Humanization at Work: A Sustainable Relationship Between People and Organisations

« Back to Articles

The humanization of organisations is an increasingly important trend and increasingly present in forward-thinking organisations, in line with market needs. Communication is one of the best ways to humanize an Organisation, as it connects people to a single goal.

The dictionary definition of Humanization is ‘to portray or endow with human characteristics or attributes; make human.’

Organisations are becoming increasingly dependent on communication to integrate their human capital and organise their flow of output. The growth of touchpoints between departments and job functions has, in many ways, been further accelerated by a rise in remote working. Yes, there is a lot of technology available to optimise our work, but at PushFar we believe that you will always need a team (of people and NOT robots) to take care of the important things.

You may be wondering, if technology is a more cost-effective way of processing, managing and developing a business, how focusing on people will help an organisation to grow and prosper. Well, the reasoning is simple, by encouraging the development of people, you create a more collaborative environment, where the connection with the purpose is present.

When the focus is only on financial return, no matter the overtime hours or working conditions, employee dissatisfaction and non-belonging impacts disengagement, low productivity, and customer dissatisfaction with service.

To circumvent loss of customers, suppliers and employee turnover, humanized management has emerged as an interesting and effective solution! But what exactly does this mean?

Principles of Humanization at Work

Below are four basic principles that guide the organisation’s performance, based on the model of humanization at work.

1. Principle of Security
When acting within this new management model, organisations must create working environments where people feel motivated and free from anxiety, fear of economic loss or the feeling that they could be replaced at any time. This environment must be safe, with good ergonomics and a great vibe. This helps employees feel free to express their skills and ideas, which ultimately lead to further product and organisational development.

2. Principle of Equity
There needs to be a fair and coherent way of assessing the conditions of employees, as well as valuing equity and sharing an organisation's profits, according to each employee’s realistic and genuine ongoing contribution.

3. Principle of Autonomy
For employees to feel safe and be able to act autonomously, it is vital that organisation encourage them to develop their skills. Ways to provide this include through the invest in mentoring, coaching, channels for feedback and training resources. It is important that organisations also give freedom and autonomy to employees to make suggestions or even develop their own way of working.

4. Principle of Democracy
Organisations need leaders who consciously guide their work, giving freedom so that employees can participate in decision-making and express their opinion freely.

While freedom, autonomy and democracy go hand in hand with the humanized management model, we should highlight that the increase in control, supervision and a high degree of institutionalisation go in the opposite direction and are inhibitors of this management model.

In addition to the four basic principles around humanizing a work environment, below are a few key additional tips that managers and business owners can take to ensure that your organisation is heading in the right direction.

1. Use dialogue to create a more personable, approachable, friendly, and supportive organisation. Considering things like eye contact whilst speaking, balanced tone of voice and a genuine interest in your employees’ wellbeing during conversations may all sound obvious but they are really important. Recognise when employees may be going through difficult times or are upset and ask them if there is anything that you (as a manger) or the organisation can do to help.

2. Paying attention and taking time to use a more gentle tone in emails, phone calls and conversations may, again, sound obvious, but given the rush that we all seem to be in throughout our working lives, make sure you really do stop and pay attention. When working in projects with groups and teams, ensure everyone is heard.

3. Get the critical messages and moments right. This means that when you have to have difficult, unpleasant or uncomfortable conversations with individuals, that you have a strategy and plan as to how you tackle it, forward-thinking outcomes of such conversations and that you ensure you are communicating as succinctly, fairly and delicately as possible. If there are disagreements, the most important thing to do is to restore trust, regardless of who you feel has the stronger argument. Which leads us on to the next point…

4. Ensuring union within an organisation where employees can share their ideas, knowledge, skills and collaboration can be achieved by building empowerment. Mentoring is a great way to encourage union, cross-departmental channels of communication and transfer of knowledge.

Perhaps the most difficult part of humanization at work is to realize that you (just like every other manager and business leader) are not perfect. Accepting and acknowledging your fears, your mistakes, your weaknesses, and all other considered ‘defects’ is a starting point. Luckily and quite rightly, more and more, organisations are focused on the interest of good coexistence among employees and teams. They understand that the quality of these relationships precedes any aspiration for common success. There are still some who are a long way off though. What does not seem to be perceived by some organisations, is the success that organisations can achieve by exercising this humanization. So, next time your organisation is weighing everything up, consider humanization at work.

At PushFar, we help ensure humanization at work starts with employee empowerment through mentoring. You can get a mentoring programme up and running in minutes and help employees to share knowledge, develop and grow. Click here to find out more and request a demo.