Does your team and/or coworkers know they are important to the organization?

How do they know they are important?

Did someone tell them? Or…do they just “know” they are? Maybe a combo of both perhaps?

Regardless of how, if you /your team / your coworkers feel important to your organization, someone is doing something right.

Take a look at this ‘welcome’ letter that’s reportedly given to Apple employees on their first day:

HT: http://www.rescuemarketing.com/blog/2012/05/08/swim-in-the-deep-end/

Whether that is a real letter or not is beside the point.  What’s important is some of the content within that letter.

Take a look at the line that states “They want their work to add up to something.” That’s big.

Imagine getting a letter like this on your first day at work.  Heck…imagine getting it after you’ve been working at your job for 10 years.  When you get this message isn’t as important as getting it.

Messaging like this tells you that you are important.  It tells you that you haven’t already been marginalized by the ‘organization’.  It tells you that someone, somewhere cares.

Most organizations don’t take this approach.

Most places on-board employees using a process designed to get that employee into the ‘system’ and get all the proper paperwork signed.  Then…they put them in a cube and start throwing work at them.

The really good managers / organizations then take time to understand their employees needs and aspirations. They try to help their employees grow. They care about their people.

Others…don’t.

The poor managers / organizations marginalize their employees by forgetting that these people have aspirations beyond doing the job they are stuck in today. These poor managers / organizations use their employees without really giving any thought to whether their happy and/or whether they could do more for the organization.

I’m not asking for utopia here. I’m not saying put your employees above profits or performance of the company. But…spend a few minutes thinking about how you can improve your team’s (or your own) opportunities.

By ignoring the aspirations you are marginalizing your team. You create an environment where people feel stuck and unappreciated.  You are marginalizing your team.

Stop doing that.