All employees should have the right to express their thoughts and ideas about the management processes, thus contributing to the development of the company. This model is characterized by a method of feedback and interaction between an employer and an employee called an employee voice (Rucket al., 2017). It allows for improving the corporate culture based on regular surveys of the company’s management and strengthens its competitive advantage (Budd, 2021). Employees should be encouraged to express their thoughts to not only increase the productivity of the enterprise but also demonstrate their significance. This paper aims at analyzing the reasons why Human Resource managers might want to develop a strategy for creating employee voice on the example of the direct employee voice mechanism.
This mechanism implies direct interaction between an employer and a worker. Interpersonal communication is the most common channel for an employee’s voice. Follow-up and accountability should ensure that the employee’s feedback is taken into account. For example, the company can organize monthly interpersonal meetings which are the best tools to get to know the employee (Elsetouhi et al., 2018). In a private conversation, the workers can easily voice their concerns. The enterprise should also conduct surveys to give employees the possibility to express their thoughts. Human Resource Management may also collect anonymous suggestions to make the work more effective.
Trends in the modern labor market are contradictory: some of the changes, for example, the spread of remote employment or impersonal digital regulation of processes do not contribute to the employee voice being heard. This factor worries Human Resource managers who are aware that outstanding results are achieved only with the maximum involvement of the employees which is impossible without the employee voice (Elsetouhi et al., 2018). However, all the employees, even those who work remotely, should feel that they have a voice and they can express what is on their minds.
In the strategy of direct formal employee voice, the employee’s perspective is reflected. It is the primary approach to studying the staff’s responses to existing expression systems and their main implications (Holland et al., 2017). Giving the workers the ability to feel free to voice their opinions, share ideas, and be heard by management creates the necessary prerequisites for the overall success of the entire organization (Budd, 2021). Each employee should have a voice and help find solutions to problem situations. Studies have shown that the method of direct employee voice can increase creativity, reduce staff turnover, and improve the organizational performance of the enterprise. Moreover, it can benefit workers by giving them the opportunity to improve their work conditions.
Another mechanism that allows effectively solving the issues and achieving success in personnel management is the analysis of problem situations. Establishing a trusting contact with an employee, diagnosing, and studying the situation is important (Holland et al., 2017). Human Resource managers together with the employees should analyze the problem situation, find out what happened, what actions were carried out, what issues arose, what worked, and what did not. The staff members should provide the employer with their vision of the situation, and express their ideas, opinions, or proposals regarding the problem (Robinson & Shuck, 2019). They should try to identify the benefits of the solutions together. As practice shows, the more methods of the employee voice the employer has, the more effectively the work of the staff is built.
Employee voice is a fundamental human right that implies equality of all people within the organization in respect of dignity so that they are treated fairly and equally. Human rights are the inalienable property of all people, without distinction of any kind based on race, color, sex, language, religion, national or social origin, or any other aspect (Robinson & Shuck, 2019). They include the right to life and liberty, freedom from slavery and torture, freedom of opinion and expression, the right to work and education, and many others. All people must have fundamental human rights, without any discrimination (Rucket al., 2017). Employee voice is one of these right that ensures freedom of opinion. Today, many organizations make significant efforts to obtain feedback from their employees. Without this valuable insight, it would be difficult to develop an effective strategy to improve employee engagement and retention.
The employee voice must sound for the mutual benefit of the organization and the staff. To achieve this, the culture of leadership and the professionalism of Human Resource managers are necessary. The corporate culture and work environment must build confidence in people that speaking their minds cannot harm their career and position in the organization. The role of managers is to ensure that internal policies, business processes, and cultural values provide employees with a voice in decisions that affect their performance. If they want to get outstanding results from the employees, then they need to involve them in making key decisions. This means that people should have an unconditional right to voice, the ability to safely and comfortably express their opinion about the activities of the organization and their interests.
References
Budd, J. W. (2021). Labor relations: Striking a balance (6th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Irwin.
Elsetouhi, A. M., Hammad, A. A., Nagm, A. E. A., & Elbaz, A. M. (2018). Perceived leader behavioral integrity and employee voice in SMEs travel agents: The mediating role of empowering leader behaviors. Tourism Management, 65, 100-115.
Holland, P., Cooper, B., & Sheehan, C. (2017). Employee voice, supervisor support, and engagement: The mediating role of trust. Human Resource Management, 56(6), 915-929.
Robinson, R., & Shuck, B. (2019). A penny for your thoughts: Exploring experiences of engagement, voice, and silence. Journal of Organizational Psychology, 19(4), 121-135.
Ruck, K., Welch, M., & Menara, B. (2017). Employee voice: an antecedent to organizational engagement?. Public Relations Review, 43(5), 904-914.