Did you know there is actually a word for employees’ who get fired due to content in their blogs? It is called being “dooced”. A number of high profile dismissals or “doocings” over the past few years underscore the need for companies to have blogging policies or guidelines. Let’s face it, with 340 million blogs worldwide, chances are, at least one of your employees’ is blogging, and if even if they aren’t yet, they will be soon. Blogging policies and guidelines help set the ground rules for employee blogs and ensure that everyone is on the same page in terms of what’s appropriate and acceptable.

Where do you start? At a minimum, you’re probably going to need HR involvement, and f you’re got a Legal Department make sure to run a draft past them. But, most importantly make sure you actively involve your employees in the process. Find out who’s already blogging and get their input. Companies that have the most success implementing blogging policies and guidelines have all utilized experts – the employees themselves. IBM developed its’ blogging policy over a ten-day period during which employee bloggers used an internal “wiki” to collaborate and exchange ideas. Okay, for those of us still learning the lingo, a “wiki” is a website that allows multiple users to view, edit, and contribute content. It’s fast, it’s easy, and it works.

What should you include? Firstly, companies should develop policies and guidelines that reflect their mission, culture, values and visions. That said, many companies find it useful to borrow and modify what other companies have done. Surprisingly, Microsoft and Google don’t have formal blogging policies or guidelines but companies like IBM, Yahoo and Sun Microsystems do. Although each set of policies and guidelines are specific to the individual companies most share some common themes. For example, Employees:

Are responsible for their own content and commentaries, and it must be clear that they are the views of the employees and not the company.

Must abide by company codes of conduct; confidentiality and privacy (this includes all proprietary information).

Must be respectful of co-workers and customers.

Should blog on their own time unless otherwise indicated.

Should route any media inquiries should through the appropriate PR or HR channels.

Must use common sense.

In closing, investing the time to develop blogging policies or guidelines now can help you avoid having to have an employee “dooced” in the future.

Posted by Judy McLeish at 11:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

BLOG noun [short for Weblog]: a Web site that contains an online personal journal with reflections, comments, and often hyperlinks provided by the writer. Authoring a blog, maintaining a blog or adding an article to an existing blog is called blogging. A person who posts entries to a blog is called a blogger.

It’s official…employee blogs have replaced the “water cooler” as the place to gossip about employers and co-workers. A recent study by the Employment Law Alliance found that 5% of American workers maintain a personal blog. While, there are no formal statistics related to the number of corporate sanctioned and unsanctioned employee blogs, conservative estimates put the number into the ten’s of thousands.

Clearly, employees have a lot on their mind, and blogging provides a fast and immediate way to get their voices heard.

There are two types of employee blogs:

1.Those written for external audiences. These can be sanctioned by a company, see the Southwest Airlines blog, or created by an employee or group of employees with the goal of sharing their own views about the company. See the McDonald's blog.

2. Those leveraged internally by employees and corporations to share information and ideas.

In many cases employers’ have little or no control over the content of employee blogs. This is especially true for blogs created on an employees’ own time and equipment, such as the McDonald’s blog above. Bloggers’ can also choose to be identified by their real name, a pseudonym, or remain anonymous making it more difficult to hold employees accountable for what they write in their blogs.

So, what are they blogging about? They are blogging to share experiences; to gather feedback; to offer advice about products or services. And they are using blogs as a forum to complain or rant about their bosses and co-workers; their pay or benefits; and anything else that they don’t like about their place of work.

Employees at all levels, in all types of jobs, are finding themselves in the interesting and enviable position. They are acting as unofficial spokespeople for a company, advocating for or against a companies products, policies, and views. They can enhance a companies’ reputation or tarnish it.

Why should you be aware of this phenomenon? Because people are listening to what these employee bloggers have to say. Some bloggers have as many as 10,000 hits a day – that makes for powerful word-of-mouth marketing.

We believe that all companies should find a way to incorporate blogging into their corporate psyche. Blogging is here to stay, and those that find a way to embrace it will be one step closer to winning the “hearts and minds” of their employees and customer.

