Employers want to hear from employees. Employees have the most experience with on-the-ground operations, so if they don’t share what they know, managers can miss out on ways to improve services or avoid problems. Hearing from employees with different experiences is especially important, and those who are from different social categories (e.g., genders, races, or cultures) can often provide a better mix of perspectives and ideas. For example, researchers found that military teams performed better on complex tasks when they listened to ideas from the lone woman member of the team than when they ignored or lacked a woman’s perspective.
