What workers want in their role may be different to what you might think. Now more than ever, workers want a say – whether it's in day-to-day operations or workplace training. Feeling confident and knowing they have a valued voice is crucial – in fact our new research in partnership with YouGov shows it's a top priority for workers when considering new jobs or roles*.
Communication goes both ways - top-down and bottom-up. This two-way exchange between workers and management is no longer simply a 'nice to have'. It's become a must. Yet, most workers say that they are never, rarely, or only sometimes listened to on topics that matter to them the most within their organization*.
Even the smallest problem can snowball if no one speaks up about it. Rather than fostering a workplace where employees are afraid to mention issues they notice, savvy leaders are encouraging a speak-up culture that ensures the company can get ahead of problems.
Why Speak Up Culture?
Have you ever seen a small problem turn into a big one? It happens all the time. A leaky tap can turn a brand new wall into a vertical garden of mildew, or a broken lightbulb can cause a guest to trip and injure themselves in a dark room. Small issues can escalate quickly if no one has the time to manage them. If you work in distributed teams, you've probably witnessed countless issues that disrupt operations. These kinds of problems need to be fixed before it's too late.
Speak up culture means transforming a traditional workplace into one where people feel safe and confident to raise issues, concerns and potential problems. At the end of the day, we're looking to empower people - it's really that simple. If you don't do that, people won't speak up and feel emboldened to take action.
It starts with safety, but the knock-on effects of a speak up culture are endless. Cultivating a space that encourages your people to feel comfortable about sharing their own views and ideas can spark creativity and innovation. This leads to a variety of positive outcomes, with an innovative business culture opening up potentially lucrative opportunities. Here are some ways you can get started.
Step 1. Take Stock Of Your Work Environment
You may already have existing processes for how to gauge your employees' opinions on the workplace. Analytics and data are incredibly valuable across all industries, so it's important that you have a variety of strategies to tap into your team's insights.
Use QR codes technology to raise anonymously raise issues or straightforward anonymous surveys to gather critical data to reveal: whether an employee has ever raised a workplace concern; whether they know about the proper reporting channels; why they decided not to raise an issue after they noticed it; and how they believe the company is responding to problems as they arise.
If a team member doesn't feel comfortable going directly to their manager about an issue, they may still report problems via the HR channels. Make sure you arm your human resources department with the right tools to analyze specific reporting metrics.
Step 2. Simplify Ways Of Working
This year has seen workers stretch their time to grapple with new rules, regulations, and ways of working. In hotel management, business happens 24/7 and the pressure is compounded. It's human nature to be hesitant to speak up in the workplace, especially when the nature of the work has them stretched thin. So why not try a pretty human solution to a pretty human problem?
Introduce ease into the process.
Start by taking a look at your day-to-day processes in the workplace. SafetyCulture helps some of the world's largest industries embed a culture of safety and accountability in their organizations. In doing so, we've seen firsthand the effect of cumbersome processes that weigh on employees and prevent businesses from doing their best work.
Eliminate unnecessary red tape - completing everyday tasks, leaving feedback, and taking action, these are basic tasks that should be simple to complete. Technology can do some of the heavy lifting here. Digital checklists, repeated often, can be an effective way to keep track of things in a fast-paced environment. Mobile-first tools that are intuitive to use will allow employees to raise issues as they occur, with clear visibility from start to resolution. Your team needs to know that procedures around reporting are easy to navigate and won't make their life more difficult just for speaking up.
Step 3. Reward Your People
Speaking up isn't easy. A myriad of factors can contribute to a lack of a speak-up culture, from fear to lack of confidence. Inadequate safety processes or subpar customer experiences can have outsized consequences when handled badly.
Instead, hospitality staff should feel empowered to speak up and act. They will feel more compelled to do so if they are rewarded for it. It could be a physical award, vouchers, or discounts. It could even be as simple as public praise or acknowledgment for wanting to raise the game. Get creative and find what will make your team be more vocal.
Step 4. Focus On Transparency And Positive Action
If you find that your current approach still isn't hitting the mark, there's another way to kick-start speak up culture. Evidence shows that staff who fear retaliation for reporting a problem are far less likely to come forward about it. To truly foster a speak-up culture, you need to be firm about preventing retaliation and champion transparency as a key workplace value.
Aside from the threat of retaliation, one of the biggest reasons why employees don't report issues is because they believe management won't take action. Whether that means brushing off the issue or disregarding it entirely, if your people don't trust you to take action then they won't bother to speak up. Ensuring your team understands there are robust compliance, safety, and legal policies in place – and that their report will be addressed – is the best way to encourage action.
Step 5. Build A Continuous Learning Culture
A speak up culture isn't a set-and-forget exercise. It needs positive reinforcement. Retrain, refresh, repeat with specific courses designed to encourage proactivity and feedback in the workplace. Utilize microlearning platforms to hold training at regular intervals to make upskilling part of workplace culture. With gamified lessons, rewards and challenges, it's an easy way to engage your workforce. Report on who's up to date with their training and assign refresher training to confirm the information stays top of mind.
Power To The Frontline
A manager's job isn't to make every call. It's to empower the people doing the work with the support they need to make better calls. Businesses have learned that top-down management is broken - instead, it should be replaced by systems that give frontline workers more control. It's the frontline employees, not the executives, who actually deal with each and every process. As the eyes on the ground, they are better placed to drive quality and efficiency.
Rather than a top-down approach to communication and management, put the power in the hands of workers. When workers have more of a voice, the whole organization benefits. Those who are closest to procedures are best placed with knowledge on how to improve them. Our experience as a business focused on improving workplace safety and efficiency is that for an organization to thrive, frontline workers need to be given the right tools and conditions to drive that momentum.
*All figures, unless otherwise stated, are from YouGov Plc. Total sample size was 1950 adults (861 US, 554 Australia, 535 UK). Fieldwork was undertaken between 27th August – 9th September 2021. The survey was carried out online. The figures have been weighted and are representative of US, UK and AU frontline workers (aged 18+).
By Bob Butler General Manager, Americas, SafetyCulture
