The employees are unmotivated. The sickness rate is high. The cooperation in the team does not work properly. The bad mood affects performance. Often the causes of these problems are not clear. We help companies to get to the bottom of hidden conflicts and find the levers that improve the organizational climate.
Many companies have recognized that their organizational climate is in need of improvement, but they don’t know why.
However, in order to take the right measures, the true causes of dissatisfaction must be known.
How can companies improve the organizational climate?
There are many ways leaders can improve organizational climate. Here are the six most important:
Employees must be able to address problems openly. This requires defined communication spaces – e.g., confidential one-on-one meetings – and fixed communication rules. At the same time, managers should have the tools to moderate and de-escalate conflicts and tensions. In this way, they can improve the organizational climate.
Different communication formats are important, such as confidential one-on-one meetings, group discussions, and open or informal rounds. Managers should strike a good balance between open and confidential formats while creating space for employees to share ideas with each other.
Leaders should respond to feedback, even if they cannot change a situation immediately. Signaling to employees that they are being heard, even when managers have little time, shows appreciation and contributes significantly to satisfaction.
Managers should create an atmosphere where mistakes can be addressed. Being allowed to address irritations with colleagues and supervisors improves collaboration and operational processes. A delicate touch is required here: exposing employees in the group is degrading and demotivating for those affected and can set off escalation dynamics. Criticism is important, but not every topic belongs in the team round.
All employees should be recognized as an active part of the team. Regardless of performance or role, everyone should have a say. In each group there are special roles, e.g. the “informal leader” to whom the team is oriented, or the “adversary” who criticizes particularly frequently. The former can be given special responsibility by the manager and built up as a right-hand man. The latter can be included by the manager by showing him special appreciation. Recognizing and including special roles instead of excluding them promotes satisfaction and performance in the group.
Supervisors should evaluate performance transparently. Employees need to know where they stand. The goals must be clearly defined. “Where do I stand?”, “Where do we stand?”, “Where do we want to go?” are fundamental questions for any professional collaboration. Making longer-term developments in the company and in the team transparent and regularly reminding them helps to counteract hasty assessments such as “nothing changes anyway”.
Case study: At three locations of this telecommunications group in the “Very Small Enterprises” division with 100 employees, the mood is in the basement. Repeated surveys show that employees are dissatisfied. But managers don’t understand what the problem is. The salary is good, the office is well equipped, business is good. What is the problem?
Employees have been dissatisfied for some time. Managers have already tried numerous measures and surveyed employees to find out how they work.
We note in our analysis that executives always asked the questions in a way that got them the answers they wanted to hear.
Instead of figuring out the real concerns, managers take actions that miss the real needs of employees. Unintentionally, they make the situation even worse.
With every survey that misses the actual needs of employees, dissatisfaction grows.
We found this out relatively quickly through attentive questioning and listening, and by using trainers who were passionate about the same topics as the employees.
Once the problem has been identified, the task for managers is to regain the trust of their employees. To do this, they had to fundamentally change their leadership culture and behavior which they did with our support.
In training and coaching sessions, managers learn to create communication spaces where employees can say what they really think.
Management succeeds in creating a culture of listening and gradually regaining the trust of employees with open communication.
Managers who thought they knew their employees’ needs learn to really listen to their them.
From the outside, this solution seems obvious. But those involved are often too caught up in their dynamics and emotions to come up with it themselves.
Today, the organizational climate is much better and the increased satisfaction is reflected in significantly better operating results.
