Your Approachability Policy
approachability culture employee engagement employee recgonition follow-up management manufacturing supervisor leadership open-door policy problem solving problems progress
Almost every company has an open-door policy. In theory, this policy allows employees to access company managers in order to openly discuss all and any workplace topics. Topics are deemed important by the company's employees.
An open-door policy is foundational to employee engagement and empowerment. It demonstrates good teamwork. It tears down the wall between managers and workers by creating a culture that says, “we’re all in this together” or “your problem is my problem”. The idea is that if a worker has a problem, management can be informed and hence participate together with the employee in solving that problem.
The fact that this policy is in affect in almost every US company, demonstrates how far we’ve come from the days of the industrial revolution and theory-x managers. As a long-time manager, I’ve seen how effective an open-door policy can be. As a manufacturing manager, I know that operators have firsthand knowledge of operational problems and as a manager accountable for plant results, knowing the operational problems is an important first step in correcting the plant issues.
An effective open-door policy can be the cornerstone of problem-solving, culture, engagement, teamwork, continuous improvement and morale.
Having an open-door policy is only the beginning of the story though. Like any policy, it needs to be enforced. Wait, what? Open-door policy enforcement? Well, whenever a policy is created, it is useless without enforcement. Regarding your open-door policy, every individual manager needs to adopt it and they do this by being approachable and committing to follow-up. When you have an open-door policy, Managers need to follow-up on every issue that employees present to them. Or it is like not having a policy at all.
First, an open-door policy is worthless if managers are perceived as being unapproachable. I mean it is one thing to publish an open-door policy, but if the managers’ body language, demeanor and unfriendliness say, “the door is closed!”, then employees aren’t going to engage in worker-manager conversation about workplace issues. When a manager has a closed-door demeanor, they are slamming the door closed on progress too.
Second, managers need to take notes during these worker-manager conversations too. Then managers need to develop action plans to correct the discussed issues. And lastly, they need to commit to following-up with the employees after their meetings. Although managers can’t correct, improve or change every situation, it is critical that managers let the employee know what they can do and what they can’t do and explain why. When managers fail to follow-up with employees, then employees see the open-door policy as ineffective and worthless, and they won’t use it as a vehicle to solve workplace problems.
An open-door policy is only effective when managers are approachable and commit to follow-up. Open the door to employees and open the door to progress!
Stay connected with news and updates!
If you want some weekly T4T wisdom coming straight to your inbox for your reading pleasure - look no further! Join our mailing list to receive the latest blogs and updates.
Don't worry, your information will not be shared.
We hate SPAM. We will never sell your information, for any reason.
CATEGORIES
All Categories 5s 5s standardize 5s sustain 6m's accomplishment accountability accuracy action action plans actions ada addiction addiction help adverserial affordable agenda alcohol alcoholism amazon american disabilities act anderson-darling approachability art artisan assembly assembly line assessment assignments attention to details attribute gage r&r auto industry auto manufacturing auto production automobile manufacturing average avoidance best practices big bend black belt boss boulder city bourbon trail business business case business model business proposals candidate experience candidates capability study capital cargo cash flow cell design cememt central limit theorem central tendancy ceo certification certification training challenges change change management changeover reduction chaos child labor ci cnc cnc programming cogs communication communitiy company compassion compitition concrete conducting interviews conflict conflict management consistency construction consumption continuous improvement corrective action correlation analysis cost savings costs course cp cp and cpk cpk cross-functional cross-training cross-training matrix crude culture current state current state map customer customer satisfaction customer service customer value customers cv daily goals dallas dam data data collection data transformation debt-free decision maker defects demand department design design of experiment design review design reviews develop development dfm diet direct labor diversity documentation doe drilling driving results drug use duluth dumping e learn e-learning eap ebit effective effectiveness effectivity effects of change efficiency email empathy empirical rule employee employee assistance program employee development employee engagement employee recgonition employees encouragement enforcement engagement engineer engineering equipment exercise expectations expertise experts facilitate facilitator factories factory family life feedback financial fishing fixed mindset flexibility flexible follow-up ford forecast fossil fuels fred jones freightliners friendships frontline leaders fun gage r&r gasoline gemba general motors goals gold rush good conflict great lakes great teams gross margins gross profits growth growth mindset habits health healthy henry ford heritage hiring histogram history hoover dam housekeeping how to be a great teammate how to thrill customer human relations human resources hydro-electric hydro-electric power hypothesis testing ice breaker illinios river valley illinois illinois river immersion improve improvement industrial industrial engineering industrial heritage industrial heritgage industrial history industry industry 4.0 inequity injury prevention innovation inspection instructions integrity internal promotion interview questions interview skills interview tips interviewing inventory investment irresponsible jack daniels distillery tour job diversity job shops jobs kaizen kanban kappa kentucky knowledge lead leader leaders leadership leadership development leading lean lean champion lean culture lean implementation lean journey lean kickoff lean launch lean manufacturing lean pilot project lean six sigma lean strategy lean tools lean vision learn learning lifestyle logging logistics low prices lumber machine guarding machine speed machines maintenance making a pitch management management by walking around manager managers managing managing conflict managing the floor manpower manufacturing manufacturing leaders manufacturing leadership manufacturing plants manufacturing results manufacturing supervisor manufacturing supervisor leadership marfa material mbwa mean measurement meditation meeting meetings mental health methods midland milk run mindset minnesota model-t mother nature muda multivariant analysis national park nature new products night shift nimble business normal distribution normality test office oil ojt okc oklahoma on line courses on-site factories on-time delivery onboarding one-on-one online open-door operational excellence operators opex ore organization otd output overhead ownership p-value packaging packaging material partner partnering partnership partnerships pdca pdca cycle peers performance performance management performance patterns performance review perimian basis personal accountability personal growth personal grwoth personality petroleum pikes place pitch plan planner planning plant plant costs plastics point of use poka-yoke policy portland cement positive feedback pou power plant pp ppk praise presentation presentation anxiety presentations prices prime costs principles printing private label problem solving problems procedure procedures process process capability process center process controls process engineer process management process variation product development product testing production production flow production supervisor productive conflict productivity products professionalism profit profits profressional development progress project project management projections projects promoted props provide qualifies quality quality control quality tool quick changeover r&d range rapid changeover recognition recognize recruiting recycling red tag referals refinery reliability reputation resolving conflict respect responsibility responsible results resume resume screening resumes revenue rewards rigs roi rolling-5 rolling-5 action plans roots routine safety safety incentives sales sales tips sampling science screening screening applicants seattle self-promotion selling service set in order set-in-order set-up reduction shadow board shareholder shine shipping shopfloor single minute of exchange of die single-piece six-sigma skills sleep slideshow sme smed social life sort specifications specs speed to market staffing staffing model standard cost standard deviation standardize starved rock state-of-the-art statistics steel steel fabrication steel industry stress stress management strong leader success supervision supervisor supervisor development supervisor leadership supervisors supervsior supplier supply chain sustain systems t-test tactical takt teaching team team work team-based teammate teams teamwork technical tennesse whiskey tennessee texas the great depression the hoover dam the normal distribution curve timber time management time-series tools tourism toyota production system tpm tps training training methods travel troubleshooting trust turn around two sample t-test types of change understanding vacation validation value value stream value stream map value-driven values variance variances variation velocity vendor managed inventory video violations visual factory vmi voc volunteering vsm war on waste washington waste waste reduction waterway wellbeing work instructions work rules workforce workplace workplace conflict