Listening as a management tool

An article in today's issue of News.com.au discussed the need to find and keep great talent, and said companies are spending huge amounts of money on incentives that are not working, because they are not what employees value. Here's an extract:

"Sandy Hutchinson of Mercer Human Resource Consulting said research carried out by the company showed the incentives companies used to keep employees were totally out of sync with what workers valued most highly.

"The research, which included an in-depth survey of more than 3000 working people, found employees rated receiving respect their number one motivator at work. This was followed by flexible work arrangements. Base pay rated sixth, benefits eleventh and bonuses twelfth.

"Ms Hutchinson said it was time companies stopped wasting money and started listening to their employees.

"There is a strong link between communication and trust and commitment and productivity," Ms Hutchinson said. "Too often the incentives employees actually want are far less expensive to implement than the things companies are spending their money on." (Read more at
finance.news.com.au/story/0,10166,12514093-31037,00.html)

I've always regarded listening as the undervalued and underused communication skill. It's particularly important for managers, so I'll be doing some posts on the techniques of listening. Stay tuned --- and in the meantime feel free to comment on this or any other post you see on this blog.