You’ve asked your employees for feedback on how they feel in the workplace, now what? Your employees are going to expect a reply, and potentially some changes around the office. Don’t be scared to create the change your employees are asking for. Acting upon employee feedback will create happier employees because it gives them a sense of importance and worth within the workplace, and as we’ve stated before, the happier the employees are, the better they are at their jobs. Here are some ways to tackle common complaints brought up through crowdsourcing.
Listen Carefully
It can be tough to listen to complaints, especially if the complaints are around something you enjoy or even implemented into the workplace. Remember to keep your ears open and your defenses down. Your employees aren’t attacking you or wanting to make you feel bad, they’re simply trying to express how they feel in their workplace environment. It’s okay to disagree with them, but keep in mind that every employee’s experience is different, and in most cases, if you’re in a position to be able to enforce change within the workplace, then you probably exist in a different work environment entirely.
Don’t be afraid to be transparent with your employees either. If there’s a common complaint that you can’t muster up the budget to fix, try sending out an email or hold a conference meeting. In this setting, you’ll be able to tell your employees that you want to fix it, that you don’t have the money in the budget, and then ask for any suggestions. Even if you’re looking for the cheap way out, your employees will admire your honesty and your effort to address the issues they brought to you.
Environmental Distractions
The workplace is always going to be full of distractions and it’s impossible to rid the office of distractions completely, but there are a few ways to help avoid them. When it comes to conversational distractions, ask employees to take their phone calls or casual conversations away from the space of the working office, into private rooms or a designated social space.
One of the biggest complaints in the modern workplace is temperature control. It’s hard to make every single employee happy with the temperature, but there are some actions you can encourage your employees to take to be more comfortable. If you’d like to try to adjust the temperature for everyone, send out a survey asking your employees to rate the office temperature and pick something in the middle. Or, if there are colder spots in the office versus warmer spots, try rearranging your employees by putting people who feel cold into warmer spots of the office and vice versa.
Noise Complaints
Offices are always going to have some level of noise, especially in an open floor plan. There are a ton of great options for cutting down on those pesky sound waves. Adding soft pieces of furniture, carpeting, rugs, acoustic panels, plant walls, are all great solutions that will really help you control your environment. Try adding white noise or nature sounds to keep the office calm, and give it a new baseline for “quiet.” Don’t be afraid to remind and reinforce your employees or co-workers to take any loud conversations, especially personal ones, to another part of the building.
Remind your employees not to bother someone with headphones on and ask them to message their co-workers in advance and ask if it would be okay to drop by.
Personal Space
Remember that people have different needs when it comes to interactions with other people. If employees are mentioning a lack of personal space around the office, try providing them with non-permanent options for privacy. This includes options like privacy booths, modular walls, screens, and panels. Implementing these affordable options to your workplace can have a huge impact on how comfortable your employees feel. It also gives them a space to take private phone calls or relax for a minute after a stressful meeting.
