by Sheila Margolis on January 23, 2011
Does your company use Groupon or other online promotions to pull customers to your business? And does it work?
An interesting article in the Jan.-Feb. 2011 issue of Harvard Business Review by Utpal M. Dholakia of Rice University’s Jones Graduate School of Business, suggests that when companies offer customers deep discounts to drive traffic, unhappy employees can damage the customer experience–and the promotion becomes a losing proposition for the company. Although in theory, the promotion is expected to be an opportunity to increase business and bring in new customers, in practice, deal-seekers often only purchase the deal, are not willing to buy extras, and when they are faced with overworked employees–exhausted from the increased traffic–they don’t want to come back.
Employees may feel overworked and may also disagree with the company even using the coupon program. And when the employees are unhappy, the customer experience will be affected. As the article states:
Your employees stand between your product and your customers, and ultimately they’re the ones who will make a promotion succeed or fail.
So before you use a coupon program to bring in more customers, take the time to include the employees in the decision making and planning process. Get employee input on how to make the experience a success. Through employee participation, you can achieve greater employee ownership and a better experience for the customer.
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by Sheila Margolis on November 10, 2010
Google has been losing talent to Facebook and other competitors so to retain talent, they’ve decided to give everyone–executives and staff–a 10% raise, effective January 1, 2011. According to a Wall Street Journal report,
Roughly 10% of Facebook’s employees are Google veterans, and other Silicon Valley companies have aggressively poached employees from the Internet giant.
An internal memo published by Business Insider that was sent by Google CEO Eric Schmidt to employees states:
We’ve heard from your feedback on Googlegeist and other surveys that salary is more important to you than any other component of pay (i.e., bonus and equity). To address that, we’re moving a portion of your bonus into your base salary, so now it’s income you can count on, every time you get your paycheck. And one last thing…today we’re announcing that everyone will get a holiday cash bonus, too.
The memo also says:
Googlers, you are what makes this company great, and our goal here is to recognize you for your contribution, in a way that’s meaningful to you.
Retaining talent is essential for companies and as Eric Schmidt confirms–the actions that a leader takes to promote retention must be ones that are meaningful to the employee. The solution of throwing money at people is not a bad problem for employees. But research shows that if pay meets two qualities, it no longer serves as a retention tool:
- Pay must be fair. Pay must be fair relative to what others in similar positions in the organization and outside the organization are receiving. If the pay is fair, a higher pay does not tend to be what most people are looking for to be happy at work.
- Pay must be adequate. If an employee is able to live as he or she wants to live with the pay received, then an increase in pay will not typically be a meaningful retention tool.
When pay is both fair and adequate, leaders and managers must look to other areas to promote retention. For example:
- FIT: Is the organization a fit for the employee? Is the organization’s contribution meaningful to the employee? And are the values of the workplace in harmony with the employee’s values?
- TRUST: Does the employee have a trusting workplace that exhibits fairness, respect, integrity and competence?
- CARING: Is the work setting a caring workplace where the employee has meaningful relationships, a sense of belonging and camaraderie?
- COMMUNICATION: Does the employee feel the workplace is transparent, with open, two-way communication?
- DEVELOPMENT: Is the work challenging giving the employee a feeling that he or she is developing skills and building mastery?
- OWNERSHIP: Does the employee feel like an owner–involved and participating in decision making and having flexibility and autonomy?
Retaining employees requires more work than handing out an across-the-board pay raise. Pay is just the initial filter–and once pay has passed the test of being fair and adequate, then the solution to retention is much more complicated. Retention requires ensuring that each employee has an engaging workplace–it’s an individual thing that may require new Priorities that impact the culture of the organization.
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by Sheila Margolis on June 15, 2010
Everyone’s looking for the recipe for employee engagement. How do you get motivated workers? To start, think about the six components to Employee Engagement listed below:
1. FIT
Is the employee a FIT with the organization–its culture? Is the purpose of the organization meaningful to the employee? Are the values of the organization in harmony with the employee’s values?
Is the employee a FIT with the job? Does the employee feel one’s work is significant and is the best use of one’s abilities?
2. TRUST
Do you have a trusting workplace where people feel their leaders have integrity–they’re honest and fair? Do employees respect their leaders?
3. CARING
Does work feel like family? Is collaboration/teamwork encouraged? Do employees have friends at work?
4. COMMUNICATION
Do you have ongoing, open, two-way communication? Do employees feel like leaders/managers listen to them? Is information freely shared?
5. DEVELOPMENT
Does the organization support individual development? Do employees have challenging assignments? Does the workplace encourage achievement and mastery?
6. OWNERSHIP
Do employees have autonomy? Do they feel involved? Do they participate in decision making? Is work flexible?
When employee’s human needs are met, they are more engaged.
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by Sheila Margolis on May 26, 2010
Is your performance management system damaging employee performance? Do some managers put off their annual appraisal meetings because they dread the process as much as the employee? If that’s the case, let’s review a few of the basics of performance management to guide you in the process.
- Employees must participate in the creation of their performance expectations. If employees do not help create the standards by which they are judged, they will not feel ownership of those standards. And ownership produces the commitment and drive you need for organizational success. These performance expectations become the “how” and the “what” to guide the employee.
- Performance expectations should include desired behaviors linked to the culture of the organization. These behaviors are the actions the individual must do that align with the culture of the organization. Each employee must live the core culture principles each day in a variety of ways. These standards are not limited to a particular job; instead, they are across-the-board standards that everyone must adhere to and thus ensure that the culture is expressed continuously. For example, if your organization is all about “attention to detail,” then each employee is guided by that standard.
- Performance expectations should include desired behaviors linked to the job. With each job, there may be unique behaviors that are required. These behaviors must be incorporated in the standards for the employee.
- Performance expectations should include expected outcomes. Employees must have defined outcomes to achieve that link to the organization’s goals. These individual goals give the employee a big picture view of the organization’s strategy. By understanding the individual outcomes that will contribute to the organization’s goals, each employee can be a key player in moving the organization toward success.
- Ongoing feedback is the key to improved performance. Highly engaged employees get daily, weekly, or monthly feedback–not just an annual performance review. But there’s one problem with feedback: it’s not so easy to do it right. That’s why so many managers avoid it. Feedback must be timely–provided as close as possible to the occurrence of the behavior. That’s a feature that annual reviews can’t offer. Feedback must also be specific–it must describe the behavior in exact terms. Feedback must be genuine–using personal pronouns such as “I.” And feedback must be given in a supportive and positive environment. Feedback can be an informal, ongoing exchange.
- The performance review session offers an opportunity to plan for the employee’s development. An employee’s performance–in relation to the behavioral standards and expected outcomes–offers a good opportunity to discuss development needs. Use the performance review as a time to identify areas for development and a plan for obtaining that development.
- Does the employee get a score? This is a key question to answer because “the score” is what contributes to the threatening nature of the process. The score is what can make employees get defensive. The score is what causes discussion to be distracted from the real intent of the process–to improve performance. If your purpose is to have a rating to guide pay, rewards, and reduction in force, then you will need a number. But be clear: the process then becomes less of a development tool. Some organizations have pay and promotion discussions as a separate activity. That allows the review to be solely a development tool and more open discussion usually occurs when there is less concern that pay will be impacted.
- Managers must be trained in the performance management process. Giving feedback and consistently using the scales for measuring one’s performance are essential skills. Don’t assume all managers have a consistent understanding of the standards and the scales used or the necessary skills for giving effective feedback. Discussion and training are often required for the process to be effective and to do what it’s designed to do–improve performance.
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