Are You Showing Employees That You Care?

Over the years, we have spent a great deal of hours speaking with employees. We often talk about how engaged they are in their work and what they expect from a company and its leaders. What is particularly interesting is that what employees often focus on is how they perceive themselves to be treated by the senior leaders at the company. Below I cite some examples of what employees have complained about to our team…

The CEO didn’t send a condolence card or flowers to his secretary when her mother died;

Two senior executives walked by an employee who had a flat tire in the parking lot and didn’t offer to help;

Senior executives often ride up in the elevator or walk the hall and don’t acknowledge us, their employees, with a warm hello or even a nod.

The executive didn’t thank me for my efforts or recognize me for my work. Doesn’t he know how much effort I put into making this project a success?

It is interesting that in this day and age – companies haven’t figured out that one of the main things our employees are looking for is to feel cared for by the senior executives they work for.

For years, companies have focused on enhancing perks such as pay raises, performance bonuses and even extra vacation time. But dangling these types of incentives hasn’t moved the needle on engagement. According to Towers Perrin, employees are looking for senior management to be sincerely interested in his or her well being. I can certainly attest to the fact that employees are looking for senior executives to show they care about them based on the many conversations I have had with employees over the years.

What is interesting is that so few executives really understand that they can make or break their employees’ day, week or career. Executives are really a powerful determinant of how employees feel about themselves and their company – day-in and day-out.

If I was giving advice to the senior leadership team, I would tell them to:

Recognize that employees are watching their every move. If you pass an employee in the parking lot with a flat tire – they will feel that you don’t care about them personally. If you don’t say hello in the morning or when you see your employees – you can deflate their energy and enthusiasm to go the extra mile for your company.
Get to know as many employees as you can. Do you know the names of the spouses of your employees? Their children’s names? Their goals, dreams, stressors, what excites them and how they define success? There are NO excuses. Show an interest in their well-being - believe me it will make a difference.
Be visible and accessible. It is interesting. When asked so many leaders state that they are accessible to every employee. Yet just 44 percent of employees believe that senior management is both visible and accessible. Imagine less than half of your most valuable assets believe that executives are accessible and visible…it certainly makes me wonder what is going on in the executive suite?
Don’t lose touch with your employees. We know you are busy, but far too many executives have people take their calls, screen their email, drive them places, run errands for them, etc. They live in their corner office, travel in first class, and stay at five-star hotels. They have worked hard for these privileges; few would suggest that they don't deserve them – but far too many executives lose sight of what it is really like to be a struggling employee working for the company they are leading. Are you an executive who has lost touch?
Treat employees like they are valuable assets. Words are cheap. Too many times companies state in their annual report that their employees are their most valuable assets. However, when asked about 10 percent of employees actually believe the rhetoric and more than 50 percent believe they are treated like they are just something else to manage – that they really don’t matter.
Match your words and your actions. Sounds simple enough – walk the walk or talk the talk. But less than half of employees really believe that senior executives do what they say they will do. How can any company expect to compete and win, if their employees can’t trust what they say?
And my last bit of advice is that executives should never forget the fact that your greatest assets walk out the door every night, and what you have to hope is that they return the next morning.

Are you showing your employees that you care about them?

Posted by Judy McLeish at 03:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

Gen Y's Want Change - What Can Firms Do?

It is interesting that the companies are still having trouble finding ways to engage Gen Y. I know we have been harping on this reality for quite sometime – but I can’t help but wonder whether or not companies are really listening to employees.

We all know that Gen Yers want change. We know that they don’t want to stay too long on any one assignment or at job for that matter. Yet, so many companies continue to fail to listen or think of innovative ways to address this reality. Talent Managers still seem shocked when a Gen Y employee walks out the door.

