Whether you want a team that is comfortable expressing concerns or a workplace environment that feels like a safe space for creative and innovative employees to thrive and grow, effective communication is essential. In this blog, we’ll be exploring point 4 of The Greater Manchester Good Employment Charter (GEC): Engagement and Voice.
As a recap, the Charter is based on seven key principles. So far in our Good Employer’s Journey series, we’ve covered points 1-3. Point 1 (Secure Work) in GEC 1 – The Principles We Live By and points 2 and 3 (Flexible Work and Pay) in GEC 2 – Achieving the Work-Life Balance.
What is ‘Engagement and Voice’?
One of the core values for any business should be effective communication. As our business is based in public relations and marketing, this is especially important and we always want to lead by example. Something we often advise our clients on is the importance of prioritising internal communication before looking externally. Fostering a ‘speak-up culture’ is the best way to create a team that feels empowered, invested in your business, and confident providing feedback as well as sharing ideas.
What is a ‘speak-up culture’ at work?
This is when an employer ensures that, wherever possible, it provides opportunities for employees to speak openly about what they are thinking or feeling. Speaking up can be scary and many people feel vulnerable doing so. But, if employees feel they can be honest, it helps them to feel valued and also helps the business to gain important insights.
Providing a variety of opportunities for employees to speak up is just the starting point. What’s critical in nurturing trust and supporting your team is acting on feedback as soon as possible, which can help to improve how the business operates and potentially increase employee retention.
This approach can also help to build your employee’s confidence and the team may feel better able to share or listen to others without fear. The benefits of this can include improving interpersonal skills, team bonding, but also help to spark creative ideas through open and healthy discussions.
It’s important to be mindful that if you’re gathering feedback but not acting to respond to concerns or take on board suggestions, you could end up having the opposite effect and lose your team’s trust. Even if you’re not in a position to implement suggestions, or there are additional factors hindering issue resolution, keep talking to your team; acknowledge the feedback, explain (as far as reasonable) any reasons for not being able to act on it, and provide a timeframe and alternatives where possible. In this way, you’re better able to keep your team on board.
Why is ‘Engagement and Voice’ important to the Charter?
The Charter makes it clear that a business should value open communication with its employees. By making it systematic, whether through building into existing processes and practices or welcoming engagement with trade unions, you build a better, stronger business and team.
Our approach
We have a strong culture of transparency and ownership within the business, whereby we share openly with our employees the business position, challenges, and opportunities. We actively invite our team’s input into how we continue to grow and develop. We use an annual employee survey to gather feedback anonymously, which enables employees to be completely honest, and we respond to their suggestions. For example, in our 2021 survey, one piece of feedback we received expressed that the existing appraisal process was not as effective as it could be because targets felt quite broad. In response, we updated our appraisal form and made a conscious effort to set specific, measurable targets. We also arranged for interim check-ins to ensure targets remain relevant and achievable, in addition to supporting progress.
As our team has grown, we also recognised the importance of a more formal process for individuals to discuss workloads and concerns more regularly. So, we introduced a monthly check-in with established line managers who would either handle any issues directly or feed back to the management team. This is also an opportunity to discuss training requirements, changes to working patterns, etc.
We fully take on board employees’ views when considering business decisions, such as which clients we work with, which charities we support, and any changes to our office premises. We communicate with employees regularly through a weekly team meeting, as well as making use of daily internal communications through our company Slack which has dedicated channels for everything from wellbeing and equality though to professional development and industry news.
As well as company updates at our weekly team meetings, we also hold an annual AGM, coinciding with the end of our financial year, to allow us to feedback to our staff on the successes of the previous year (e.g. rise in turnover, new clients, new skills acquired, new staff, etc.) and focuses for the next. This enables the whole team to clearly see what their hard work has contributed to and adds a sense of collective ownership.
In addition to the above, we are happy to support our employees’ involvement with any union of their choice and will readily recognise any established, reputable union. We also encourage employees to become members of professional bodies relevant to their roles, such as the Chartered Institute of Public Relations and the Chartered Institute of Marketing, and we pay the membership fees of these bodies. These recognised bodies offer HR support and advice for their members.
An employee’s view
The below are responses to past employee surveys which are submitted anonymously:
“The business is great at supporting people both personally and professionally. The flexibility offered makes it easy to strike a good work/life balance and the way we are actively encouraged to contribute to the business direction means we feel really invested in the company’s success, whatever our role.” (2023)
“Great collaboration from everyone and allowing the opportunity to share thoughts and opinions on projects.” (2024)
Whilst it’s great to hear positive comments, it’s also incredibly useful when we know if there are areas we can improve on. For example, based on feedback surveys following previous team days, we made some changes for our June 2024 team day:
- We introduced shorter sessions rather than full day training focus.
- Activities designed to invite feedback and discussion amongst the team around: our business goals and how we might achieve them; how we can continue to embody our company culture as we grow; and what the business might look like in 1,3,5,10 years – what opportunities are there.
Feedback following the June team day was our most positive to date, with between 10%-23% improvement in ratings for usefulness, enjoyment, and organisation of the day. The management team met soon after the feedback was gathered to discuss the team’s input and agree how this should inform our next team day.
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Learn more about our history as a PR and marketing consultancy that specialises in construction.
DISCLAIMER: This is based on our experience and is not endorsed by GEC, nor does it offer any guarantees. Please view the Greater Manchester Good Employment Charter FAQs, the Charter’s page on Engagement & Voice, or contact them directly to discuss how your business can become a Supporter or apply for membership.