(Please contact ECM Expert Change Management if you,
or someone you know, would like to discuss the above.
Speaking Topics:
Bob’s recent and planned speaking topics include:
• Financials, Strategic Thinking and Change Management
• Maximize the results of your Consulting by Managing the Resistance to Change!
• Managing People’s Acceptance, Adoption, and Sustainment of Change
• Developing and Implementing Strategic Ideas; From Seeds to Harvested Results
• The Critical Requirement for Leading, as well Managing, Change
Bob Dodge can be reached at 303 550-0101
bdodge@expertchangemanagement.com
Visit www.expertchangemanagement.com for more information about ECM
and to manage your subscription to Get Acceptance, Get Results! news
Expert Change Management
March 16, 2010
Get Acceptance, Get Results!
Employee engagement and customer loyalty
The first trend
I have been reading and hearing about two potentially conflicting trends recently. The first was best captured in The Harvard Business Review, in an article about the need for businesses to “Do More for Less for More” (M4L4M) in this age of scarcity. It is hard to disagree that businesses must get more done with less these days, and to some extent, grow the business with what they have. Business leaders need to get very creative about becoming more efficient, and in spite of productivity tools and improved processes, they are still very dependent on not only keeping the good people, but helping them to “Do More for Less for More” as well.
The second trend
The second trend is a bit more disturbing. There has been a tendency for workers to become disenchanted, rather than engaged and energized in their jobs. Apparently, this has been going on for far longer than the past eighteen months.
In early January, CBS News reported on The Conference Board’s survey findings on work satisfaction. In a nutshell:
Only 45% of Americans are satisfied with their work.
This is the lowest level recorded in 22 years of this survey.
Only 51% of people find their jobs interesting
Of the under 25’s, 64% of workers say they’re unhappy at work.
Worker dissatisfaction has been on the rise for more than two decades. Dissatisfied workers could lead to very costly turnover issues for businesses. “Only about 37 percent of Gen Xers said they planned to stay in their current jobs after the recession ends, compared with 44 percent of Gen Yers, 50 percent of baby boomers and 52 percent of senior citizen workers who said the same,” according to a survey done last year for Deloitte Consulting LLP.
Right Management, an HR Consultancy, asked 1,308 people why they left their jobs in the last year. Here’s how they answered (numbers add up to more than 100% because some people said they left for more than one reason):
Downsizing or restructuring (54%);
Sought new challenges or opportunities (30%);
Ineffective leadership (25%);
Poor relationship with manager (22%);
To improve work/life balance (21%);
Contributions to the company were not valued (21%);
Better compensation and benefits (18%).
I am particularly curious about the bolded items above. How does a business leader get more done with the people they have if the people feel like there is poor leadership, have a poor relationship with their manager, or feel as though their contributions are not valued? Are leadership and management even aware of this attitude? Do they care? Do they know how to take action, and are they effective? Apparently not, in many cases.
Dealing with these trends
So, how do we get more done for less? Some pursue the following:
They prioritize what they do best, determining what is critical, and focusing on only the critical and urgent.
They take action to get the waste out of their processes, to improve quality and customer satisfaction.
Some have become adept at leading and managing change. I applaud them, and would love to help those that have not.
Some are continuing to perform customer satisfaction surveys and employee opinion surveys, but do nothing about the results. Needless to say, expectations are not met and the results degrade over time.
I wonder how many have considered the items reported above: ineffective leadership, poor relationships between managers and their employees, and the feelings that employee contributions to the company were not valued. I wonder if some businesses even know what their employees think. Are they aware that attitudes drive behavior?
What if management and leadership were scientific about finding out how employees think, communicate and built effective relationships with them? What if leaders were committed to taking actions to improve employee and customer loyalty and productivity? Would they not look like heroes? Would they not feel better about their ability to “Do More for Less for More”?
I wonder how many have implemented effective Succession Development Processes for natural attrition and reorganizations, the unplanned resignations or, God forbid, tragedies that remove key people from their positions.
Improving employee engagement and customer loyalty
To improve customer loyalty and employee engagement, I help organizations manage their employee relationships. I work with people who recognize that unless they manage their employee relationships, their employees’ daily work will suffer and they put customer loyalty, employee retention and their profits and compensation at risk.
If you know someone who would like to discuss this, I’d love to help them out. Feel free to direct them to my Six Question Check-Up on Employee Relationship Management.