I had a very interesting lunch with a Gen Y the other day. This individual had been employed at Deloitte consulting and was going to pursue an MBA. After our lunch he was having his exit meeting. What I found so interesting was that even Deloitte was still trying to figure out how to manage the vast group of Gen Y’s that work for them. What is even more interesting is that Deloitte is helping other companies figure out how to engage their employees and hasn’t even figured it out for themselves…

As he rightly pointed out - how hard can it be? He proceeded to go on and suggest some very simple things that a consulting company could do to address the fact that Gen Y employees don’t want to stay in any one assignment for too long, they want change and they want to learn. As he said in our meeting, consulting firms hire people that have a high appetite for learning, are flexible and smart and then they trap them in the same role, company and assignment for years and then wonder why they walk out the door!

So what can a consulting firm (or other company) do to retain the Gen Ys?

Meet with employees every six months. Recognize the fact that after six months the employer must take the time to ask an employee how they are doing on a job assignment and whether or not they need a change.

Rotate roles within a job assignment. We know that this concept is rather foreign to consulting companies who are utlization focused. But companies need to make sure that their employees continue to learn and feel inspired and engaged by what they are doing by giving them new roles and challenges within an assignment.

Be prepared to move people around – even if it is not the most cost effective method. If an employee wants to change roles or assignments have another employee shadow them in their role for a week to ensure a seamless transition – then move the employee to something new to revitalize them.

Keep the pace fast and interesting. The worst thing for an employee is to master the role and feel that the opportunities for challenge and learning is limited. Make sure you think of ways to change the role and create new ways for the employee to learn.

Listen, listen, listen. We bet many of your employees say that they don’t matter to the firm. That it is simply utilization that you are after. If you want to retain good Gen Ys then you must learn to listen, be flexible, and offer continuous opportunities to learn.

If you aren’t willing to listen, change and innovate than don’t be surprised with this group of employees continues to walk out the door looking for the next challenge!!

Posted by Judy McLeish at 02:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

Chinese Managers are a Formidable Cadre of Executives – Western Managers Beware!

The Institute of Leadership and Management (ILM) released a very interesting report titled China Vs the World. The ILM research featured in this reported explored some fundamentally important questions about management across the globe.

It put a range of key questions to managers in four of the world’s leading economies – the UK, US, France and China. What makes a great manager? What are managers good and bad at? How well do you understand managers in other countries? How good are your fellow managers? What improvements would make you a better manager?

The research findings are very interesting.

Western Managers views of the Chinese Managers are still rooted in the past. When asked they often portray China as an authoritarian, sweat shop economy, fond of bending rules, such as those on intellectual capital and property rights and with scant regard for the environment or concepts such as corporate social responsibility.
The research paints a very different picture of the Chinese Manager. Chinese Managers have a high regard for rules, are customer focused, and concerned about safety and their impact on the environment. They are ethical, principled and value team work. Above all they value wisdom and knowledge, and while willing to acknowledge weaknesses are also determined to correct them.
The ideal manager as revealed by the research is – determined to get things done, has good communication skills, good general knowledge, wisdom and the ability to learn, takes responsibility and enjoys good relationships with others.
Western Managers appear to be growing complacent in both critical self appraisal of their competencies and their approach to management education.
Reflection and self-awareness are essential ingredients for managers who want to get better at what they do. Worryingly, over 65% of the managers questioned in the UK, US, and France were unable to identify management weaknesses in the business that they felt could be holding back development. The Chinese managers were very clear about the areas in which they needed to improve.

Click here to view the report.

Posted by Judy McLeish at 02:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Can Organizational Democracy Build Employee Engagement?

By Jennifer Kelly:

While there is little doubt a workplace that fosters democracy by giving employees a voice and a stake in the outcome of their work engages employees. However, there is a great deal of debate as to whether organization democracy is a realistic and achievable goal in the workplace.

Democratic governments throughout the world have at one time or another struggled with the best way to implement a “government for the people, by the people” so it shouldn’t be too surprising that there is a resistance to the concept within the corporate world.

