It can be hard to be an employer or even a boss. Though you want to be able to talk to your employees, you are still the boss and they might not feel completely comfortable talking to you about certain things.
However, it doesn’t have to be that way. Here are some tips to keep communication open with your employees.
Lead by example. Show your employees that you are available to talk to them by starting the conversation. Always greet your employees in the morning and say goodbye at the end of the day. Smile and talk to them when they walk by your office or you walk by them.
Make sure that when they do come to you to talk, you listen. No matter how busy you are, you need to take your time to listen to their concerns when they come to you. Put down your work so that you can really listen. Ask questions if you don’t understand something. You may want to summarize what they said so that they know that you were really paying attention.
Encourage everyone to talk openly. If your goal is to create an office where everyone is able to talk and communicate, make it a priority to encourage this. Encourage them to eat lunch together. Have get-togethers outside of work so that they can interact in a more comfortable environment.
If you want to have good communication at the office, it is important to show others that you really mean it. Greet everyone in the morning and send them off with a goodbye. Ask them questions when you see them around the office.
When they do come to you, it is equally important that you take the time to listen to them. No matter how busy you are, you are going to have to put work aside so that they see that you are really listening to them!