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Employees Create Meaningful Connections
If your employees feel like their opinions matter and their ideas and suggestions are important, they will be motivated to do their best for your customers.
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Building Your Business and Your Brand by Thinking Outside of the Box
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Issue 3, May 2009 |
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Employees Create Meaningful Connections
If your employees feel like their opinions matter and their ideas and suggestions are important, they will be motivated to do their best for your customers.
by: Dr. David Hyatt, President and Partner
A long time ago, when I was in graduate school, I took a class by the name of "Motivation and Emotion." In it we reviewed and discussed the existing research on the causes and consequences of employee satisfaction. Interestingly enough, the general conclusion we came to was this: a happy worker is a happy worker. Essentially, the research suggested that employee satisfaction was a good thing to be concerned with, but it didn't really drive any organizational outcomes. Fast forward a number of years to the current exuberance around employee engagement and the resurgent interest in the psychology of the employee. This research is consistently demonstrating something that we at Corvirtus have known for over 20 years: the employee experience drives the customer experience and the customer experience drives customer retention and revenue. While this concept is simple, the implications are large for any organization that wants to differentiate as a result of the customer experience they provide. If your customers' experience matters to you (and if you are in an industry where you have any competition, it should matter to you), then you need to be as concerned with your employees' experience as you are with your customers’ experience.
This edition of our newsletter will provide some insights into the drivers of compelling employee experiences, as well as give you some significant actions you can take to engage your people to provide the experiences you want your customers to have.
Building a High Quality Work Environment
The old adage, "birds of a feather flock together," holds true for great employees. If you don't have a winning work environment that fosters employee engagement, all your best employees will leave.
by: Dr. Bobby Baker, Vice President
High quality employees will not work in a low quality environment, and bringing great hires on board into a poor work environment will only cause them to leave. It is an unfortunate situation when an extraordinary hire arrives to a less than extraordinary workplace because that hire will not typically stay with the company, nor will they perform if their environment is not at least as great as they are. Creating a great employee environment starts with leadership and, not surprisingly, employees have certain expectations of their leaders. In a broad sense, these employee expectations revolve around three key leadership activities: 1. Providing Clear Direction, 2. Fostering a Sense of Community, and 3. Giving People License to Succeed. Taking steps to ensure that these three critical considerations become an everyday part of your employees' work experience is a fundamental necessity, especially if you expect these same employees to create a truly remarkable customer experience.
Providing Clear Direction - This involves offering open communication, being honest, and ensuring that all employees understand what your business stands for and where it is headed. It is emphasizing teaching over administration or discipline. Above all, it is consistently setting the example as a leader. Doing this instills trust and loyalty within a business and facilitates selfless behavior on the part of your people, reinforcing the delivery of a remarkable experience to customers. Set the example for your people's behavior and your people will follow.
Fostering a Sense of Community - This is showing compassion, fairness, and respect for all of your people. It is actually taking the steps necessary to make people feel special and treated as if they belong. It is encouraging employees, listening, showing respect for their opinions, and recognizing them for a job well done. Make your people feel special and they will forward the favor to your customers.
Giving People License to Succeed - Empower your people. Let them know that your business is committed to their success. By preparing them to grow and offering opportunities for their development, you are able to best leverage their talents - talents that will be used to create a remarkable customer experience. Let your people know that they count and tell them how they are doing. Prepare your people to grow and watch your entire business follow-suit.
Companies that ensure these standards are present in the work environment will reap the reward of employees who feel engaged, proud, and valued. More importantly, employees who value their work environment tend to stay longer, get better at their jobs, and deliver an extraordinary experience to your customers more consistently.
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Delivering Your Intended Brand: Six Keys to an
Authentic Customer Experience
Creating a remarkable customer experience is a choice. Learn about the link between the customer and the employee experience and how it can affect your company's bottom line.
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Tips to Improve the Employee Experience
Four simple tips on how you can increase employee engagement and improve their overall experience, which results in better service for your customers.
by: Dr. Paige Graham, Director of Experience Solutions All of this talk about the importance of employee engagement may have left you wondering, "Have I created the right environment to attract and retain the best employees?" Maybe you're wondering where to start? Below are a few simple tips that will help increase employee engagement, and will build a foundation for a high performance work environment.
Tip #1: Ask Your Employees!
Anonymous surveys are a great way to assess your employees' current level of engagement. This will help you create a baseline so that you can track progress and also focus your efforts in specific areas, which will save time and energy. Conduct feedback sessions to clarify the results and identify concrete opportunities as well as strengths from which clear action can then be taken. Engagement increases when employees are asked for their opinions AND they feel heard. Simply asking and then not acting on the information is the kiss of death. Encouraging your employees to participate in moving the business forward through celebrating strengths and working on opportunities will engage them further.
Tip #2: Encourage Development.
Prepare your employees to grow by providing adequate resources and opportunities for development. Let your employees know that they count by treating them as individuals and specifying how each contributes to success. Be sure to let them know how they are doing along the way.
Tip #3: Reward, Recognize, and Celebrate.
Engage your employees by noticing when they do well and when they take on heavier workloads. Rewarding good work is a proven way to engage your employees. Be sure to set realistic targets, provide rewards that are truly valued by your employees (and will often vary among them), communicate the reward program often, and have many winners.
Tip #4: Create a Positive Work Environment.
Building a great team starts with hiring the right people. Surround yourself with people who make work fun, are service spirited, and demonstrate an optimistic attitude when working alongside others. Once you have employees with the "right stuff," you can enhance engagement by showing compassion, fairness, and respect to all employees. Do this by providing encouragement, listening, respecting others opinions, and treating everyone like they belong.
These four vital tips can provide the positive momentum needed to improve your employees' engagement, which will result in happier customers, increased profits, and will provide your business with a sustainable differentiator from the competition.
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Visit Corvirtus on the web:
www.Corvirtus.com
www.PFRondemand.com
Spotlight on:
OSI
Restaurant Partners
www.osirestaurantpartners.com
It is clear that OSI Restaurant Partners is a pro in the casual dining arena with successful concepts such as Carrabba's Italian Grill, Flemings Prime Steakhouse and Wine Bar, Bonefish Grill, Roy's, Cheeseburger in Paradise, Blue Coral Seafood and Spirits, and Outback Steakhouse listed under their portfolio of brands. One of the most important reasons why OSI is able to continually deliver compelling customer experiences is because employees in all of the concepts have a clear understanding of the customer experience they strive to deliver. In addition, in each concept they know exactly what they are expected to do as well as what they can expect from their management team.
OSI Restaurant Partners knows the importance of the customer experience and how it relates to their employees’ experience. As partners with Corvirtus, we have been able to work together through the years to develop cutting-edge tools such as hourly and management hiring selection, employee experience surveys, and exit interviews designed to select the very best people, gauge the level of employee engagement, and develop ways to improve. OSI's forward thinking and dynamic way of improving the employee experience allows them to stay one step ahead of the competition by always providing their customers with extraordinary experiences each time they visit.
Visit Corvirtus at the
NRA Show!
Be sure to stop by the Corvirtus booth and speak with our experts about the best practices to help your organization hire, develop, and retain employees that will ensure your customers have a memorable experience every time.
National Restaurant Association Show
McCormick Place
Chicago, IL
May 16-19, 2009
Corvirtus staff that will be at NRA:
Taylor Housley
Business Development
Katie Hyskell
Business Development
Rhea Costandine
PR/Marketing
Brian Cawley
Business Development
Brian Frost
Assessment Solutions
Visit Corvirtus at
Booth #3212
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