The Importance of Touching Base with your Employees

When you become a manager, there is a lot that is expected of you. You are expected to attend meetings, motivate and inspire, train, make decisions and so much more. With all of these expectations, when you actually have time to spend with your employees? That is the question that many managers have. Unfortunately, I do not have the answer, but I can share with you how touching base with your employees will save you time in the long run. Touching base with your employees to review projects and tasks that they are working on will increase morale, reduce duplication of efforts and increase efficiency.

It is likely that your employees will low morale if you do not touch base with them often. Touching base is an opportunity for your employees to learn your communication style which will have its benefits in the long run. Having employee’s that understand your communication style and preferences is imperative. It will have an impact on how they understand, approach and react to situations. For example, when I transferred to my department, my manager did not touch base with me. She immediately began assigning tasks and projects to me via email. Upon receipt of most of these emails, I had many follow-up questions, which made me feel confused and incompetent. She seemed unapproachable to me because she sent everything to me via email. Eventually, my morale was low. After two weeks, I requested to meet with her to discuss the projects that I have been working on. During that discussion, I learned a lot about her. From that one meeting, she not only reviewed her expectations, she also shared with me her communication preferences. Had we met early on, I wouldn’t have spent two weeks of walking around feeling confused and incompetent.

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...ated tasks and actions items. By doing so, we were all clear of our responsibilities, goals and her expectations. There were many instances where co-workers offered assistance to other co-workers when they had capacity, because they were aware of everyone’s progress.

As a manager, if you do not touch base with your employees frequently, it is likely that your organization will have low morale, duplication of efforts and lots of efficiencies. All of these variables will have a negative impact on your organizations productivity. You will lose time and money. Making time may be difficult, but you have to make it as a priority. Look at is as an investment. Cars last longer when you spend time and money on maintenance. Employees are the same way. If you invest your employees, it is likely that they will be happy, productive and stay with the organization longer.