How to Know Your Employees? – Tips for Managers to Know their Team Members

Managers need to know their employees for them to feel valued and indispensable for the organization. Even the best of salaries and facilities would not help you retain your employees, if you do not appreciate and acknowledge their hard work. You need to know your employees’ well - their capabilities, skill sets, expertise and also their weak spots, career goals, growth plans and so on. Find out what motivates them and what makes them unhappy.

Let us go through various ways which help managers know their team members.

Encourage healthy communication at workplace. Every employee irrespective of his /her designation and level in the hierarchy should have the liberty to express his/her views and opinions. Let individuals interact with each other and come up with their problems as well as innovative ideas which would not only increase their productivity but also benefit the organization. Managers need to communicate with the team members to make them feel comfortable and important at the workplace.

Interacting with employees will help you know many things about an individual which you would never come to know if you maintain a distance from him/her. If you do not speak to them, they would never come to you with their problems and eventually lose interest in work. Call employees together on a common platform to brainstorm ideas or discuss major issues.

Merely addressing a single individual every time might make the other team members feel ignored and left out. Office is not a place where you can favour someone just because he is your friend or relative.

Managers ought to be approachable. It is essential to connect with your employees. Have lunch with them or go out for picnics or parties with your subordinates once in a while. Encourage employees to celebrate important festivals at workplace. Such activities bring individuals not only from a single team but all other departments closer to each other.

Stand by your team and support them whenever they need your assistance. Once in a while, sit with them at their workstations and find out how they have planned their day or month, how would they achieve their targets, what all assistance they need from your end? and what all is going on in their personal lives?

Managers or team leaders should not only depend on human resource professionals to recruit new talent. Make sure to meet the new individual once before releasing the final offer letter. Do not ask your favourite employee to explain the new member his/her job responsibilities. Remember, as a manager, you are face of your team. Do make it a point to sit with the new member and induct him/her into the organization. Find out how the new employee can make a difference to your team and organization on the whole.

Employees expect your handholding and guidance always. Greet them with a smile. Wish them on their birthdays or anniversaries. Save their contact numbers and also put a reminder in your mobile so that you do not forget their special days. Believe me, a message from a manager to his team members will make their day even more special.

Review their work on a regular basis. It helps you know what employees are up to and in which all areas they need your guidance? Managers need to understand their team members beyond their work.