Studies have shown that employees experience more depression and fatigue when working in a toxic environment, i.e., breeds unrest, competition, low morale, constant stressors, negativity, sickness, and incessant nagging from the higher-ups.

In light of this information, managers are tasked with actively planning and executing activities that promote bonding within the environment. This not only creates a healthy relationship between managers and employees but also boosts productivity.

Unfortunately, many managers do not realize that their workers are unmotivated, uninspired, dissatisfied, or even experiencing fatigue. Focus is mainly on work output while they neglect other important aspects.

Most times, this negligence results in toxic workplace culture. As a manager, you must employ tactics to establish a strong bond between you and your employees. Here, I will reveal simple and actionable strategies to improve manager and employee relationships and bring positivity to your work environment.

What is a Manager-Employee Relationship?

According to Business.com, a manager-employee relationship describes an organization’s constant effort to engage its employees through strategies that help maintain open communication in the workplace and promote togetherness.

Positive manager-employee relationships in the workplace encourage productivity and cooperation among workers. Thus, a mutual level of respect between a manager and an employee brings more willingness from both sides to offer support and perform better.

A manager-employee relationship is not necessarily a friendship. It is only an avenue for building strong connections with the team you work with and allows trust and bond to grow stronger. As an employer, the ability to detect your employee’s feelings comes from constant communication with them. It allows you to see things from a different perspective, especially policies and actions that will benefit the company.

Why is a Manager-Employee Relationship Important?

A Manager-Employee relationship is significant to the growth of any organization. Here are more reasons why you should adopt this method in your management positions:

1. Engagement: Manager-Employee relationships foster employee engagement in an organization. Workers are willing to be more engaged and involved with the organization because they feel it has become a part of them and its growth is now their concern. Employees will move from just doing their jobs to striving for growth.
2. Satisfaction: Many employers don’t understand the importance of employee satisfaction. Workers’ satisfaction must also be met for them to give their best. This will eliminate all forms of nonchalance among workers.
3. Productivity: An excellent manager-employee relationship guarantees productivity in an organization. When there is bonding in an organization, the employer handles his managerial and administrative functions correctly, while the workers take care of the labor aspect. This way, the front office is syncing with the staff, and everyone is striving for a common goal.
4. Empowerment: The relationship is vital for employee empowerment as well. Workers have the opportunity of studying their employers and learning from them when a healthy relationship exists. In the coming years, they are also empowered to take up managerial roles after learning at the job.
5. Retention: Employees don’t leave organizations that help them grow. Building a solid relationship with these workers will keep the best hands in the organization, and you can trust that productivity is guaranteed.

5 Strategies to Improve Manager-Employee Relationships

If you are wondering how to make a manager-employee relationship work, here are some practical strategies that you can employ to boost a healthy manager-employee relationship:

1. Good Feedback Method
   Ensure that an effective feedback mechanism is put in place. Provide a listening ear to your employees because it boosts their advocacy and reflects their views.
2. Conflict Resolution
   Provide methods for resolving conflicts and disputes in the organization. Having an excellent human resource management team is a step in achieving this; when your workers see your judgment to solve disputes impartially, the trust increases.
3. Provide Career Development Programs
   Providing your employees with career development programs will help build the right relationship with them. Through this, your workers are convinced that you are serious about helping them grow and become more qualified in their respective fields. These programs usually include leadership courses, certification programs, skill acquisitions, and so on.
4. Leisure Activities
   When you celebrate leisure events like birthdays, holidays, office parties, dinners, picnics, allow your employees to see you in an unprofessional setting. Here, communication barriers are broken, and your employees are free to discuss important and personal matters with you in a relaxed atmosphere.
5. Encourage Hard Work
   Always praise your employees for exceptional achievements in your organization. This could come with unexpected gifts and rewards. Using this strategy will encourage others to put more effort into productivity.

In all, a good workplace can only be achieved when the employers and employees strive to achieve the common growth of the organization. A healthy relationship between a manager and the employees promotes a cheerful ambiance at the workplace. This makes workers feel happy and satisfied at work. And also caused them to look forward to going to the office every day to help achieve the organization’s goals.

Written by Tony M Fountain.

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