Every company makes mistakes, but if your business is not complaint-proof, those mistakes can cost you much more than the time and money it takes to fix them—they can cost you precious talents and your customers’ loyalty. Here are some of the top reasons why employees complain and what you can do to prevent it from happening in your business.
Not feeling part of the team
When you run a business, it’s not uncommon to find that some employees feel isolated within their team. Whether they don’t get enough face time with the rest of the employees or their manager doesn’t communicate enough with them, when an employee feels like he or she isn’t part of the team, it leads to feelings of isolation. Almost 70% of employees report feeling lonely within their own team and struggling with feelings of anxiety and depression as a result. These feelings may lead them to become unhappy at work or even search for employment elsewhere. It is worth checking in on them and creating employee assistance programmes to help integration.
Not feeling involved in decisions
If you want happy employees, make sure they have a voice. The sense of control people feel over their own lives is one of the most important factors in well-being; research shows a strong correlation between having control over one’s life, job satisfaction, and overall happiness. In fact, studies show that decision power has twice as much an effect on job satisfaction than salary. If you want your employees to be happy at work, give them a say in what goes on.
Lack of career development opportunities
When employees feel like they aren’t moving forward in their careers, they start to lose engagement. When an employee has been at your company for a while, you have an opportunity to develop them by expanding their duties or giving them more responsibilities through appropriate training and learning chances.
Fearing Unfair Treatment
The ACAS code of practice lays down guidelines for handling issues such as disciplinary actions or grievances. The code highlights the guidelines for employment tribunals. Therefore, if a business has a disciplinary issue with an employee, it’s advisable to follow the code of practice to prevent legal repercussions. Employees may be entitled to compensation if it is found that the business didn’t act according to the existing guidelines.
More importantly, even with compensation, a former employee may still complain openly about the business. Similarly, the remaining team may also be affected by the situation.
Lack of quality leadership
A lot of people end up quitting due to a lack of leadership. Managers that aren’t approachable, or simply don’t listen, often put their employees off. A lot of leaders in business are poor listeners, and even when they do listen, they don’t seem like they care about what employees have to say. This discourages employees from working hard and giving their all when helping out at work. Employees are more likely to quit when they feel the lack of listening skills affects the overall leadership. Indeed, a leader must first connect with the team to provide effective and relevant guidance. If you can’t listen, you are not a leader.
Employees may not all complain openly, but they are quick to act on their displeasure by resigning, becoming disengaged, or even suing the business. Creating paths to capture complaints and connect with your team can help fuel business growth.
