Creating a Remarkable Work Environment for Your People

High quality employees will not work in a low quality environment. In other words, bringing great hires aboard is not the end-all solution. Effective hiring is the starting point to achieving enterprise excellence. However, once great hires arrive, they will not stay if their environment is not at least as great as they are. What does this mean? How can this be achieved? Creating a great employee environment starts with leadership. Employees have high expectations of their leaders, their organization and each other. These expectations are often deemed promises and are established in accordance with the values of the business. More specifically, meeting such employee expectations involves employee experience drivers of providing Clear Direction, fostering a Sense of Community and giving your people the License to Succeed.

The Drivers: Clear Direction, a Sense of Community and the License to Succeed

Providing Clear Direction

This is all about offering open communication, being honest and ensuring that all employees understand what your enterprise stands for and where it is headed. It is about leadership that sets a consistent example around the intended experience and communicates associated promises in detail on a regular basis. Providing such direction instills more trust and loyalty within the enterprise and facilitates positive behavior on the part of employees. It enables your people to deliver your customer experience as intended. Set the example for your intended customer experience and your people will follow.

Fostering a Sense of Community

 This entails showing compassion, fairness and respect to all of your people. It is making a concerted effort to consistently make people feel special and treated as if they belong. It is encouraging employees, listening to them, showing respect for their opinions and recognizing them for a job well done. Make your people feel special and they will return the favor to your customers.

Giving Your People License to Succeed

Empower your people. Frontline managers and company leaders need to take actions that let their people know that the enterprise is committed to their success. By preparing them to grow, providing adequate resources and offering opportunities for development, the organization will be able to best leverage your employees’ talents – talents that, in a service-focused environment, should be used to create a remarkable customer experience. The key is about teaching and enabling employees rather than using discipline and creating opportunities that ignite purpose and energy. Prepare your people to grow and watch your business follow-suit.

Businesses that ensure that frontline managers and company leaders are delivering these experience drivers effectively (along with their corresponding promises) reap the rewards of employees who feel both proud and valued. Subsequently, these employees stay longer and get better at their jobs. In addition, counterproductive employee behaviors typically decrease decidedly.