According to WorldBlu which publishes “The WorldBlu List of Most Democratic Workplaces™”, organizational democracy is “achieved when an organization uses the principles of democracy to design the way it operates daily, cultivating a workplace that enhances employee potential achieving its business goals and positively impacting the community.” As Traci Fenton, WorldBlu CEO explains, “it’s not about everyone voting, but everyone having a vote”. In other words, it’s not about employees always being able to decide what should be done - it’s about including employees in decisions about HOW things should be done. When top management makes a strategic decision, there are often many different ways of executing the strategy.

Employees who are close to a product, service or customer can provide invaluable input and information in terms of deciding how to implement a strategy. Employees are also more likely to buy in to a specific implementation plan if they own it – in other words, if they have helped to develop it.

Notable examples of companies that have embraced organizational democracy, or at least significant aspects, of it include; Southwest Airlines, Whole Foods, GE Durham Plant, Linden Lab, 1-800-GOT-JUNK and Semco, a manufacturing company in Brazil. These companies understand that organizational democracy is a key component of employee engagement and a powerful way to attract and retain top talent, stimulate innovation, and boost the bottom line.
Of the 25 companies selected for WorldBlu’s 2008 Most Democratic Workplaces:

Over half the organizations on the WorldBlu List are headed by CEOs 40 and younger.
All major industries, including manufacturing, technology, telecommunication, healthcare, media, retail and services, made this year's List.
Fourteen of the organizations sustained their place on the WorldBlu List for the second year in a row.
The entire WorldBlu List represents over $8 billion in annual sales.

WorldBlu’s goal is to see the creation of 10,000 democratic organizations around the world by 2020. Will your organization be one of them?

Posted by Judy McLeish at 03:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

Joining the "New Fashioned" Conversation!

By: Jennifer Kelly

Yesterday I attended the Canadian Marketing Association’s 2^nd annual Word of Mouth conference and had an opportunity to hear a number of industry experts and companies discuss and debate various aspects of word of mouth marketing.

The CMA defines word of mouth or WOM as “the authentic and enthusiastic sharing of opinions about a product, service, etc., between two or more people.”. Word of mouth may seem like the latest buzz phrase or trend but it isn’t a new concept. WOM has been around for a very long time. As Doug Rushkoff so aptly noted in the closing presentation at the WOM conference, word of mouth pre-dates the written word. Before social media, before the internet, before television and radio and books, people learned about things by talking to each other. Jump to the 21^st century and people are still learning about things by talking to each other.

According to McKinsey, three-quarters of all industries are driven by word of mouth. Bain says there is no better force to drive sales growth than strong customer advocacy. Booz Allen says, “Make your consumer an advocate: Shift marketing objectives from sending a message to facilitating conversations with and between consumers.”

Research done by the Keller Fay Group found that 90% of WOM is done in person or via phone. This number might be surprising considering the proliferation and popularity of online social media but here’s the interesting thing.

While the majority of WOM happens offline, experts believe the biggest opportunity to effect/shape or even influence WOM is online and this is perhaps the reason for what seems to be, a heightened awareness or focus on WOM.

Social media provides an organizations with an enormous opportunity to become a part of the consumer-driven, word of mouth conversation. Companies that have a well planned, well researched social media strategy that includes listening, participating and measuring the daily conversations and chatter that takes place over the internet will have a distinct advantage in the area of WOM marketing. It takes time, diligence and commitment to be an active participant in the social media phenomenon, but for companies that do choose to participate and do it well, the results and benefits of are well worth the effort.

Next week, I’ll talk about some of the companies that presented at the conference and share some of their unique and very interesting insights in WOM.

Posted by Judy McLeish at 12:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Is Absenteeism Hurting Your Bottom-Line?

Think about it for a moment. How many of your employees constantly take short-term unauthorized leaves from work? While absenteeism is usually sickness related - it can also be caused by a lack of motivation, domestic difficulties or poor management.

