{Women} Voice Your Concerns

I am a woman. I have issues. I am also a professional, a partner to my husband and a mother to my daughter. I don't want to make sacrifices anywhere.

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​Serving as a woman in the military resulted in some awkward yet revealing circumstances for me: heads coming out of tanks to see the new "girl" maintenance officer, visiting an artillery company with no women's bathrooms, and an uncomfortable commander offering to make me coffee were just a few. 

"The blunt truth," Sheryl Sandberg wrote, "is that men still run the world." 

Recently, more companies are recognizing the value of women in the workplace. In an early 2013 article on Huffington Post, the author wrote, “History has proven that those companies that fully tap into the women in their workforce benefit from the diverse talents and perspectives they bring and are the most successful.” 

It’s true and while not enough companies are asking employees what they want to see in their workplace, some are. I'll be visiting a company this week to listen to employees on matters that concern workplace and company policies.

Here are a few articles I came across in preparation that I'd like to share with you:​

• Skills that Give Women a Sustainable Advantage Over Men
• Better Benefits Won't Create Employee Engagement
• What women really want in the workplace (and why men matter)​

I love that I get to do this because not only am I able to use my experiences to help others but because it makes me more effective in my role as an HR professional and leader.​

If I were visiting your company to gather workplace/company policy concerns, what would you want me to ask your staff?

Email and Employee Engagement

When we discuss factors impacting employee engagement, the manager-employee relationship always makes the list. Originally published in 2008, this post from the archives addresses an often overlooked element of day to day interactions.

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Managers can be a major source of dissatisfaction for employees. One thing a manager can do is make sure you're as nice in email as you are in person (click for link). 

• Respect the impact an email can have on an employee. When an employee sees an email from their boss, their blood pressure actually goes up (click for link), no matter what the content of the mail is. But, understandably, blood pressure went up even more when employees got angry emails from the boss, or emails from a boss they perceived to be unfair. If you get in the habit of sending little bombs throughout the day, you will create a truly deadly workplace.

• Be consistent. People read a lot into emails because the emails are devoid of the nonverbal cues we use to judge a message delivered in person. If you usually send very cordial ones, and then send a cold one, people who depend on you will spend hours analyzing it. The more consistent you are, the more people will focus on your content and stop wasting time trying to figure out subtext.

Managers, are you ready to fire off a strongly worded email, tip the balance of power in your favor and enjoy the illusion while it lasts?  Don't. Step away from the computer. I expect more from a leader in my organization and you should too.