Freedom, Liberty and Better Vending Machines - News Review

The opportunity to vote - employee advantage for nightmare?

In a season of television ads ensuring we exercise our right to vote, a new type of voting is beginning to appear in the business environment.  No, employees are not telling their employers what political candidate they find the most appealing, they are deciding workplace solutions with the democratic process.  In an article published in the Wall Street Journal, Workplace Democracy Catches On, we find that many employers are finding ways to engage employees by asking them to vote on items from important to trivial matters.  Most employees have never had the opportunity to voice their opinion on many of these items and find both positives and negatives with the voting process.  Questions about better vending machines, whether to play music in the common area to having a holiday party are now being directed to the employees for their vote.

The articles author, Rachel Emma Silverman, shares a few companies where this ‘workplace democracy’ has caught on.  These companies include, InContext, Whole Foods Market Inc., and MediaMath Inc.  Using “digital survey tools like TinyPulse and Know You Company enable more companies to give their staff a voice in running the workplace” Silverman (2016).  Mackenzie Siren, a manager at InContext, said, “People feel like they have a real voice” as decisions were made whether to have cubicles or open tables, standing desks and which type of coffee to brew.

This new type of employee engagement appears to be beneficial.  Providing employees an opportunity to voice their opinion on a variety of issues helps to create loyalty to the company.  When employees have a say in something, even if their individual decision is not the one picked, they are more likely to be engaged in the outcome.  Having an opportunity to have a ‘say’ is new for most employees and can be very beneficial in employee morale and engagement. 

Will all employee engage in the democratic voting process for their workplace?  Those companies that have instituted employee democracy have found that there are some negatives.  Sure, voter fatigue plays a part.  Employees can feel questions can be too cumbersome and may feel indifferent to the question or cause.  In addition, if the weight of the question is significant, employees may shy away from casting their vote.  An example of this is hiring a new CEO.  But the biggest impact, good or bad, comes from management's attitude toward the voting process.  If managers discredit the voting process, employees are less likely to play a role and the opposite is true, managers who encourage employees to voice their opinion find a higher percentage of those who vote.  

Employee voting = management nightmare?  Offering workplace democracy causes many HR professionals to cringe.  Sure, they will all say that they want employee engagement, but most dread hearing the negative.  In addition, management often will cite worries about handing over decision making to the average employee.  Sure, most  managers are control freaks - and the idea of giving away some control is a frightening concept.  The possibility of giving employees decision making opportunities that can affect what management does, even small issues, turn into a horrendous process?  Turns out, the answer is no - employee engagement makes for a better workplace environment and better managers!

The decision to integrate a workplace democracy is a new, interesting management tool that every business could benefit from, IF managed correctly.  Managers and top executives must decide what type of decisions they will empower the employees with.  Choosing the next CEO or choosing the snacks in the break room offer a vast difference in employee democratic power, although both can have a positive effect for the employees.  An example shared in the article comes from 1Sale.com.  The employees were asked whether the company should continue serving free lunch or apply the lunch costs to lowering their health insurance premiums.  A resounding 90% of employees chose to have lower health insurance premiums.  This decision did not cost the company any additional money but they received employee buy-in on the most beneficial way to spend the money for the employees. 

Asking for employee engagement offer a new level of empowerment for the employee and the managers.  When the managers know the direction that employees want to go, managers have a better ability to accomplish goals.  In addition, with employee engagement, it’s much harder for employees to complain about decisions.  Engagement helps create feelings of unity and also brings awareness to workplace benefits and concerns.  Now, employees are part of the process, which makes for an ideal environment for success.