Page 204 - Build a Culture of Employee Engagement with the Principles

175
Consideration

interests. This is the most basic information that you should
obtain on every employee. Other data that you may collect
over time includes where the employee grew up, the employ-
ee’s wedding anniversary, volunteer work, and special causes,
as well as favorite authors/books, music, television shows,
and movies and activities in which their children participate.
Don’t go out and interrogate your employees to get all of this
information at once. The idea is simply to get to know your
employees better over time through casual conversation.
2. Meeting practices. Meetings often present a great oppor-
tunity to demonstrate more consideration to your employees
as well as increase efficiency. The following recommenda-
tions apply to both individual and group meetings.
• Make it a policy that all communication devices be shut
off or set to vibrate mode. Individuals with a pending
emergency that may require their attention should
notify the group at the beginning of the meeting.
• All meetings begin and end on time—or, better yet,
early.
• At your next group meeting, ask your staff if they have
suggestions on how to shorten or eliminate meetings
or limit who must attend. Emphasize that their time—
not your time—is important and you don’t want it
wasted unnecessarily. Meetings that are held purely
for the sake of providing updates should most likely
be eliminated altogether and replaced with e-mails or
written handouts. Often topics discussed in meetings
concern only a subset of those present—sometimes
only two people. Don’t waste your employees’ time by
making them listen to discussions that have little to
do with them. Sufficiently detailed meeting minutes
should allow most team members to stay in the loop on
issues that do not directly affect them.