Taking Care of Business or a Boondoggle?

Why is it when times get tough the first thing most business leaders look at cutting are those activities that help with employee engagement, retention, customer service and, in a not-so-indirect way, profitability?

Yes, I know we’ve all been focused on cost cutting and reducing overhead however we can. But, have you noticed what those cost cutting measures have resulted in for some organizations? In my experience consulting with businesses and government agencies focused on improving their workplaces, I see:

• Poor morale, resulting from employees not feeling valued.
• Disengagement. Very often the workforce has been downsized, while the workload remains the same. Employees feel abused and taken advantage of. Their response: only do the minimum of what’s expected.
• Anger and frustration. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, workplace violence — including assaults and suicides — accounted for 18% of all work-related fatal occupational injuries in 2010.
• Decline in customer service. Employees mirror the way they are treated by their managers as they engage with customers.
• Theft and fraud. It can be stealing supplies, money or padding the time sheet – if employees don’t perceive they are being treated fairly, they will take advantage of opportunities to "make up" for what they assume they are missing.

Strategies for Engagement

I know, the word "engagement" is way overused these days, but you get my point. Good leaders know the benefit of keeping employees happy. They want their employees to look forward to getting up and coming to work. They see the benefits of employees invested in doing a great job and collaborating with other team members to ensure a quality job is completed on time and within budget. They hear the results – fewer customer complaints – as well as see revenues growing as customers come to know they can count on the organization’s reputation for quality service, products and care.

Organizations in both the government and private sectors seem to be afraid to spend money on keeping workers happy and engaged. But at what price? Yes, there are a few organizations where unexplainable decisions have been made as far as recognition and training. But should everyone suffer because of a few? What happened to common sense? A few hundred dollars - or even a few thousand dollars - a year invested in an organization’s top assets shouldn’t be perceived as a boondoggle, it should be applauded as a responsible way to take care of business.

According to an article written by Leslie Caccameseon for Great Place to Work there are five ways to make employees happy – and therefore improve your workplace performance. I’ve taken the liberty to elaborate on her points.

1. Give them a sense of meaning. Help employees understand how their contributions fit with the mission and goals of the organization, as well as how the organization benefits the community and world at large.
2. Provide opportunities for growth. Research indicates that employees are happier when they are learning – and we all know how important continuous learning is. Training and development, executive coaching, on-line webinars, shared libraries, job rotations, job sharing, all go a long way to boost morale and engage employees in understanding and operating the business of the organization. It may seem counterintuitive, but investing in the employability of employees is an excellent strategy for improving retention, knowledge management, morale and performance.
3. Insist on providing freedom to balance work and personal commitments. Think of employees as people, not positions. There is so much that people are dealing with today. Don’t forget in addition to their work duties, employees may also be dealing with issues such as young children, aging parents, family members without jobs, daycare issues, medical issues, and the list goes on. People need to be able to attend to their lives, as well as their work, in a way that makes sense to both the employee and the employer.
4. Demonstrate your interest in hearing their ideas. Employees are more content with their jobs when they feel that management sincerely is interested in their suggestions. Ask for opinions and ideas and work at keeping communications open.
5. Be true to Maslow. We all know employees can’t focus on the bigger issues until they’ve achieved security regarding their basic needs. Demonstrate how your firm values people by valuing fair wages, benefits and bonuses that represent a fair share of the organizations’ rewards. Adopt an attitude of "we’re all in this together" for the good times as well as those that are challenging.

So What’s Next?

In her new book, Make More Money by Making Your Employees Happy, Dr. Noelle Nelson cites research that indicates "companies that effectively appreciate employee value enjoy a return on equity and assets more than triple that experienced by firms that don’t." A marketplace where 90% of employees indicate they are willing to move to a new organization demonstrates the significance of the need to connect with employees on the things that are important to their workplace satisfaction. Turnover is never cheap and can have such a significant impact on productivity.

From the Human Resources perception, it’s not all about wages and bonuses. Yes, everyone wants to be compensated fairly, but what we hear time and time again through employee surveys is that they also want to be included, consulted, appreciated, recognized and developed. There are many actions employers can take to engage with employees that are inexpensive, yet very beneficial for opening up communications and relationships.

I agree that no organization, government or private sector, should be holding retreats and meetings costing millions of dollars. However, it’s not the events we should be scrutinizing – they’re important. Employees need to connect with others to build teams. They need to be recognized for past contributions and receive training on new skills and technologies that they’ll be working with in the future. Meetings, retreats, or trainings organized for the purpose of developing your number one asset – people - should continue to be authorized. It’s the manner in which the event is planned and funded that should be receiving the extra review to ensure its within acceptable limits for employee development.

We all want the individuals we interact with, whether at a restaurant, our insurance company, our children’s’ school, the airport, hospital, mall, or at a government agency to be courteous, knowledgeable, helpful and competent. In order to ensure those good connections, workers need to be included in the commitment to taking care of business – the business of people management.

Please feel free to comment on this topic or to share this article with others. Thank you for taking the time to consider this information. Have a wonderful day.

BlessingWhite

 

This article was written by Deborah A. King, SPHR and President of Evolution Management, Inc. an SBA 8(a) certified firm. For 18 years, EMI’s team of experienced HR and change management consultants have been partnering with organizations interested in improving their workplace environments, as well as their organizational performance. We’d appreciate an opportunity to work with you. Contact us at 770.587.9032 or visit our website at www.evolutionmgt.com.

