Tag: employee engagement

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Engagement

What’s So Special About March 1st?

Besides that we’re inching closer to spring, March 1st is World Compliment Day!

Here’s why I advocate this little known holiday:

“The initiative, in contrast to Valentine’s Day, Secretaries’ Day, and Mother and Father’s Days, is not commercially oriented, so everyone can afford to participate. ‘World Compliment Day’ simply addresses the basic human need for recognition and appreciation. Nobody wins commercially, but everybody gains emotionally. And therein lies its power.”

It’s also easy to participate. The World Compliment Day website features a “Create Award” link to a simple award form template. In just a few minutes you can complete and email or print & deliver the award form to the people you want to recognize.

Regarding employees, colleagues, customers, suppliers, volunteers, donors, friends, family members: acknowledging and affirming people’s value is critical to their engagement.

Who is deserving of your recognition this week?

 

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Customer service Engagement Featured Post

How to Engage Employees in Customer Care

When it comes to getting employees involved with customer satisfaction and retention, it’s not as difficult as some managers believe. Smart employees, including those who don’t have direct customer contact, have a vested interested in customer care. They get the reality that no customers = no business, and no business = no jobs.

Here are four critical keys to effectively engage employees in improving customer care.

Key #1. Solicit customer feedback from your employees. In staff meetings or in anonymous written form, ask employees to share what they hear from customers. You can use fill-in-the-blank type questions such as:

  • When asked what they like best about our company, our customers typically tell me …
  • When asked for ideas on how we can improve our products/service, customers tell me …
  • Recently, I heard about a customer’s (positive or negative) experience with our company. This is what the customer told me …
  • When people hear I work for this company, their typical response is …

Employees, especially those on the front line, have their ears to the market and need a safe outlet to communicate what they hear upward in the company. Their qualitative feedback is also valuable in alerting you to any changes in public perceptions about your brand.

Key #2. Solicit employee ideas on how to better serve your customers.  I once worked for a bank that received low customer satisfaction scores. Management responded by calling a meeting to share the results and then proceeded to berate the branch managers for the poor scores. And the bank wondered why their quarterly numbers didn’t improve while employee morale also declined! Yes, there were operational issues, but management didn’t want to hear about them. How much better it would have been for everyone if bank management had taken the time to ask branch team members some basic questions:

  • What gets in the way of your being able to provide quality service to our customers?
  • What can we reasonably do, given our resources, to overcome these obstacles?
  • In what ways can we better serve our customers?

Key #3.  Seek to strengthen workplace engagement from the inside out. Internal customer service drives external customer service. That’s why it’s important to engage the behind-the-scenes support staff who serve their fellow employees (i.e., “internal customers”). Encourage employees to work together to improve internal service and systems.

Key #4. Recognize your employees’ efforts in improving customer care. Acknowledge and reinforce employee engagement in improving customer satisfaction and retention in whatever way works best  in your organization.  And don’t forget to celebrate your success. (Not sure what to do here? Ask your employees.)

CAUTION: Employees feel respected when management asks for their input and listens to them. Nothing will shut down communication and trust faster than when employees see managers as just going through the motions to engage them. That’s why I advise you to proceed ONLY if you are serious about responding to your employees’ input and ideas. You’re not expected to implement every single employee idea you receive, but you are expected to explain which are feasible and which are not. Otherwise, you can forget about passing go and forget about collecting $200, as they say in Monopoly. Most definitely, you can forget about employee and customer engagement!

 

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Engagement

How Many of Your Employees Will Be Looking to Change Jobs This Year?

“Preparing for Take-Off,” a global study on turnover conducted by The Hay Group, forecasts employee turnover will rise sharply in 2014. People considering a job change this year are encouraged by reports of a growing competition for talent spurred by the global economy.

If they haven’t done so already, executives and managers need to ask themselves: Who in the organization is most likely to leave? Hint: it’s not always the employees you’re happy to see exit.  And who is most likely to stay? It’s not always the top performers you rely on. What managers perceive as employee loyalty may simply be an employee’s lack of opportunity up to this point.

