Mixed Messages in Employment Relationships. By Sam Flynn, Personnel Surveys

PR Log (Press Release) – Oct 22, 2009 – Mixed messages have to be the most annoying part of any relationship - saying one thing and doing another.  We’ve all been at the receiving end and spent many a sleepless night wondering what is going on!  Sometimes we come out the other side for the better, most of the time we come out of it stressed and heartbroken, with our positive view of relationships shattered.

So why should an employment relationship be any different?  

Every day we go to work we are part of a number of differing relationships – with our colleagues, with our manager, with our organisation.  These relationships hold similar bearings to those in our personal lives.  We have certain expectations from the relationship.  We want to be treated with respect, we want to be treated fairly, we want the relationship to be fun, we want it to be meaningful, we want it to be relaxing, we want it to be rewarding, and we want it to be centred round trust.  When the relationship doesn’t meet our expectations, we are left distraught, confused, angry, and lose our sense of trust.

Yet organisations often fail to forget that they have a vast number of relationships to manage and the mixed messages they send out are leading to exactly these feelings.  This could be as simple as a manager promising their team member time off and then taking this from them.  However, it can also be a much higher level mixed message, as the recent case of bank management bonuses has shown.  While the majority of people work to make ends meet during the downturn, UK banks have announced their city bonuses are to rise by 50%.  This is a huge mixed message that not only breaks down the relationship between these banks and their workers, but also between the banks and the general public.  Excessive bonuses have been cited as one of the contributing factors to the downturn.  So this news is surely a huge mixed message.  Certainly, angry responses to this news would suggest so!

So, what happens to our workforce when we are delivering mixed messages?  Low morale is certainly going to be the main symptom.  And where does low morale lead to?  Low performance and productivity, and high turnover and absence – exactly what companies are trying to avoid.  So the main advice for organisations has to be to avoid mixed messages at all costs.  If for some reason you cannot meet the expectations you promised your employees, explain to them in detail why this is the case.  Let them understand why this is occurring and compromise in other ways to maintain their trust.   The main factor has to always be communication.  Communicate everything you possibly can and for those you can’t, explain why you can’t communicate this.  This will instantly lead to less mixed messages within workplace relationships.

So what message can you take from this article?  Definitely not a mixed one!

Personnel Surveys can provide employee surveys measuring a variety of factors – not least communication and relationships within the workplace!  Take a look at our website, www.personnelsurveys.co.uk, for more information.