Pulse Rates Matter

What is the first thing emergency room nurses and doctors do when a patient is brought in? They check their vital signs … Body temperature, Pulse rate, Blood pressure, and Respiration. While taking someone's vital signs (their BPBR) is not a perfect measure, it does give an instant overview of the person’s general health.

Associations, organizations and companies are no different; there are certain vital signs that indicate their overall health. If their vital signs (their BPBR’s) are poor, the company will not be performing at its optimum level. I like to look at it this way … poor vital signs (BPBR’s) in the business world means Bad Practices Bring Repercussions. I feel the most important vital sign of any organization is employee engagement. Employee engagement is the “PULSE” of any organization. Engaged employees are happy and productive … meaning they have a healthy pulse rate. On the other hand, upset, discontented, apathetic, disgruntled, (disengaged) employees are substantially less productive. Here is a scary statistic per a recent Gallup study; more than 50% of employees are disengaged. OUCH!

Identifying the “PULSE” of an organization is not as simple as having a nurse measure our own pulse rate. You can’t put two fingers on the wrist of an organization and in thirty seconds know their “Pulse Rate.” Several days before every presentation I deliver, I ask to speak to employees so I can get a better understanding of the inter-workings of the company. It is amazing what people will share with you when they know they won’t get in trouble for “speaking their mind.” I ask simple and short questions. After I get them comfortable with answering several questions and listen to whatever it is they want to share without me giving any challenging statements to their comments … I am then able to get valuable feedback when I ask questions like:

• Is there anything that frustrates you about working here?
• Is there any policy or procedure you hate, that makes no sense, or that you would change?
• If you were President of the company, what would you change about the company?
• If you could make changes about your job, what would you change?
• Do you feel management listens and reacts to your suggestions?

It is important to know these things because I need to be able to “ENGAGE” my audience. Therefore, I don’t want to make statements in my presentation that will be totally contrary to how my audience feels. I want to know their “PULSE,” so I can deliver a program that will be helpful for them.

You need to check the “PULSE” of your company often and you do that by checking the “PULSE” of your employees. It should be noted that employees seldom open-up and express their thoughts for fear of retribution, so the feedback must be done in an anonymous manner. There can NEVER be any way management can know who said what. When employees realize, they can “speak their mind,” you will be able to find the true “PULSE” of your company. It is simple for the nurse to check your pulse, the same should be true for any organization. I would suggest simple surveys, with questions that can be completed in less than 5 minutes, done often, with a random selection of employees. Remember, healthy companies are always CHECKING THEIR PULSE and then responding to their findings.

The manager who is more interested
in which employee said that,
rather than why they said that,
should not be in management.