Branding Isn't Just for Marketing

This morning while enjoying my three-mile walk, I passed a service truck with the advertisement "We Protect Your Brand" painted on the sides. Branding of course is a critical business element, so it caught my attention and I wondered how they did that – protect your brand?

As I considered the tagline, I couldn’t imagine how a vendor could provide this protection. Shouldn’t protection be provided by employees? Thinking about how employees understand and protect brand strategies, it occurred to me that unless the organization does a good job of communicating the brand strategy, it would be difficult for the employees to protect it. Those thoughts led to others focused on the best practices for ensuring employees "get" the brand and acknowledge their responsibility to promote it, as well as protect it - something I’m not sure we’re always paying attention to.

Why Branding is Important

I think when most people think about branding, they think about a logo. The American Marketing Association (AMA) goes a little further as they define a brand as a "name, term, sign, symbol or design, or a combination of them intended to identify the goods and services of one seller or group of sellers and to differentiate them from those of other sellers." Businesses focus a lot of time and money on the creation of the appropriate brand because it can give them an edge in an increasingly competitive market.

The brand is the organization’s promise to its customers. Not only does it help an organization differentiate itself from others, it also assures the organization’s customers of what they can expect from products and services. The foundation of a brand is understanding what the customer needs and is usually anchored through the company’s logo and then builds throughout the marketing and communication channels: website, marketing materials, packaging, and promotional products.

However, another key area where branding is critical is human resource engagement. It’s a very logical connection – recruiting and hiring processes are very similar to the processes used by marketing to attract and retain customers. We want talented individuals to understand what the company’s vision, mission, goals and values are so they can evaluate if the organization is a fit with the type of philosophy and culture they believe in, and can excel in.

Building the Brand through Employees

The objectives of a good brand which should consistently be applied to marketing and communication efforts, as well as human resource management activities, include the following:

• Clearly deliver the message of what your company stands for
• Confirm the credibility of your organization
• Connect with customers, as well as employees on an emotional level
• Motivate action – to buy – or to come to work
• Solidify the loyalty of the customer or the employee

Integrating the importance of understanding and demonstrating brand into human resource processes can be accomplished through the following eight practices:

1. Ensure sourcing and recruiting materials are consistent with the brand messaging
2. Provide training and certification for internal and external recruiters so they understand and can clearly communicate the brand before they begin talking with potential candidates
3. Include values, goals and mission statement information on the career opportunity section of your website
4. Incorporate the company’s mission and values into the interviewing process by asking open-ended questions to identify if the candidate’s personal values align with the firm’s
5. Integrate brand messages into the on-boarding process and help the new employee understand the responsibilities for demonstrating and protecting the brand
6. Periodically offer employee training on business ethics including case studies challenging brand protection and re-enforcing how to appropriately handle business and ethical situations 
7. Include a focus on brand in development goals and executive coaching engagements
8. Align the strategic business, marketing and human resource plans with the brand messaging

It takes more than just a talented individual to help your organization be the best that it can be. That individual of course must do a great job, but they also have to do that great job with the passion and commitment to deliver on the promises you’ve made to your customers. Your brand is derived from who the organization is, who the organization wants to be, and who your customers perceive the organization to be. Your employees are on the front lines. Help them understand how their personal actions reflect brand. For example, if the brand is focused on quality services, it’s imperative that employees do what they say they are going to do. There’s a complete mismatch when the organization says they deliver quality, and then employees consistently do not return phone calls or respond to emails.

I have an excellent example of such a mismatch of brand values from a shopping trip the other day at my favorite grocery store, where I am a loyal customer. Usually this store employs staff who go out of their way to ensure that you find everything you need. The cashiers, especially, engage with shoppers to produce a personalized and "we’re so glad you shopped with us" experience. This gentleman unfortunately didn’t engage with anything or anyone, other than his poor attitude. There was nothing about my experience working with him that matched the brand. On my way out I commented to the manager and she knew exactly who I was speaking about without me even mentioning his name. Her comment was, "We’ve been trying to work with him to see if he’s going to be a fit."

Even in an organization where the recruiting and hiring processes are focused on aligning with the brand, some mistakes are made. Once it’s obvious the values of the employee do not align with the organization’s brand, it’s best to reassign the employee to a job away from customers, develop a performance improvement plan, or terminate the employee. Misalignment of personal and organizational brands results in lost customers! I’ll go back to that store because I know that wasn’t the usual experience, but if I was a first time shopper there, I would definitely find a different store!

So What’s Next?

The recession has complicated the marketplace. There are many organizations redefining their brands as customer needs and expectations have changed. If your organization is reexamining your brand, make sure the process and final results are communicated not only to customers, but existing employees as well. Help job candidates and employees understand how to communicate and demonstrate the new brand through successful performance interactions. The success of the organization rests on their performance. Take immediate actions to review your Human Resource processes to ensure you are sharing the most appropriate information about your expectations for how the brand looks and sounds in the everyday workplace.

It turns out the truck I saw belongs to an organization that calibrates scales used in the distribution of food products. After I researched the company and understood the service they were providing, the tag line makes complete sense. They help ensure that the public can rely on the quality, consistency and trust of the products their clients sell.

There are many voices out there competing for business in my profession and yours. Defining our brands is a journey of business self-discovery. I’m curious, what practices are you employing to ensure that human resource strategies align with company branding? Post comments, questions, ideas below.

Brett McQuinn

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www.evolutionmgt.com

770.587.9032