“With retention a growing concern for organizations – not just for key high performing employees, but also core employees – understanding the factors that drive commitment and loyalty is essential for managing increasing turnover risks in the months and years ahead. Now is the time for organizations to understand where they stand on and tackle these influences, to keep employees from taking flight.”  Mark Royal, The  Hay Group senior principal and co-author of The Enemy of Engagement.

 

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Engagement

Will 2014 Be The Year of the Employee?

Yes, according to Josh Bersin’s predictions on talent, leadership and HR, based on the results of Deloitte’s Human Capital Trends’ latest global study. Bersin pronounced 2014 as “The Year of the Employee” in which “Attraction, Retention, and Engagement Will Really Matter,” and he’s not alone in his thinking. A renewed focus on talent management is echoed by Scott Hebner, IBM’s VP of Social Business:

“In a world were employees move from job to job at a rapid pace, when it comes to human capital, loyalty trumps everything. Organizations are searching for a means to not only recruit the right candidates, but more importantly retain and nurture that talent to become passionate, engaged and loyal.”

Forecasting a sharp rise in employee turnover in 2014, Hay Group senior principal, Mark Royal, advocates:

“To keep high value employees from leaving in search of more favorable work arrangements, firms must address engagement and enablement challenges.”

Many HR researchers cite the growth of the global economy and technology in fueling strong competition for talent. Yet effective engagement is a challenge as Bersin notes:

“Companies have reduced costs, restructured, rationalized spending, and pushed people to work harder than ever. More than 60% of organizations tell us one of their top [concerns] is dealing with ‘the overwhelmed employee.'”

Competing for talent isn’t new. What I find most encouraging, however, is the renewed focus on attracting, engaging, and retaining people.

So will 2014 really be the year of the employee or just wishful thinking? We’ll see …

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Engagement

What Employees Say About What Matters in the Workplace

For insight on employee engagement, check out the 2014 Employees’ Choice Awards of the Best Places to Work recently announced by Glassdoor. These awards “are determined using feedback employees have shared on Glassdoor throughout the past year. Employees complete an anonymous company review survey that captures their overall job and company satisfaction, along with sentiment toward career opportunities, compensation & benefits, work-life balance, senior leadership and more.”

Glassdoor is a site that provides employees a safe place to share their views. To avoid being a venting site for disgruntled employees, Glassdoor provides guidelines to encourage balanced content rather than singularly negative feedback. In addition, the site attracts job seekers with job listings and company information that includes voluntary feedback from former employees, current employees, and job candidates going through the interviewing and hiring process.

Besides appealing to employees and job candidates, Glassdoor’s site can also be a great resource for employers. Here’s why:

For better understanding employee engagement

Glassdoor’s best-places-to-work list shares employee feedback (pro and con) about the workplace. I recommend it to employers who want to improve employee engagement and don’t know where to begin. They can find information and comments about the award winners to learn what general practices employees consider important and then adapt and/or apply their findings in their own company engagement surveys.

For better understanding your employer brand

HR and marketing professionals can look for their company’s profile on Glassdoor’s site to learn what current and prospective employees are candidly saying about their company’s internal brand. Think of it as a centralized listening post for employee feedback on the workplace – maybe even your own company’s workplace. Don’t you want to know what your employees and prospects are telling others about you?

 

 

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Featured Post Marketing

A Facilitator’s Top Three Tips for Strategic Marketing Planning

I recently shared why it’s important to commit time for strategic marketing planning.  Based on my combined experience as a marketer and planning facilitator, here are my top three tips for developing a successful planning session.

1. Be Mission-focused.

The basis for your strategic marketing plan is rooted in your organization’s mission. If your marketing efforts don’t support the company’s mission and goals, then don’t bother.

I post and review the company or nonprofit mission statement in every planning session I facilitate. Keeping the mission front-&-center is critical to helping participants avoid the situation that one executive described: “We spent more time focusing on what we could do rather than what we should do.”

2. Be Creative

Critical thinking and creative thinking are not mutually exclusive. To keep your planning process interesting, you can better envision and explore possibilities while engaging in “What if … ?” questions. For example: What if we had unlimited resources — what could we achieve? What if we could start over from scratch — what would we do differently? What would happen if our products, services, or brand disappeared — would we be missed?

