In 2000 Helen Hunt starred against Mel Gibson in Nancy Meyer’s hit movie What Women Want.

The story sets up when Mel Gibson’s character Nick falls into the bath tub holding a hair drier, zapping him with a magical ability…

Suddenly he’s able to hear what women really think.

He’s a mind reader.

From the business boardroom to between the bedsheets, he quickly learns how his perception of the world is drastically different to that of his counterparts.

It’s awkward and uncomfortable and hilarious.

And for us running a business and managing teams… it’s insightful.

(Bet you never thought I’d be using a romantic comedy to teach HR!)

See, the underlying premise of the movie (which is also a reflection of society) is that we don’t know what other people are thinking.

We can’t walk a mile in their shoes, even if we wanted to.

And for the most part, people don’t have the ability to skilfully communicate what they want without getting tangled up in their own emotions.

“When dealing with people, remember you are not dealing with creatures of logic, but creatures of emotion” – Dale Carnegie, author of How To Win Friends and Influence People.

That’s why as business owners we need to rely on tools to gain a deep understanding of our employees…

What employees want

This month we’ve been focusing on employee retention strategies.

The truth is, keeping great employees is not much more complicated than finding out what your employees want, then giving it to them to the best of your ability.

The first step is to ask the right questions in the right way. 

That’s why my tool of the month has been the Employee Pulse Check template.

The Pulse Check is a framework to ask the right questions in a non-threatening way to give your employee’s the space to open up and be honest about what they want.

(Download it today while it’s still online and available). 

Below we’ll explore how to use the Employee Pulse Check to become an employee mind reader.

3 steps to run your Employee Pulse Check

Use this employee feedback template to learn what drives your staff. Follow these steps to take the pulse of your employees:

1. Set expectations: Let your team know early on that you expect regular and open feedback from them. Make sure they know their perspective is highly valued.
2. Do it regularly: At minimum you should request employee feedback once a year. Better if you can do it twice per year (try December and June). Consider adding measuring scales to each question to measure how responses change over time.
3. Take ACTION: You must, MUST take action on what you learn. Show that you respect and value their feedback by making changes where possible. If you can’t, be sure to clearly explain why.

Any questions?

If you have questions on this topic or any others, feel free to reach me by email or set up a free one-on-one consultation session, or drop me a comment below.
Thanks for sharing!