Open-door policies are often implemented to provide employees with a venue to discuss their needs or bring suggestions or complaints. They are also used to demonstrate that a manager’s office is a place where issues can be addressed and to make employees feel heard, as well as to encourage employees to express their concerns, particularly so they can be addressed before they become much more difficult to resolve.
However, open-door policies are not without risks. For example:
- If managers don’t take concerns seriously, the open-door policy can backfire, leaving employees feeling disappointed that they followed protocol and got nowhere. When employees don’t get the expected result, it can erode morale, which is the opposite of the policy’s intent.
- Some employees may not take advantage of the policy because they fear the negative consequences will outweigh potentially getting an issue resolved. It can create another problem when there’s no other outlet for these issues.
- On the other hand, it may encourage some employees to bring up minor issues that could simply be resolved among the workers themselves rather than management. There are benefits in conflict resolution at the right level, and conflict resolution is a good skill for employees to have.
- It can be an inefficient way to handle issues. If someone drops in with a concern, it’s unlikely the manager will be able to give his or her full attention to the matter. Even if the manager isn’t distracted by the tasks he or she is working on, his or her response may not have the thoroughness it would if adequate time were spent discussing the situation. Therefore, there are benefits to having scheduled meetings to discuss concerns rather than using the open-door method.
- It could encourage employees to skip the organization’s hierarchical levels to get a quick resolution from someone higher up the ladder, regardless of the issue’s severity. In some cases, this may be appropriate, but it can also be a waste of time and may result in some staff getting bogged down with issues they shouldn’t have to resolve.
- Open-door policies might get abused. Some workers may feel the need to frequently complain or may want to use the system to intentionally harm another employee by repeatedly raising false or frivolous complaints to harm the person’s reputation.
To mitigate the risks of having an open-door policy, have open conversations and train the entire leadership team. Everyone should be on the same page regarding how to handle employee concerns and when and how to escalate issues, and the process should be ingrained in the organization’s culture.
Alternatively, consider replacing the open-door policy with something that takes these issues into account while still giving employees an outlet to raise concerns.