You can also try a different perspective with this two-step scenario. First, you’ve been hired away by a major competitor’s consulting firm to help them assess your brand’s strengths and weaknesses. Following this assessment, return to your current company role and consider how you can improve your marketing to gain and keep a competitive edge.

3. Be Realistic

Besides being mission-focused, it’s also important to recognize the scope of your organization’s capacity and commitment. In the course of creative and meaningful discussion, it’s easy to develop an extensive list of marketing ideas for consideration. That’s why I advocate planning participants develop and agree on a realistic set of two to four mission-focused marketing activities that support their company’s strategic goals. The worst possible outcome from a strategic planning session is for participants to generate an exhaustive laundry list of ideas and actions that overwhelm them. Seriously, it’s a small step from discouraged to disengaged.

For being realistic when it comes to marketing planning, here’s my favorite quote from Dr. Phil Kotler:

“Marketing is a learning game. You make a decision. You watch the results. You learn from the results. Then you make better decisions.”

Happy marketing planning!

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Engagement Marketing

No Time for a Strategic Marketing Plan? Think Again!

It’s a common lament among many marketers today – their work is more reactive than proactive. While they acknowledge the need for formal marketing planning, they’re overwhelmed and pressed for time dealing with customers, co-workers, information overload and other work demands.

So they wrestle with whatever marketing projections and data are needed to compile an annual plan and budget as required by those in the C-suite. Then it’s back to business-as-usual. For organizations that just keep on keeping on, how can they tell if they’re making any real progress?

“The truth is that in a time when we could change everything, we’re running without clarity of direction or vision.”‘ Brian Solis

It’s a serious concern for marketers because our function is so visible and the people that deliver the brand promise – our employees – need to know where we’re headed in the marketplace. When employees don’t know and understand our marketing goals and what’s expected of them in achieving those goals, they’re more likely to disengage. (So much for nurturing employees as brand ambassadors!)

Not having the time to plan is just part of the excuse. The sad truth is the planning process is still perceived as a tedious one that many marketers don’t want to make time for. They understand the value of creating a plan, yet dread participating in the process.

But it doesn’t have to be that way! I’ve seen first-hand people actually enjoy the planning experience. What I’ve found that works is bringing marketing and other critical staff together for the sole purpose of exploring and developing marketing strategy in a limited time frame (ranging from a half to a full day). Whether the planning session is held in an on-site conference room or off-site venue, it’s important to create a sense of “safe space” where participants will respectfully listen to and share their ideas with each other. Food and beverages including, but not limited to, caffeine and sugar (i.e., fresh fruit and healthy snacks in addition to candy and/or cookies) are also needed to fuel the planning process.

Strategic marketing planning’s true value is in setting a clear direction and marshaling the required resources to get there. It also enables marketing and other key staff to step back from the daily grind to engage in strategic thinking for/about the organization — a process that  leaves them feeling re-focused and re-energized. A refreshing change from working reactively!

Note: I’ll share what’s needed for a successful marketing planning session in my next post.

Categories
Engagement

Favorite Employee Engagement and Leadership Quotes

In my first book on employee engagement, I described the positive impact of “leaders who genuinely care about their customers and the people (employees) who serve them … leaders whose core values recognize that both groups matter and who integrate these values in their culture and operations.”

The practice and study of employee engagement has grown immensely since then with many respected consultants and authors contributing to the field. Here are several of my favorite quotes that capture the essence of leadership and engagement.

“Engagement, at its heart, is a 21st century form of leadership aimed specifically at connecting people to organizational results, an issue of growing importance in the era of social-networking.” – Bruce Bolger

“Leadership rests on a new foundation and the skills this requires are changing: managing complex situations, communication and coaching, ability to elicit employee commitment and collaboration, and an ability to forge partnerships and foster the development of talent.” Jean-Baptiste Audrerie

” … great leadership at the top doesn’t amount to much if you don’t have exceptional leadership at the unit level. That’s where great things get done.” Jim Collins

” … if you want to create a workplace that changes people’s lives and the way business is done, that leads to products and services that are mind-numbingly innovative and powerful, culture can’t be a device. For it to be lived, you’re going to have to open your heart to the people around you and engage both their intelligence and their confusion with equal confidence.” Susan Piver

“Creating a meaningful workplace is about establishing a high-order connection with employees and benefiting from the compounding effect that comes from a constant stream of meaningful experiences tied directly to the needs, beliefs, interests, and aspirations of employees.” Jerry Holtaway

Additional employee engagement and leadership quotes
Please help me expand this post by sharing your favorite quote(s) on this topic. I welcome your input!