A great case study on improving absenteeism is the Royal Mail. Four years ago, the Royal Mail was struggling with absence rates. Nearly 12,000 of its employees were off work at any one time, costing the organization more than £1m a day. It had also seen its profits slump and losses widen in the previous financial year, meaning savings were vital across the business.Yet after significant investment in absence management, the Royal Mail reduced absence rates for its 167,000-strong workforce from 7% to 5%. About 3,600 employees who had previously been absent were back at work, saving the group £227m.

According to the article in the Personnel Today, the company invested in a number of activities to improve attendance. These included:

A £46m investment in health and wellbeing activities to improve attendance;
A £350,000 occupational health and gym facility at Royal Mail's main London sorting office;
An incentive scheme for staff, which offered employees the chance to win a car in a prize draw if they had a 100% attendance record. (Just one year later, the group had slashed its absenteeism rates by 1.1% - the equivalent of 1,800 extra people at work per day);
Providing training to managers to help them keep in regular contact with staff who were off sick; and
Monitoring attendance records, so managers could discuss behaviour and any patterns with individual staff members.

Ben Willmont, the employee relations advisor at CIPD, labelled the policies impressive because they made line managers take ownership for absence issues.

"Royal Mail completely focused on the importance of line managers taking primary responsibility for managing absence, and for creating healthy workplace environments - such as enabling early access to occupational health services," he said.

Yet the simple tactic of monitoring attendance is how Royal Mail improved its absence rates, according to Boorman. "Improved monitoring of absence and consistent management support enabled managers to intervene earlier with occupational health to avoid longer absence, and avoid loss of contact with individuals who were sick."

Royal Mail's tips for reducing absenteeism:

Empower line managers to improve attendance record-keeping
Train managers on attendance and sickness absence
Improve access to occupational health services including physiotherapy and occupational therapy. Refer employees to OH on day one.
Advertise OH services to staff.

We would add another tip to reducing absenteeism – monitor the engagement level more frequently so that you can monitor the pulse of employees who may be absent due to motivational issues, domestic issues or disillusionment with the job or the management team. What is your company doing to better manage absenteeism?

Posted by Judy McLeish at 11:17 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Will the iPhone Revolutionize Social Media in the Workplace?

Apple recently announced the long awaited launch of its popular iPhone in Canada. Set to go on sale July 11, 2008, the new iPhone 3G will provide fast access to the “real” internet (not your cell phone providers abridged version of the internet). Users will be able to surf the web, download email, get directions, and watch video (including YouTube), even when they are on a call.

So why do organizations need to pay attention to iPhone and its capabilities? Because the iPhone takes PDA’s to a whole different level – think of a supercharged, super cool Blackberry - only better. Now think about employees bringing these supercharged, super cool devices to work with them. Employees who have previously had restricted or no access to the internet will soon be able to access it anytime, anywhere via an iPhone. Right about now, you’re probably thinking, what’s new about that? Anyone with a PDA already has the potential to access the internet (or at least parts of it) anytime, anywhere. But have you ever tried doing it? Connectivity is slow and navigation is cumbersome making accessing the internet via a PDA an unappealing option. The iPhone’s new 3G technology changes all that. Access to the internet will be quick and users will be able to log onto familiar sites such as YouTube and iTunes and receive email from multiple exchange systems like Yahoo! Mail, GMail, and AOL. Online social networking, blogs and microblogs will be at their fingertips.

Will people really use their iPhones to connect to internet? You bet. A survey by Viewpoints.com, a rating and review site, found:

48% of iPhone users frequently use their iPhones to look up specific information online, compared with 5% of other cell phone users.
45% of iPhone owners frequently use their phones to browse online, compared with only 6% of users of other brands of cell phones.

Viewpoints Network CEO Matt Moog explained that “Our research shows that the iPhone is seen more as an extension of a computer than it is of a phone.” With these statistics, it’s a sure bet that employees will be using their iPhones to access the internet and stay connected to their social networks at some point during the day.

So, what can organizations do short of banning iPhone’s in the workplace (definitely not a recommended step in relation to fostering employee engagement)?

Well, now might be a good time to take a serious look at social media and start creating some strategies and guidelines around its use.

