Surveys say organizations that regularly communicate with staff report employee engagement, lower turnover, and higher financial performance.

If you want employees to think of your business like their own you must communicate more often and more effectively. What is so secret that you can’t share with your employees. I will grant you that their are some things you’d rather not report, but why try and keep everything a mystery. Employees will be more engaged if you engage them. Employees will remain in your employment if they know you care about them. Employees can do two things immediately to help you. They can save you money and/or they can bring you NEW paying customers. They will not do this by mandate. They will only do this through encouragement and if they believe you will remember what’s in it for them. Pay is a short term motivator, but don’t forget it is important. If they can’t feed their families and pay their bills, then all the motivation in the world is not going to keep them. If they do stay they will not be very productive on your behalf.

I hear over and over from CEOs about their staff being their greatest asset. This makes for great sound bites, but most don’t practice what they preach. If they really believed that statement they would treat their people better. Employees can make or break your organization. They can do this intentionally or unintentionally but the result is still the same.

I remember reading story once about an owner who had grown his business tremendously over the years, but in doing so failed to take care of his people. One day he received an overnight package at his corporate office. He opened the pack and poured the contents onto his desk. He was shocked at what fell out.  The managers keys to all of his retail stores were there. You see there was such a revolt of his management style that all of his managers contacted one another and agreed to quit. They closed all of his stores one day and put him out of business.

He could not recover and learned a devastating lesson. Now, something this drastic may not happen to you, but similarly they will undermine your organization if they are mistreated or simply not taken care of. What will you do now after reading this story? Maybe nothing, but you can’t say I didn’t warn you. Start communicating your business to your employees and they will contribute. They will stay with you and they may even put you in the Fortune 500 Club, who knows.

Survey From:  Human Resource Executive Magazine