How do you Effectively Engage with your People?

04 May 2020

The people section of the ISO 9001:2015 is termed ‘support’ and it is a two way street, you support employees to become the best they can be and in turn they can support your business more effectively.

When we visit your business we ask how competence is measured and monitored, this is the wording the Standard uses. The word competence has several different meanings; the pertinent definition to us is the ability to do something successfully or efficiently. A business competence is a set of abilities and knowledge which sets the business aside from competitors, it follows that the more competent your people are the more business competence will organically develop.

Training

Some professions require specific qualifications and continued training which can be evidenced by certificates of cards issued with expiry dates and these all come with financial cost. The benefits are that your staff are safer because they are refreshing the focus through training, improving, and compliant.

Your quality management system is a long term investment which promotes improvement and you may consider adding an annual training on ISO 9001:2015 to your training calendar for staff.

There are many studies which have been undertaken which prove that training makes people feel more valued, increases staff retention, and improves business intelligence amongst the organisation.

Training brings people together and also acts as a reset button mentally helping people feel more energised and focused about their work, it’s important to remember why you have your quality system, what do you want to achieve?

You can retain attendance sheets and material used in the session to evidence the continued measure of competence and awareness of your system; this is also a good opportunity for effective communication.

Communication

There are more platforms than ever before to communicate on, post, email, text, apps, phones, live streaming and good old face to face to name a few. The challenge is ensuring that the communications delivered are effective. A core purpose of communicating well and often is to build trust and confidence with the team, encourage teamwork, and ultimately improve productivity.

Studies have looked in depth at communication and there are theoretical models on how to communicate with different audiences, here are few ideas to ensure your communication is effective called the 7 C’s;

Concrete

You have a concrete message to convey, it is important that you have information to back up what you are telling people such as data, previously worked scenario’s anything that does not allow the audiences mind to wander.

Coherent

The communication should be planned and flow to ensure the message you are relaying is what the audience comes away with.

Clarity

Your audience shouldn’t leave making assumptions about what the message was it should be crystal clear, check this has been achieved.

Commitment

By showing a dedication and commitment to what you are saying you will motivate people to join you.

Completeness

It is best (but hard) to never leave a sentence unfinished, a logical conclusion to each part of what you are saying is vital.

Courteous

It is important to be polite, open and impart respect to those who you are trying to communicate with, by all means be light hearted if appropriate but don’t let this take over the message.

As always if you have any questions regarding this topic or any other feel free to get in touch with us here.