EmPlOyEe CoMuNiCaTiOn...

Employee participation is the idea of employees being more hands on in an organisation it involves for them to be more aware of what is going on in the organisation and to take part in the decision making, in order for them to aid in taking the organisation that one step higher, and further into success.

‘Employee participation is the process whereby employees are involved in decision making processes, rather than simply acting on orders. Employee participation is part of a process of empowerment in the workplace.

Empowerment involves decentralising power within the organisation to individual decision makers further down the line. Team working is a key part of the empowerment process. Team members are encouraged to make decisions for themselves in line with guidelines and frameworks established in self managing teams.’

 http://www.thetimes100.co.uk/theory/theory--employee-participation--310.php#ixzz1M0k2ox3v

Employee participation is the process that the theorist Frederick Taylor would strongly disagree to as his proposed work/theory intended that mangers are the only people who have the authority to make decisions and employees should just follow whatever has been decided by managers. He believed in no participation or involvement by employees in regards to deciding anything for the organisation.  He strongly believed that this was the only way to a business’s success, however this cannot be the case in tidays day and age as employees are the assets of an organisation and it is them who make or break the business alongside the fact that people are more educated today than they were when Taylors work was proposed and employees had very little value in organisations.

Employee involvement however is the way individuals are managed in an organisation and how they react upon things, it is highly based upon the impact decisions and certain actions have upon the workforce. The involvement process consists of how the employees get involved and their reactions in regards to the decisions and action implemented upon them.

‘Employee involvement is creating an environment in which people have an impact on decisions and actions that affect their jobs.
Employee involvement is not the goal nor is it a tool, as practiced in many organizations. Rather, it is a management and leadership philosophy about how people are most enabled to contribute to continuous improvement and the ongoing success of their work organization.’
http://humanresources.about.com/od/glossarye/a/employee_inv.htm
There are a number of ways in which organisations can involve their employees in decision making, some of which are very straight forward, such as having a decision poll put up on the staff room every time there is a new decision intending to be implemented within a workforce. Another way would be to encourage employees in making changes by having a suggestion box put into the staff room once again encourage employees to suggest any suggestions. Surveys can be drawn up alongside questionnaires and employees views and opinions can be taken into consideration as to whether they are for or against the intended implementation of the decision. Organising and holding up meetings alongside focus groups and managers infirming employees in changed and asking them on their input and views is another great way of getting employees involved and making them feel valued.
Social networking sites are starting to become more and more popular day by day; they are being used by many different companies such as Vodafone, vogue, ASOS, Nandos etc. It is an excellent way for companies to gain information in a both cost and time effective way, alongside this it also enables for the companies to market to consumers and allow consumers to have discussion on certain aspects of the company on their discussions board enabling for the company to inner view any views or thoughts that consumers have on the company. It is a fantastic technique that business can use to raise awareness of themselves or to allow their consumers for feedback. Some pages are simply created for work colleagues only which allows companies to contact people within an organisation if they need to set reminders or an announcement to a certain department everyone gets notified upon occurrence of any activity.