Always, ALWAYS keep an open mind!
A grievance is a “real or imagined wrong or other cause for a protest that is a cause of distress”. It is not very rare to witness grievances among your employees regarding their day-to-day work. Grievance is also a form of ‘feedback’, which can be taken at earlier stages in a more constructive manner, without letting them escalate to ‘grievances’. Imagine yourself working with a set of different individuals and some superiors as well as subordinates. Isn’t it unavoidable to face such situations if you put yourself in their shoes? This is why receiving feedback from employees is important for the company in the longer run. Acquiring their feedback also helps the company improve its efficiency as well as to earn employees’ loyalty towards the company. Your customers are of no difference. Regular feedback is the best way to achieve continuous improvement. The SKS method can be identified as one of the best methods to receive feedback. It could be the key to achieving the expected outcomes of your company. It is very simple and straightforward, as shown below.
STOP
What should I stop doing? These are practices (small or big) that you are doing/you have been doing but better halted. If you have a daily update meeting that eats up a good 30 – 40 minutes every day, and if a considerably important update comes only once every three days or so, you would get suggestions from your employees to stop the ‘daily’ meeting. You may not see this as an issue, as you’re used to the practice, but others would be able to show you the waste of work hours.
KEEP
What should I keep doing? There may be good things that you do knowingly or unknowingly. Similarly, some good things you do might be adding a lot more value to your organization than you perceive. An example could be your monthly chat with employees who come directly under your purview. They might have found it to be ‘motivating’ also, rather than just an ‘opportunity to update the boss’. Maybe you could do it for all your employees.
START
What should I start doing? When you ask, people would give you ideas on the things that you are not doing but can add value if you start doing them. Going back to our examples of meetings and discussions, think of a suggestion to conduct a bi-annual performance appraisal process in place of the existing end-of-the-year appraisals. This can provide some corrective advice and insights for both you and your employees for the next few months.
We hope this was useful and your business will benefit from this method too.
Watch this space for more tips & tricks for business growth!
