What do your employees want from you? As with any relationship, they want respect, appreciation and honest communication, say respondents to LMT’s Employee Satisfaction Survey (January 1997).

They also want an organized, comfortable, efficient workplace and to feel that they are members of a team with the opportunity for career advancement and financial security.

The majority of employee-respondents describe their supervisor as a “democratic leader” who motivates them, has a positive effect on their ability to do their jobs and shows an interest in their career advancement. However, a number of respondents—even those who praise their managers—offer suggestions for ways to improve the employee/employer relationship. They would like:

• Less “us-versus-them” mentality between management and employees and between departments.
• More communication on the laboratory’s goals and the lab’s progress—as well as their personal progress—toward those goals.
• Greater communication about the employer’s expectations of product quality and productivity levels. Many feel that either they don’t have a clear sense of quality or that all employees don’t share that definition of quality.
• To have a voice in the company and to have their ideas taken seriously by management.
• To receive greater acknowledgement for a job well done.
• More consistency in their supervisor’s attitudes and actions. Not knowing how a supervisor will react in situations, contradictory attitudes, poor business decisions, no set policies or frequent policy changes and lack of structured routine make the work environment more difficult.