Find a way for employees to participate and utilize the various social media outlets. Social media isn’t going away so the best thing companies can do is recognize the enormous potential and impact it can have on marketing, brand, customer experience and employee engagement and incorporate it into their strategies.

Posted by Judy McLeish at 08:07 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

From Growing Up Online to Disconnected at Work!

A Frontline news and video report on kids growing up online is a must see. What struck me about the chapters is that something was missing. What was missing? What happens when these hyper-connected kids, who have grown up online enter the workforce? How do we keep them engaged?

We are already seeing it today. Managers are struggling with Gen Y – the most tech-savvy generation that has ever entered the workforce. But, we are now facing Gen Z – the iGeneration. And frankly, if your work environment is struggling with Gen Y – you might as well forget about being able to engage Gen Z unless you radically change the way you are operating!

These kids are always on the Internet. They have five windows open at once and are talking to three people at the same time. They are living their lives online and use the Internet and social networking sites to connect with their friends. In fact, the Internet and social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook are the hub of their social life. Now imagine they enter the workplace. They are used to being online. They want to be entertained and have immediate access to information. They want to create, to have their views listened to. And yes, they want to connect constantly to their friends during working hours! Yet, far too many companies are still operating in the same way they did in the 1970s – restricting access to the Internet and the hub of their social life -facebook and MySpace. They continue to communicate with type written memos, boring newsletters, procedural documents. They aren’t creative and often default to the leadership hierarchy for innovative ideas.

Is this relationship between the iGeneration and the working world doomed before it even starts?

Only time will tell. Companies must start the process of changing how they operate and how they engage their employees - now, before it is too late. They must figure our ways to keep their employees connected, creative and passionate. And, if they continue to think of ways to restrict these employees – we believe that the relationship between the new online generation and the traditional working world will be guaranteed to be a rocky one.

Our advice - in looking at engaging your employees - segment your employee population by generation to ensure that you are doing the right things and deploying the right strategies to engage the online generations!

Posted by Judy McLeish at 10:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Maybe the Traditional Approach to Engagement is All Wrong!

Everyone is focusing on creating a workforce that is truly engaged. But maybe their focus is too broad? Maybe focusing on engaging the entire workforce is a strategy that won’t yield immediate and lasting results.

I mean, we have been talking about employee engagement since the early 1990s. And yet, depending on the source anywhere from 40-70 percent of employees continue to be classified as neutral, middle of the road or agnostic. What makes these numbers especially discouraging is that over the past two decades, we have been trying to realize the benefits of empowerment, teamwork, recognition, people development, performance management and new leadership styles. So why do we continue to report employee engagement levels that are sub-par at best?

Maybe our approach is all wrong. Maybe we are too focused on the drivers of engaging the entire employee population and are not focused on where engagement starts.

Engagement starts at the top. We all know that. In fact, the actions of senior leaders and overall workplace programs and policies and the actions of the direct manager have a tremendous impact on overall employee engagement levels.

So what is wrong with what companies are doing? We know that they are all developing leadership programs to help them engage employees. But we think they have forgotten something important. We think companies need to shift their focus from engaging their entire workforce to engaging their leaders first and foremost.

According to a DDI Study only 25% of senior leaders and only 17% of frontline leaders are truly engaged? Without engaged leaders creating an engaged workforce is virtually impossible.

So here is what we are proposing.

Stop what you are doing that is related to engaging the entire worforce. We think you are wasting time and money. Why? Everyone is working on engagement, yet we are NOT moving the needle.
Conduct an employee engagement survey on your entire LEADERSHIP team (yes, we said leadership) right down to the individual leader. Please don’t use your traditional employee survey but a survey designed to only measure employee engagement.
Assess the engagement scores of your senior managment team and every direct manager.
Based on the results, design an approach to engage your entire senior management team as well as your frontline leaders.
Focus on the drivers of leadership engagement. What do we mean? Develop programs based on what your leaders are telling you. These drivers should be predictors of leadership loyalty - that they will remain, recommend and be willing to "unleash" their discretionary effort.
Six months later, conduct ANOTHER LEADERSHIP engagement survey to see whether the programs that you have introduced are moving the needle on leadership engagement.
Identify which leaders are still not engaged.
Individually coach them and remember if you can’t engage them – you will need to think deal with them. Disengaged leaders can have a devastating impact on your most important assets – your entire employee base!

