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Welcome to this month's edition of
The Quest for Workplace Excellence (on-line
edition.)
During the past fifteen years,
Peter Barron Stark &
Associates has had the pleasure of partnering with with
hundreds of organizations and surveying nearly 75,000
employees around the world. While these organizations
vary greatly in the nature of their business, they have one
thing in common. They all place a high value on their
employees' opinions. In reviewing our survey data, we
find that these organizations are committed to building a
culture where employees love to come to work and customers
love to do business. To learn more about how these
cultures are built, we turned to the experts – our
clients, and asked them what they felt contributed
to their success and high levels of employee satisfaction.
Last month we shared the first two
principles of workplace excellence. (To view last
month's issue, click here.) This month we bring the next two
principles and trust that learning from the "Best of the Best"
will help your organization become a fantastic place to work!
Strive for excellence, not perfection,
Peter B. Stark
and Jane S.
Flaherty
Principle #3 –
We’re all in this together…get employees
involved.
Leaders of our award-winning organizations understand that
an organization doesn’t change until the people within the
organization choose to change. Successful leaders know that
while organizational change can be mandated, there's no
guarantee that employees will “buy into” the change. The
best way to create change and keep employees positively
engaged is to get them involved and utilize their input. To
effect change that sticks, great leaders in organizations
known for workplace excellence publicly communicate their
intentions and solicit feedback. They find out how employees
feel about the change and design a strategy to deal with any
concerns. During times of significant change, great leaders
also delegate more responsibility to employees and hold them
accountable for making the change happen. Finally, great
leaders make sure their recognition and reward systems honor
individuals and teams that support the change.
Organizational consultants Price Pritchett and Ron Pound
state, “If you do not make significant changes in the reward
system, you will actually reward resistance.”
“At California Coast Credit Union, developing
workplace excellence is becoming everyone’s responsibility,
not just management’s,” explains Victoria Kuebler, Vice
President of Human Resources, “Too often the expectation in
organizations is, ‘I told you what to fix, now fix it!’ We
wanted to involve everyone in making California Coast Credit
Union an excellent place to work.” California Coast formed a
committee whose purpose is to facilitate communication about
employee opinion survey results and involve all employees in
creating positive changes to improve morale within the
credit union. As part of the process, each department
develops a “Bill of Rights” for its internal customers,
outlining the service that can be expected from that
department.
Are your employees actively engaged in
bringing about change?
To successfully implement change,
develop a plan that answers these questions:
- What information and expectations
need to be communicated?
- What questions will you ask to
solicit feedback and identify concerns?
- Which responsibilities will you
delegate?
- How will you measure your
progress in the change effort and what behaviors and/or
results will you reward
Principle #4 –
Get passionate about service.
Great organizations understand that there is a definite
correlation between high levels of employee satisfaction and
customer satisfaction. In addition to focusing on creating a
great work environment, these organizations are passionate about
service, hold themselves and others accountable to high
standards, and continually look for ways to improve service
delivery. Listen to what three of our award winners had to say
about service.
WD-40 leaders utilize their employee opinion survey
results to develop a “Service Vision Initiative.” During an
interview, WD-40 CEO Garry Ridge shared this insight: “Through
the use of cross-departmental teams, we are creating a passion
for great service to our customers (people we sell to, buy from
and work with), with the goal of building positive relationships
with our customers for life.”
North Island Financial Credit Union noted that staying in
touch with employees through the survey process keeps
communication flowing and ensures that our employees are
satisfied, which in turn translates into high levels of member
satisfaction and financial success.”
John Campbell from the La Jolla Beach & Tennis Club
explained, “Training our employees with the standards that we
have developed from the employee opinion survey enables us to
provide better service and a better physical environment to our
members and guests. This positive guest environment increases
sales, which deliver profits to the shareholders. The employee
opinion survey helps employees, customers and owners alike.”
Does your organization have a passion for service?
To develop an organization-wide focus
on service, create a service strategy that addresses the
following three questions, then put everyone to work “wowing”
your customers.
- What is your service vision?
- Do your systems and processes
support your vision?
- What skills, behaviors and
attitudes do your people need to possess to create an
environment where customers love to do business?
(Next
month we'll share two more principles of Workplace
Excellence)
If you'd like to forward this issue to
a friend or colleague, please click on the link below.
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