Your employees are a pretty obedient group, but they don’t really have a choice. Anyone who dares fall short of a goal, question a rule or propose a creative new idea knows their job is at stake. Falling out of line has serious consequences at your company, and your employees live in fear that one wrong move will likely put them out of work.
Premium Staffing, Inc. — one of the top Chicago engineering recruiters — understands the importance of maintaining order, but your way isn’t working. It’s time to transform your fear-based culture into a fun and engaging work environment, where employees feel comfortable and empowered.
Four Tips to Overhaul Your Fear-Based Culture
Abandon Mindless Rules
Rules are made to be broken — at least those that serve no purpose. As a power play, you’ve instilled plenty of rules that are doing nothing but inciting misery among your employees. Make your company less rigid by giving staffers more freedom to work their own way.
Encourage People to Speak Up
You hired a very talented staff, but you’ve stifled their voices with your terrifying culture. Change this by soliciting their ideas on everything from new projects to ways to improve your processes and procedures. Some people will probably be hesitant to speak up at first, so consider instituting an anonymous feedback process to get everyone used to the idea.
Change the Way Success is Measured
Currently, your company defines success as black or white — employees either reach their goals or they don’t. In reality, it’s nowhere near as cut and dry as that, so expand your horizons. Evaluate things like quality of work, customer satisfaction, team collaboration and lessons learned to get the most from every project.
Treat Your Staff Kindly
You might think your team listens to you out of respect, but it’s really just because they’re afraid of you. A mean boss is actually less effective than a kind, approachable one, so change your attitude. No one wants to work for a manager who treats them badly. If you’re nice to staffers, retention rates and job satisfaction levels will rise. People will also feel at ease coming to you with questions, comments and concerns that can make the team run better.
Finding the right high-level manufacturing or engineering candidate for the job is challenging, so leave the legwork to Premium Staffing, Inc. As engineers ourselves, we know exactly who you need to keep your team moving forward. Contact us today to start your no-risk talent search!