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The most important benefit you can offer is the invitation to speak freely.
Years ago I nearly punted on my team's popular and longstanding PTO policy due to a complaint. The complaint made sense to me, and as a manager, I took pride in my ability to react sensitively to feedback, so I was eager to show that it would not fall on stony ground.
So, like all wise managers, I set out to fix what was clearly broken. Our CEO approved my new plan, and I drew up announcements. And I nearly botched it: my personal confidence in the new plan had grown to such a level that more feedback from others was only going to irritate me, so I determined not to solicit anyone else. (Not the only time I've done this!)
Well, today, I'm extraordinarily lucky and grateful that I changed my mind and asked a key employee her perspective on the new plan.
"What's wrong with our current policy?" she asked. "Is someone abusing it?"
"No! Nothing like that!" I said. "But we got some negative feedback," I explained.
"Why don't you ask the rest of the team for their perspectives?" she suggested.
So I did. I opened up in private with almost every member of my team. In short, the new plan had little support. Even the person who complained backed away from his feedback when it became clear to him that other plans were less flexible.
I learned an important lesson that day. No policy rises above all complaints. No benefit meets everyone's expectations all the time. But seeking open-ended feedback from colleagues revealed that what Banzai was already offering was extremely valuable.
Great things happen when you invite colleagues to share their thoughts about benefits freely:
In Part 2 of this series, and in an upcoming webinar, we'll discuss the most effective ways to solicit and collect feedback from employees, specifically: what they know about their benefits, how often they use them, and do they like them.
