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Employee involvement requires defining employees as partners in the future of the business. According to the American Heritage Dictionary, ". . . partner implies a relationship, frequently between two people, in which each has equal status and a certain independence but also implicit or formal obligations to the other or others."
Equal status means we no longer classify one partner as essential to the business and the other not; independence recognizes both sides choosing to enter the employment contract or not; and, finally, both have obligations to live up to that same employment contract. There are three steps that allow employees to embrace partnership in the future of any organization: sharing the vison, sharing the responsibility, and sharing the reward.
Sharing the Vision
For success, an organization must have a clear vision of its future. A vision statement should be simple, clear and positive. If each employee understands and concurs with the vision statement, the business is halfway to success.
Communication of the vision is critical to its endorsement by employees, and a combination of methods is most effective. Initially, a comprehensive slate of companywide meetings in which the vision is presented and discussed will be required. A question-and-answer period during these meetings should be promoted. After the initial meetings, plant walk-throughs and brown-bag lunches personalize the message from top management to each employee. The president or senior officer at each physical location should walk through the plant on a weekly basis. During these walk-throughs the president can provide a 30-second synopsis of the state of the business, always concluding with an informal, plainly-worded restatement of the company's vision and quality commitment.
Sharing the Responsibility
Sharing the responsibility with an irresponsible workforce is not helpful but using the lack of a responsible workforce as an excuse recreates the mistakes of the past. Developing within its employees both the desire to improve and the required skills make up the most powerful investments an organization can make.
Classroom-style training may cover team-building skills, small group facilitation, functional cross-training, SPC, communications, etc. Even offering basic reading, writing, math and GED classework provides significant results.
Factory floor training fosters individual ownership of the process. Fact-finding, problem-solving and decison-making lessons are reinforced when applied directly to familiar machines and processes. When problem resolution skills are second nature to each employee, applying continuous improvement methodologies is the next logical step.
Sharing the responsibility means holding employees accountable as well. Managment is recognized as ineffective when unable or reluctant to require all employees to share the workload or obey workplace rules. Support for an effective, objective discipline program grows when it rewards those who are doing well and dismisses tose unwilling to provide the team effort necessary for success.
Sharing the Reward
High-leverage rewards include personal recognition and other intangibles, with the word "intangibles" carefully defined. While some rewards are not reflected on the bottom line, they are still measurable. Another function of the plant walk-throughs mentioned earlier is to express appreciation for a job well done to employees. A very measurable policy would have supervisors recommending employees and teams for a personal visit with the president of the company. Another reward would be company-sponsored employee and family dinners. At these dinners, employees and teams would be recognized and applauded for their contributions.
Another measurable intangible is training and educationo for all employees. This has a two-fold benefit: enhancing employee skills improves quality and productivity, and employees see the investment in their own future as proof thay have value to the business.
Recognizing that material benefits are important, there are many methods of improving employee compensation at little or no cost to the company. Converting an hourly workforce into a salaried one, and offering flexible benefit packages and profit-sharing programs all provide motivation for employee productivity. Quality and teamwork incentives reward individuals working in the company's interests.
Sharing the vision, sharing the responsibility and sharing the reward will create employee partnerships vital to success.
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