Let us know your thoughts.

Posted by Judy McLeish at 08:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (7) | TrackBacks (0)

Umpqua Bank Creates Social Networking Site - But is it Effective?

Increasingly companies are trying to become part of the social networking scene. For those that need a refresher, social networking often involves grouping specific individuals or organizations together. That is what Umpqua Bank is trying to do. Umpqua has created LocalSpace™.

Umpqua LocalSpace™ is an easy-to-use virtual networking service that allows individuals to connect with the people, content and resources within their community. Potential new customers, vendors and partners from the area are all online and available to all Umpqua customers. According to the Bank, individuals can get beyond the boilerplate information most search sites provide, and really get to know and support the local businesses around you.

Frankly after a couple of minutes of browsing LocalSpace™, the concept sounds interesting, but the content is not presented in an eye-catching way. In fact, I would argue that it is quite basic. It looks to connect individuals and highlights conversation starters, more you should know about the individual or the business and provides photos, files or videos.

Given that this is the information age and I can find information on businesses and individuals in so many interesting and engaging ways – I am not sure this would hold my attention for very long. And I am classified as a baby boomer!

I would love to hear from anyone that is benefitting from LocalSpace™.

While it may seem that I am not very keen on what Umpqua is doing, I believe that every bank should think about how they are going to get involved in the social media space. While it is not too late to play – time is ticking.

So Umpqua deserves a “thumbs-up” for entering the space! I look forward to watching LocalSpace™ evolve. If anyone can innovate – Umpqua can!

Posted by Judy McLeish at 11:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Comcast Starting to Benefit From Listening!

Here is a great post from "Managing the Gray" blog on how Comcast is benefitting from listening to its customers.

In summary:

"The short version of the story is that last night I made a snide remark about the lackluster quality of my HD picture on Comcast during the Celtics game. Comcast saw that and tweeted me back minutes later. This morning I got a call from their service center. This afternoon someone came out. Now my HDTV rocks! THAT my friends is customer service and how it should work all the time."

Click here to listen to the podcast and read the post!

Posted by Judy McLeish at 03:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Asking Employees to Smile is Good for Them - Right?

For years companies have been training their employees to smile. Why? A smile projects a positive image of our company and according to many – smiling had the added benefit of being good for our health.

But is smiling really good for us?

Apparently, smiling may not be good for us at all – it may actually hurt our health! According to German scientist of Johann Wolfgang Goethe University employees that are forced to smile and take on-the-job insults suffer more and longer-lasting stress that may harm their health.

Dieter Zapf studied 4,000 volunteers working in a fake call center. Half were allowed to respond in kind to abuse on the other end of the line while the other half had to “suck it up”.

The findings – employees that had to take the abuse suffered more stress symptoms that lasted much longer than those that were able to answer back.

"Every time a person is forced to repress his true feelings there are negative consequences," Zapf said. "We are all able to rein in our emotions but it becomes difficult to do this over a protracted period."

In an interview with the German healthcare magazine Apotheken Umschau, Zapf suggested that people who must keep smiling on the job should get regular breaks to let it out.

Think about how many companies have customer service standards that require employees to smile at customers – not matter how difficult they are. Now think about the added stress that this type of standard may be having on the lives of these employees….

I am now asking myself, if companies are being unreasonable by asking employees to smile even in the most difficult of situations.

What do you think?

Click here to read the article.

Posted by Judy McLeish at 07:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

Does Your Onboarding Process Build Emotional Engagement?

We have been already writing about the importance of creating an onboarding process that builds employee engagement. Why?

