Front Line Employees

Front-line employees are the face and voice of almost every business. Are you developing them as brand champions?  Recent research has indicated that when organizations invest in their front-line employees, it’s one of the key elements to creating a high-caliber customer experience.

I was grocery shopping one Sunday – not my favorite shopping experience. From the middle of the store, I heard clapping and cheering, hooting and hollering. Obviously, something was being celebrated. When I finished and was at the register, a very pleasant cashier, “Jane” was helping me. One of her associates joined us and started bagging my groceries. She turned to Jane and congratulated her on her award. “Was that you they were clapping for? What did you win?” I asked. Jane was the proud winner of a customer service award. In addition to the heart-felt recognition, she also received a gift certificate for a dinner out for two. “How nice that the company recognizes its employees,” I said.  “Oh, the recognitions would have been enough. The gift certificate is like the frosting,” Jane replied. Both women went on to tell me how much they loved working for Harris Teeter and how much the company recognizes and appreciates its employees. I left the store after completing this required errand feeling uplifted. What a great story.

Compare that to two other recent experiences I had with organizations I won’t name. When Barbara and I gave feedback about a style preference in a clothing store, the sales associate responded, “Write to the company, please. The e-mail address is on the receipt. They don’t listen to us.” Don’t listen to their sales force – their face to the customers? Seriously? Or the flight attendant I was sitting next to once who told me the CEO of the company told them that the flight attendants don’t add to the bottom line! Seriously, with whom does the flying public most interact? Not the CEO, that’s for sure.

The front line of your organization is critical. They can create a culture of efficiency and excellence and that results in productivity and profitability. Are you assuring that they are the best that they can be? Are you investing in them?

Investment in your employees can take many different forms. We recently heard the story of Michelle. She worked in customer service for a large organization in the health-care industry. Cost was an issue—one of the factors holding her back from an education, but the company made an investment in her through tuition assistance and a special program that allowed her to get an associate’s degree in 12 months. She got promoted and went on to work towards a bachelor’s degree. The investment of their money and her time paid off.

Investing in your employees, however, need not always have a significant dollar amount associated with it. Jane was thrilled to be recognized—which cost nothing. The gift certificate was a nice, additional investment. While her attitude was pleasant, our sales clerk’s self-esteem and enthusiasm could be elevated to great heights if the company invested some time to listen to their front line. They could be superior brand champions. As far as my flight attendant goes, I know the industry is having its challenges, but I’m not sure I’d rush back to fly on his carrier anytime soon. If you don’t treat your employees with fairness and respect, how will they treat your customers?

The Culture of Communication

Social media is fascinating. Is it replacing the way we communicate or giving us more avenues of communication?

I recently had the opportunity to participate in a twitter chat. I’d been intrigued with the idea of them since first hearing about them at a workshop about 18 months ago. It’s an interesting experience. The host was tweeting my prepared questions and I responded with a number of tweets – A1a, A1b, etc. Other participants can pose questions or comments to which you respond, or they can “favorite” or retweet one of your comments. Comments, favorites and retweets continue and it certainly provides good marketing exposure. One metric I was given toward the end was that we reached 278,000 twitter accounts. Oh, if each of them would buy The Big Book of HR! (Our twitter handle is @bigbookofhr.)

One scathing comment was received blasting us for conversing in this manner. Downside of the social world, the internet, the cloud, anonymity reigns. To this anonymous contributor, you might want to consider watching “Frozen” and take heed from the song, “Let it Go!” Had s/he been paying attention (listening in the virtual world), s/he would have seen my comment “Communication methods r changing rapidly w/technology & social media. Deliver messages in a method in which ur employees like to receive info.”

I must admit that while I was fascinated with the whole process and will eagerly participate in twitter chats in the future, I wouldn’t put them at the top of my list of communication or conversation methods. Nothing beats sitting and having good conversation. Barbara and I have had some great phone interviews since “The Big Book of HR” was published and are looking forward to more once our next book “The Essential Workplace Conflict Handbook” hits the streets this fall. 

Looking back to the early 20^th century, a story about (and lesson from) my paternal grandmother, who emigrated with my grandfather from Italy and settled in Brooklyn, NY. I never knew her – she died before I was born – but I’ve heard stories about her including about how she was  sought out by the other immigrants in her Italian neighborhood to read and respond to letters from relatives back home because my grandmother was one of the few women who knew how to read and write in that era. Apparently she had a cottage industry of transcribing the thoughts of other people because letter writing was their only form of communicating long-distance then. We’ve come a long way.

Here’s the irony. The topic of my twitter chat was Must Haves for Successfully Managing People. The next day it was published in blog format by my host, Melinda Emerson a/k/a #smallbizlady, on her web site http://succeedasyourownboss.com. The same topic appears on www.bigbookofhr.com – our webpage – as a short video to provide a resource for small businesses. Finally, Barbara and I have presented this topic in a face-to-face meeting. Same message, four different methods to deliver it, and we probably got the most exposure from the twitter chat.

Technology has been a powerful influence in the way that we communicate and get information today. While everyone has their individual preference, it’s important to recognize the value of each method. If you have to get a message out, deliver messages in a method in which your audience likes to receive information. Don’t hesitate to diversify your method and try something new.  