Posted by Judy McLeish at 11:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Everyone should view the training module developed by Despair Inc. on Employee Complaints.
This is a great spoof on how to reduce employee complaints, by showing employees that things could get worse!

Posted by Judy McLeish at 11:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

We love the new Southwest Airlines blog.http://www.blogsouthwest.com
It is wonderful to hear real employees sharing their views with a larger community.

We have all heard it a million times – that leadership makes a difference. But, to hear it from real employees is much more powerful. Everyone should read the blog by David Evans, Jr., and Orlando-based captain, titled “The World’s Greatest Corporate Leaders”. David starts his blog (see category Working at Southwest) by saying:

“So, if you just sit back and listen, without prompting, over and over you will hear Employees across the SWA system in every job description, saying great things about our corporate Leaders and knowing in their hearts that the leadership at the top truly is looking out for the good of the whole Company. I think that is a good thing. We don’t have to put out memos telling us that Gary or Colleen did this or that “for the good of the Company;” we just know that our Leaders live for Southwest 24/7.”

He then goes on to talk about why pride and trust in leadership is so important to the success of Southwest.

“So, at Southwest Airlines, Employees go out and do our jobs, “worrying” about taking care of our beloved Customers instead of being concerned about our Leaders at the top. We have our jobs to do, and our Executives have theirs, and everyone at Southwest does what they are supposed to do very well and very efficiently. It is a simple thing, but Southwest is about to celebrate its 35th anniversary because of the simple things we do better than anyone else.”

Wouldn’t it be nice if all companies had employee-advocates who boasted about having the greatest corporate leaders!

Posted by Judy McLeish at 11:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Posted by Judy McLeish at 11:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Another great campaign that isn’t maximizing its potential!

Would you outfit all of your employees with a shirt featuring your new ad campagin, and then not fully explain the rationale of the campaign to those wearing it? Well that's what President’s Choice Financial Services just did! They now have all of their employees wearing the shirt, but only one in four employees can actually tell you why they are wearing the shirt or what the campaign is all about! When asked about the new campaign, we heard things like:

“I am not sure what it is about, I must have missed the training."

"We have lots of these shirts the colors are amazing!"

"It is mandatory that we wear these shirts, I am not sure what it is all about."

"It is about a new credit card."

We doubt this is the response that President’s Choice Financial wanted. So what’s the point – brand awareness, maybe? We are guessing that their goal was to attract new customers, and grow the business that they have with their existing customer base. Will the campaign be viewed as a success, maybe? But, will they realize their full potential – absolutely not!

We are financial services implementation experts, and continue to ask ourselves why companies continue to spend millions of dollars on flashy ad campaigns, but fail to make the required investment on those who have to deliver the message. Why do companies continue to expect their front line staff to be able to sell more products and services, without any coaching or training on what to say when they interact with the customer?

Next time, we would suggest that before equipping every employee with a new bright-colored shirt – take the time to determine what you want your employees to say about the new campaign before they start interacting with your customers!

Posted by Judy McLeish at 11:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

According to Hesket, Sasser, and Schlesinger (The Value Profit Chain), an apostle is someone that exhibits a high degree of loyalty while convincing others to purchase. More importantly, these are customers who take responsibility for the continued success of an offer or brand, by taking the time to complain or by providing a steady stream of suggestions.

Dave Werner is a customer apostle. Go to his website www.okaydave.com and click on Wachovia, at the bottom of the page. Wait for the movie to launch. The presentation on Wachovia starts with Dave standing by a Wachovia ATM. He begins by saying:

"This is my bank, Wachovia. I have been with them for about five years now, and they have always had great, friendly service. But their website - is a little on the crappy side."

Why is Dave an apostle? He takes the time to not only comment on the Wachovia website experience, but he actually takes the time to research and develop a Brand Strategy Brief that outlines the problems with their current system, and provides suggestions on how they can imporve while remaining faithful to the brand.

We certanly hope that Wachovia has thanked Dave for his insighful commentary. Dave Werner proves that it is possible to create customer apostles!

Posted by Judy McLeish at 11:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

For any company truly committed to creating a differentiated customer service experience – The Fred Factor should be a must read for all employees. Click here to read it.

