The Need to Belong

I attended religious services last week and the religious leader made a comment that I've contemplated about all week...the need to belong, to be part of a community. He was speaking about belonging to a religious community of course but it made me look at other ways of belonging.

I've found that one of the surprising effects of being unemployed is the sense of isolation. Often you loose contact with your friends from work. Even if you do keep in contact there isn't the same feeling of shared experiences. You don't belong to the group anymore. I found the exception to this in the small town in Colorado where my daughter lives. There are a great many unemployed oil field workers there and they stay in close contact and support each other by having family picnics and camping and raft trips together and sharing employment news, as little news at it may be. They have the bond of a whole work force community being laid off. They belong.

How effective would it be for employer's to take the same approach? Make your employees feel like they belong to the big picture of the business's success. It's not that hard to do. You don't have to schedule picnics or raft trips to let your people know how important they are. No matter what the size or scope, a business is a community. Make your people feel like they belong, that they are crucial to your business's growth and prosperity. Give your employees the pride that comes with doing a job well and see how they respond. Start with weekly meetings, they don't have to be long affairs, more of a touching base kind of thing. Encourage ideas on how to improve a service or a product or anything. Name names..."John brought this idea up and I think it's one we can implement". Let people know that you value their time and creativity in making the business better. When you involve your employees in the business it creates a sense of accomplishment, a sense of belonging, and watch how pride in the company can make a difference.

As always, thanks for listening,
Lindy