Employee Forums

If you suspect that morale is suffering and you have only a few employees, a written survey may make employees feel more comfortable, but it certainly won't make their comments anonymous.

Instead, you may want to arrange an individual meeting with each employee, or a group meeting at which everyone can express their concerns. If the problem lies with a particular employee, individual meetings may be most appropriate.

However, remember that employees may not feel free to speak to you or in front of other employees. You should try to make it clear that you value them enough to try to get this information, and that you are not going to hold it against them if they criticize something about their jobs.

Setting up and conducting meetings. Here are some steps to follow if you have these meetings:

• Tell employees in advance that you want to meet with them and tell them why (don't make it a cryptic secret either — you want them to be honest and candid, not scared to death). To be fair and credible, it's probably best to speak with each employee. Don't leave anyone out or prevent anyone from participating.
• Once in the meeting, stress that you want to keep the meeting casual and explain that you want to hear any criticism that employees may have. Keep the feeling relaxed. Consider serving refreshments.
• Have a list of questions to prompt employees in the event that they don't have anything to say. These types of meetings tend to start off slowly and pick up momentum as employees realize that you are open to feedback and suggestions.
• If it's a group meeting, make sure that everyone is heard from. Encourage people to raise their hands and not to interrupt each other if it appears that some employees aren't getting a chance to speak.
• If it's a group meeting, try to steer employees away from discussions about each other. You don't want the meeting to turn into Employee A's personal gripe session about what Employee B does wrong. If those types of topics come up, explain that you think that this issue deserves a discussion all its own, and follow up on it later.
• Stay focused on issues that you can control. If an employee complains about something that is not within your control, try to stress that you're looking for information to help you make changes to improve working conditions for employees.
• If employees don't have anything to say or seem ill-at-ease, conclude the session, and remind them that if they want to talk later or write down their thoughts, you will be happy to meet with them later or accept their memo. If you have a situation where many of your employees do not feel comfortable talking with you, you may need to take a closer look at your conduct as a boss.
• Be sure to take good notes and let employees know when they can expect some type of follow-up. If you're not sure, say so, but try to give some detail. If you ask for the information and do nothing with it, you will harm morale more than you help it.
• If an employee criticizes your performance as a leader, do not react harshly, defensively, or angrily. Accept the comments — especially since you asked for them — and hide any hurt feelings you may have. Any negative responses will inhibit employees, and you won't get the information that you want.
• Follow up and act on good suggestions, and be sure to thank the people who made them.

The Business Tools area contains a sample script for getting feedback that you can use in conducting these types of meetings. Use it to prepare for a meeting you might have or jot down parts of it on note cards to use during the meeting if you get stuck.