According to the Wynhurst Group, new employees decide whether they feel at home or not in the first three weeks in a company and 4 per cent of new employees leave a job after a disastrous first day. And the cost of losing an employee in the first year is estimated to be at three times salary.

We recently found an awesome post by David Lee on creating an onboarding process that welcome and inspire new hires. In the post David outlines what The Ritz-Carton, Texas Road House and Southwest are doing differently to build a program that builds employee engagement from Day 1.

In this post, we focus on the Ritz and Southwest, to view his entire post click here.

The Ritz-Carlton The Ritz-Carlton focuses on the emotional takeaways that their new hires will experience. Why? According to Diana Oreck, from the Ritz-Carlton - "People don't remember what you said or what you did, but they always remember what they felt." So for each facet of the employee onboarding process, the Ritz asks the following:

"What's the emotional take-away here? What is the way we are doing this right now and what emotions would a new employee take away from this experience?"
"Are these the emotions we want to leave them with?" If your answer is no, then ask "What emotions would we like them to experience?" and "How can we create an experience that would naturally elicit these?"

According to Oreck, the examples of emotions you want to elicit in your new employee orientation and onboarding process include welcomed; comfortable and secure; proud; excited; inspired; and confident.

The Ritz starts with a video that helps new hires understand what it would mean if you were in the top 1% in various fields. As images of Tiger Woods and Bill Gates and people in the top 1% of their field flash across the screen, inspiring music plays in the background with the lyrics "What have you done today to make you feel proud?"

The video then transitions into letting the new employee know that being with Ritz-Carlton means they are among the top 1% in the hospitality industry. Imagine how you would feel, as a new hire, if this video were played at your company - Proud? Excited? Secure? Inspired?

The Ritz Carlton balances two important messages in their orientation program: "You are now part of an elite, best-in-class organization," and "We're lucky to have you." At Ritz-Carlton, Oreck and her colleagues tell new hires "Aren't we blessed that you picked the Ritz Carlton for your 'second place'," referring to the second most-important place the person inhabits each day.

Onboarding at Southwest

Southwest Airlines is another company that understands the importance of designing its employee orientation and an onboarding process with the goal of creating positive emotional experiences. According to Cheryl, Hughey, Southwest's director of onboarding other companies seem to focus primarily on creating logistical efficiencies that allowed the new employee to become productive more quickly.

"Here's what it is that I think we do differently, or what we emphasize more: in a lot of companies, it seems like if there are online forms to check off and documents that get passed around from HR to the hiring manager to the new employee, they think onboarding has been accomplished. While getting those kinds of logistical things automated can help you get your new employee up to speed and productive more quickly, it won't necessarily help you with retention.

If you want them to stay, if you want them to become engaged, you need to make sure you do the "feeling" part of the process, and you do that by showing them how they will make a difference, giving them examples of how their fellow employees make a difference, making them feel welcome as with our Sponsor a New Hire program. It's those kinds of things that lead to not just better retention, but a more inspired workforce."

Southwest has designed the onboarding process around four mantras:

"Everything Matters"
"Think Experience"
"What's the Emotional Take Away?"
"What's the Perceptual Take Away?

We think that more companies should think about the messages they are sending in their onboarding sessions. Are they stimulating the right emotions? Are they building engaged employees or are they just forcing employees to “tick boxes” leading them to ask themselves what am I doing here?

Posted by Judy McLeish at 11:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Customer Experience

July 16, 2008

Are You Showing Employees That You Care?

July 12, 2008

Gen Y's Want Change - What Can Firms Do?

June 25, 2008

Chinese Managers are a Formidable Cadre of Executives – Western Managers Beware!

June 23, 2008

Can Organizational Democracy Build Employee Engagement?

June 13, 2008

Joining the "New Fashioned" Conversation!

June 12, 2008

Is Absenteeism Hurting Your Bottom-Line?

June 11, 2008

Will the iPhone Revolutionize Social Media in the Workplace?

June 04, 2008

From Growing Up Online to Disconnected at Work!

June 03, 2008