Curiosity Sparks Innovation

There is a wonderful new book out by Brian Grazer and Charles Fishman titled A Curious Mind…The Secret to a Bigger Life.  You may recognize Brian Grazer who is the Academy Award winning producer of such films as A Beautiful Mind, Apollo 13, Splash and more. He also produces award winning television shows which have been nominated for 43 Oscars and 149 Emmys—in other words, he is a successful entertainment producer!

I first heard about the book from an interview with Brian in the United Airlines magazine and I loved reading about how for years Mr. Grazer has been holding “curiosity conversations” with just about anyone you can think of!  He’s sought out interesting and accomplished strangers—from spies and Nobel laureates to artists and CEO’s. These talks have inspired many of his films and TV shows.

The book makes a strong case that “curiosity is the tool that sparks curiosity and curiosity is the technique that gets to innovation.”  He suggests that questions create the mind-set of innovation and creativity. Curiosity presumes that “there might be something new out there.”  I love the way Brian explains it—he says” he keeps asking questions until something interesting happens.”

He says that “being curious and asking questions creates engagement” so there is a link to one of the most frequently discussed management topics today—employee engagement!  Another link to the world of work is his belief—and I totally agree—that curiosity sparks innovation.

So, what should you do if you want to have a curious conversation—especially one that might lead you to innovation?  The authors suggest you start close to home with people you already know—family, friends, work-related colleagues. Think of someone who might have an interesting job or who has had a very different life experience from yours.  Begin the conversation by telling the person that you’ve always been curious about their work (or their achievements or education or whatever makes them unique) and that you’d like to spend 20 minutes or so talking to you about what they do (or what their challenges are or…)

Here are some tips for having a successful curious conversation:

·       Be sure to clearly state that you want to hear their story—not that you are looking to sell them something or looking for advice—you are curious about them and their story!

·       Be careful to stay within the timeframe you agreed to before you started so that you honor them.

·       Prepare your questions ahead of time and be sure to ask open ended questions like, “Tell me about why you decided to study … “or “What was your first professional success?” or “What’s surprised you the most about where your passion has taken you?”

·       Even though you have thought your questions through ahead of time, be flexible if the conversation goes in a new direction!  That’s where you will learn the most!

·       Listen carefully and respectfully.  Follow up questions with probes like, “Tell me more…,”  “How so?”  Your goal is to learn as much as possible from the conversation. 

·       Be grateful for the time the person spent talking to you.  Of course, you would thank the person at the end of the conversation but the authors suggest you send a handwritten thank you note in which you mention something that was particularly interesting or in which you share a story of how something they said caused you to think or behave differently.  You can also send a thank you email but handwritten notes get a lot of attention because no one sends them anymore!  And, remember, a thank you note should not ask for anything—it is to say how much you appreciated their time and information!

We challenge you to use curious conversations to drive innovation in your organization and let us know how it works for you!

Fortune’s 100 Best Companies to Work For

Each year when the Fortune 100 Best Companies to work for list issue is released, I pour over it to see if something new is revealed.  While I always learn something, what comes through loud and clear is that it isn’t the things these firms do for their employees—it is the organization’s culture that really makes the difference.

You may not know that the primary tool Fortune uses to select and rank organizations is the Great Place to Work’s Trust Index (TI).  The TI is sent to a sample of employees at each nominated company so, as Fortune puts it, “in effect, the workers vote their companies onto the list using criteria related to their workplace cultures.”  It really makes the ranking meaningful to know that the organizations aren’t selected just by what their leadership says—the employees themselves participate and share how they feel about their company.

One of the lessons from this year’s list is that the best employers are focusing more attention on workplace culture as a competitive tool.  And, the great news is that most of the companies on this list are also doing really well in their business segments. 

One thing that amazed me is that 12 companies have made the list every year since it started in 1998.  That is a real achievement.  Since 1998, the 100 best companies are “shining examples of a different way of doing business that puts to rest the old notion that treating employees well might hurt the bottom line. “  These 12 companies prove it is just the opposite!

I worked for Marriott for many years and that organization (on the list again this year as a Great place to Work) follows the advice we all learned from the founder of the company, JW Marriott who said, “take care of our associates and they will take care of the customers.”  It was true when he said it and it certainly is true today.

Each of the companies on the Fortune list this year has leaders who sincerely listen to their employees.  They hear what is important to their work force and then do their best to provide benefits and policies that meet their employee’s needs at this point in time.  Some of these companies have amazing perks for employees but none of them merely add things to their benefits package just to be nice—they do it because it makes good business sense to take good care of the people who take care of your customers!  Fortune quotes the founder and CEO of Ultimate Software, Scott Scherr who says, “The true meaning of a company is how they treat their lowest-paid employees.”  How true!

Of course, many organizations on the list do amazing things for their employees but nothing stands out to me more this year than Google (six years as number one on the list!).  This year they increased their parental-leave benefits—new parents, regardless of gender, can now get up to 12 years of fully paid leave along with $500 of “bonding bucks” to all new parents to use during the first three months of a child’s life.  That is the kind of commitment to employees that really tells the employees how valued they are! 

Consider what you do each and every day for your employees.  Is there something you might do differently to let them know how valued they are?