The Importance of Becoming a Better Listener

Ensuring your employees are satisfied and feel appreciated is important in order to reduce turnover. Organizations need to focus on keeping employees happy and motivated in order to stay competitive in their recruiting and retention efforts.

One area that many employers fail to hit the mark on is instilling a sense of trust and confidence in senior leadership amongst its employees. Instilling a sense of trust and confidence in senior leadership is key to protecting your organization’s reputation and bottom line.

Although there are many different ways to build trust and confidence in managers and senior leadership at your organization, one simple way is to be a great listener.

Being a Great Listener—The Basics

Employees want to feel like their voices are being heard, rather than just being talked at. Experts agree that good listening typically comes down to doing the following three things:

• Not talking when your employee is talking
• Letting your employee know that you’re listening with active facial expressions and verbal cues
• Being able to repeat what your employee saidListening to Employee Complaints
• In addition to making sure you follow these three suggestions, be sure to promote open communication so employees feel comfortable talking to you about whatever issues may arise.

It’s inevitable that employees may have concerns or complaints that they’d like to share with you. When this happens, it’s critical that you handle the situation properly. Try to make every effort to put off your other obligations and make yourself available to hear your employees’ complaints.

Remember, listening to your employees contributes to overall satisfaction, improves trust in senior leadership and can strengthen retention.

What Does “Competitive Pay” Really Mean?

It’s no secret that top talent expects to be paid top dollar. Even with a developed recruiting program, a strong, positive culture and a comprehensive benefits package, it will be difficult for your company to attract and retain the best employees without a competitive pay policy.

What is “competitive pay”?

Most HR professionals suggest that being competitive with compensation means paying an average of 5-10 percent more or less than the market average pay for a job or a group of jobs.

What is the market average rate?

The market average rate for a job is the average pay for a position. By ordering or engaging in pay surveys, you can study what market average pay is nationally, regionally and locally for various positions, and determine whether your pay is competitive.