"Openness in decision-making creates a sense of belonging"

Create an environment of trust and respect: This is the founding stone for an entrepreneurial culture. A high degree of trust ensures that employees contribute ideas for improvement and put the organisation’s interest ahead of their own. This deep trust also creates mutual respect among employees and management and motivates employees to achieve organisation goals.

Communicate incessantly: The only way to get all the employees on the same page regarding the future of the organisation is to relentlessly communicate these issues down the hierarchical ladder. Similarly, since the employees are the frontline representatives of the organisation interacting directly with the customers, their suggestions and feedback are invaluable to enhance customer satisfaction.  

Ensure transparency: Openness in decision making helps the employees feel connected to the ‘big picture’ and creates a sense of belonging. It gets all stakeholders working towards the same goals creating organisational consistency and stability with faster and more efficient execution of organisational strategies.

Empower employees: This essentially translates to two-way accountability between the employee and the various enabling functions in the organisation. The enabling functions such as HR and finance have enormous power with them. By making them accountable to the employees, the most pressing issues of the most number of employees get addressed quickly increasing employee satisfaction.  

Take timeout: Burnout is very common in organisations where employees are routinely required to put in long hours. Initiatives such as company off-sites, family picnics, offering health insurance for employees and their families boost employee morale. In the end, a happy, personally fulfilled employee is an engaged employee.