it sounds good) – that helps to really make people, at all levels, feel comfortable in getting to solutions.
I’m excited to read of this Karl. I love the topic and fully believe that pushing some of that “uncomfortable” open communication is a great key to improving the team and putting in place that accountability you mention. That is needed to get to a path of serious results.
BTW: The email subscribe told me there that email subscription is not enabled for that feed. You probably want to check out what is up with that.