AC 3.3 Processes for Consulting and Engaging with Internal Customers to Understand their Needs

Employees form an organisation’s database of internal customers and an institution’s treatment of them constructs the entire human resource output. At the foundation of active engagement with internal customers is the need to invest in clarified communication systems. Many facilities fail at the point of timely information sharing especially at the point of feedback. Active feedback illustrates engaged working environments and amplifies the trust that employees have with the organisation. An employee seeking clarification on a promotion issue can feel disengaged should the HR office or top management fail to activate strong feedback channels. Going forward, the affected employee can qualify the institution as disinterested in him/her leading to sharp declines in motivation levels. The active communication structure should be replicated across all collaborative assignments and common obligations.

Investment in employee training rises as a central theme in enhancing close consultation and engagement with internal customers. An environment that consistently places efforts on employee development creates time to understand their needs through training. The training sessions form opportunities of professional interactions and can have employees open share on the challenges they face at the workplace. The organization can construct journey maps to analyse employee trajectory. This process allows top executives a chance of understanding the process undertaken by internal customers for the entire time they have worked for the company. The journey map can point out to instances when output consistency changed or highlight instances of exceptional performance. Results from the mapping exercise can create room for changes in consulting and engagement approaches with the employees. The entire foundation behind consulting and engaging with internal customers is to create a workplace that is visibly sensitive to employees’ needs.