30 July Should You Host an Employee Q&A?

Have you ever opened up the floor for your employees to ask you anything they wanted too?

It goes without saying that communication between managers and employees is one of the most important components when it comes to running a successful business. Clear and open communication between the two ensures everyone is on the same page about objectives, direction, and expectations.

But what about employee communication with the C-suite?

While it is important for employees to know where they stand within their department and role – it is just as important for them to know where they fall when it comes to the goals of the business. Most of the time employees are left out of the loop when it comes to what is going in the C-suite and more often than not employees begin to feel like they are just another piece to the puzzle rather than a contributing factor to the end goals of the company.

So, how can you improve communication when it comes to the C-suite and employees? Aside from the standard one to ones and regular meetings, Payroll Link tried something a little different that proved to increase the communication between the entire upper management team and the staff.

Every quarter we have a Quarterly All Hands Meeting and during this meeting, we discuss A LOT of numbers, stats, and percentages. Rather than sugar coat it – until this past meeting our Quarterly All Hands Meeting was not something that really engaged the company. It almost felt like a college lecture that you got lost in. Who can blame the employees? After all, most of them had no idea what all the numbers meant and what their specific role had contributed to them.

Knowing that employee engagement is a growing focal point for organizations we began to ask ourselves how we could change and increase participation during our meetings. Improving communication between everyone is one of the most important steps a company can take towards creating a more cohesive and collaborative workplace.

So, what did we do exactly?

We broke down barriers and allowed our employees to communicate with us openly and freely, anonymously. A few days before our routine Quarterly All Hands Meetings we sent our employees a form that allowed them to submit any questions they had anonymously and the response was higher than we anticipated.

Our employees asked questions like…

1. Any new changes for the upcoming quarter?
2. When can we expect raises?
3. Can the company offer a "birthday" day off?
4. What is your proudest moment as the owner of Payroll Link?

We got a ton of questions that many employees have thought about asking but never felt like they could. On top of looping in employees on things they have wondered about – we had much higher engagement than we have ever in the past. We had a couple of good laughs, serious talks, and an overall good understanding of the direction we are heading as a whole and what each person’s role is in our company growth.