Opening the door to productive interactions among employees

I heard a knock on the wooden panel, and looked up from the email I was drafting, to see a young lady standing hesitantly at the door. She looked vaguely familiar — I thought I had seen her working on the same floor as I did. I looked at her inquiringly. “I’d like to have an open door meeting with you,” she requested politely. She had spoken the magic words — all my attention was centered on her now. I motioned her in and asked her to sit down. But she continued to stand. “This may take some time,” she said, in a slightly apologetic tone. “Is this a good time or should I come later?” I did have a meeting with my leader in the next 15 minutes, so I looked for a free slot in my calendar in the afternoon and scheduled a meeting. She thanked me and left the room. The MNC I worked at actively encouraged employees to avail the Open Door Policy. According to this, any employee of the organisation could have access to any leader in the organisation, even if there was no reporting relationship. An employee could request for an open door meeting with any leader with whom he or she felt comfortable to approach, and voice any concern or suggestion, with complete confidence that he/she would be listened to with respect and without any fear of retribution. It was also emphasised to the leaders that open door concerns/suggestions must be taken to closure — it could never be a case of “out of sight, out of mind”. As I came to the end of the status review meeting with my leader that morning, I touched upon the request for open door session that I had received, just a short time back. Both of us went through a quick re-cap of the Dos and Don’ts for the session, so that I did not miss anything vital. This is what we summed up. Dos: Put the employee at ease Tell the employee that the discussion would be documented Communicate that the discussion would not be kept confidential, it would be shared with HR and other relevant stakeholders as required, to take the concern/ suggestion to closure Assure him/ her that you would get back with steps taken for closure within the stipulated time period Assure him/ her that they need not fear retribution from any quarter in the organisation Don’ts Do not make commitments or promises about the final solution Do not give the employee reason to feel that you think his concern/ suggestion is unimportant or irrelevant Do not delay in taking the next steps, however busy you may be I did have my scheduled meeting with the young lady and we spent nearly 40 minutes discussing her concern. I documented the discussion and submitted it to HR. The nature of the concern required the involvement of other leaders and so there were several rounds of discussions before we arrived at the next steps. I went back to her with the proposed action plan — the solution was not exactly what she had hoped for, but it was very clear to her that her concern had been dealt with in an unbiased manner, and also in line with the organisation’s policies. She accepted this with good grace and we agreed that we would consider the matter closed. In the case of this organisation, Open Door Policy was implemented in letter and spirit. When people moved to leadership roles, they were coached on how open door cases need to be handled. Today, open door culture exists in several organisations, where employees are encouraged to reach out to leaders to foster communication and goodwill between employees and management. However, when this is not backed by an explicit process or guidelines, related concerns cannot be handled in an objective and consistent manner. By having such a policy, an organisation is making a statement that this is not an idea that is just encouraged in theory, but rather is inter-woven into the organisational culture and practised in an effective manner.