 

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Customer service Engagement Marketing

Celebrate National Customer Service Week: “United Through Service”

Customers. Every business needs them. Every business loves them … or tries to love them. Let’s be honest, from the customer’s perspective, some companies aren’t as customer-focused as they purport to be.

In recognition of all employees who strive to provide positive customer experiences, we honor National Customer Service Week. And I see it applying to ALL employees involved in customer service  – those engaged in workplace cultures where customers are truly valued plus those who manage to successfully serve customers despite a culture where customer-focus is just lip service.

This special week-long observance was initiated by the Institute of Customer Service Association (ICSA) nearly 30 years ago to raise awareness of the importance of customer service and acknowledge those who provide it. “United through Service.” is this year’s theme that reflects the special bonding between customers and companies. It provides a wonderful opportunity to engage employees with appreciation, team-building, morale-boosting and fun activities.

And it’s not too late to observe National Customer Service Week:

  • Employers – acknowledge everyone in your organization who does a great job taking care of customers.
  • Employees – acknowledge co-workers who do a great job taking care of you and fellow employees as internal customers.
  • Customers – acknowledge those employees who take do a great job of taking care of you; i.e, in addition to continuing to do business with them, let them know you appreciate their efforts.

Regardless of your status with an organization, you can be creative with your acknowledgment, but you don’t need to be extravagant about it. A simple and sincere “thank you for all you do” is a great way to show your appreciation … this week and all year long.

 

Categories
Engagement Featured Post Training & Development

Overcoming the Responsibility vs. Authority Conflict: Lessons in Collaboration

How do you manage working with others when you’re responsible for a project they’re involved with, yet you’re given limited or no authority to get the work done?

While I do not recommend this approach, I’ve observed it in many organizations due to reasons that involve internal politics, lack of role clarity, and unshared commitment to goals, to name a few. I’ve also seen people without management authority effectively hurdle the challenge of working with others. Here are examples and lessons learned from two former clients I had the privilege of serving.

  • The “consortium” included representatives of federal statistical agencies from different countries that voluntarily came together to share their work and improve the comparability of their data. What was fascinating was this group worked cooperatively together in addition to their regular job responsibilities and without any extra staff support and resources. They developed and agreed on a mission statement, strategic plan, and working groups to complete a special joint project. They also walked a fine line to work informally–without bureaucratic interference from their respective agencies–while maintaining the necessary formal communication with their respective senior managers to assure continued institutional support for their activities.
  • The “coordinator” was set up to implement a federally-funded initiative for social change that called for integrating the efforts of existing community partners. The coordinating organization in this case had no authority over the partners and no grant-making ability to fund their involvement; i.e., partner participation was purely voluntary. While the overarching mission for social change was closely aligned with the partners’ respective missions, the nonprofits involved were already stressed with more demands than resources. So to engage its partners, the coordinator applied the WIIFM (“what’s in it for me?”) principle by offering them the opportunity to:
    • maximize their respective organizations’ impact in support of the initiative’s overarching goals
    • have a voice in making a difference
    • network with other partners
    • enhance their community visibility.

Lessons Learned
The purpose, structure, and goals of the “consortium” and “coordinator” were vastly different. However, they shared one thing in common: they had to rely on collaboration, rather than authority, to operate effectively. Here are the common elements of how they made it happen:

  • Mutual respect for all the participants/partners involved
  • Aligning and reinforcing a shared mission, vision, and goals among the various players
  • Clarifying and communicating role expectations
  • Frequently sharing progress updates with those involved
  • Recognizing and celebrating individual and collective achievements.

These lessons are applicable in almost all situations, not just those with responsibility vs. authority issues. As communications consultant Kare Anderson says:

“For most of our lives we’ve been advised to lead and manage others. We’ve been taught to resolve conflict, influence, negotiate and otherwise attempt to get what we want from people … But what about the concept of us? More people would rather enjoy the camaraderie of smart collaboration than be lead, persuaded or managed.”