In this book, Mark Sanborn tells the true story of a mail carrier, Fred, who transforms the service that he provides to his customers through his own commitment to making a difference in the lives of those he serves.

This book is inspirational. Why? Because Fred doesn’t have a corporate hand book or a set of service standards he has to follow – he is a real person, who believes that it is critical to make the most of each day.

“I want to go home at the end of the day feeling like I’ve taken care of my folks. I don’t think of them as postal customers, but as friends who appreciate me for helping make their lives a little easier.”

Companies need to demonstrate to their employees that everyone can impact the experience that is provided to customers – this book is the perfect starting point to demonstrating why it is important to do “more than just enough to get by.”

Let us know, what you think.

Posted by Judy McLeish at 11:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The old adage, "people are our most important asset," is actually true. Every successful organization has an obsession with the customer. Most are focused on accelerating their growth and profitability by attracting, retaining, and deepening customer relationships in the markets they serve.

We are also obsessed by the customer, and believe that focusing on deepening customer relationships should be the lifeblood of every organization. But, we believe that if a company wants to move from good to truly exceptional they also have to have a cult-like obsession with creating engaged and passionate employees. Inside every organization is a dynamic resource that is often only an observer in an organizations drive for both growth and profitability. That’s right – we believe organizations need to become even more employee-focused. They need to focus on empowering their employees with the goal of creating employee ecstasy – an excessive and overmastering joy or enthusiasm for driving, attracting, retaining, and deepening customer relationships.

Yes, for all of you skeptics – a more employee-focused organization will drive both growth and profitability. How? According to Tom Brown, Second Curve Capital – “research indicates that the top 10% of employees typically deliver 6 to 8 times the performance of employees in the middle or bottom deciles.”

Gallop research shows that engaged employees use their talents every day, and deliver consistently high levels of performance. They are natural innovators, with high energy and enthusiasm, who build supportive relationships, and never run out of things to do. The sad thing, according to a Gallop Poll is that only 26% of workers in the US, and 24% of Canadian workers are engaged. According to Bank Training International, engaged workplaces are:

• 50% more likely to have lower turnover.
• 56% more likely to have higher than average customer loyalty.
• 38% more likely to have above average productivity.
• 27% more likely to report higher profitability.

Do you know how engaged or ecstatic your employees are? Do you have a human capital model that correlates a range of employee metrics with business performance indicators? If you don’t becoming truly exceptional will never be in your grasp!

Posted by Judy McLeish at 11:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Welcome to my blog – The Employee Factor. My name is Judy McLeish. Four years ago, I started a consulting services firm called McDaniel Partners (www.mcdanielpartners.com). McDaniel Partners was founded to help companies solve strategic issues. Over the course of our existence, we have come across wonderfully thought out, smart, and well-intentioned corporate strategies, programs, initiatives, and campaigns. While many of these efforts were successful, a large number lost focus, fell short of expectations, or died with barely a whimper – often after great expense and fanfare.

When we looked more closely, in every case the Executives knew the strategy, program, campaign, or initiative in intricate detail. They understood the rationale, the impact, and the associated benefits. It was the Executives that ensured that these brilliantly packaged programs, initiatives, and campaigns arrived in droves, piling up on desks in every company, awaiting only proper implementation. These included programs for introducing new products, initiatives to improve sales, increase customer satisfaction levels, and new loyalty campaigns.

So what was going wrong? Why were so many corporate programs, initiatives and campaigns failing to realize the expected benefits? Every company had the right objective, but many had failed to properly equip their “experience creators” – their employees – with the tools and techniques to successfully implement the corporate mandate. In almost every case employees became responsible for implementing something that was delivered in a generic format that failed to ignite passion and enthusiasm. Sound ludicrous? We thought so to, but our first hand research has shown us it isn’t. As a result, we have become passionate about helping companies deliver, implement, and sustain their corporate initiatives, by helping to capture the “hearts and minds” of their employees.

In my future blog postings, I'm going to share our perspectives on employees, the companies they work for, and the strategies that they need to implement together. Thank you for joining me, and I look forward to hearing what you have to say.

Posted by Judy McLeish at 11:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)