Yesterday I posted a video from a company called Rackspace, where highly engaged employees providing “fanatical service” is the norm. I’m sure they wouldn’t endose this approach to praise…
What’s A Racker? The Rackspace Story
27 AugOne of the companies that we feature in our book Engage! is Rackspace of San Antonio, Texas. Their employees, lovingly called “rackers”, are truly an engaged group! The Rackspace culture has helped them become one of the fastest growing, successful firms we’ve had the pleasure of studying. Here’s a video of rackers talking about Rackspace.
Lousy Leadership, Ketchup Only
26 Aug
A conversation I overheard at my favorite local burger joint today:
John: Hey Steve, great to see you! How’s it going?
Steve: Good. A lot better than when we were working together at ____. (To save embarrassment and a likely law suit, the employer shall remain anonymous.)
John: I hear you– I’m so glad to be gone from that place and out of the control of the owner. You couldn’t trust a thing the man said, or most of his supervisors. The only one you could trust was Bill. He was young, but was smart and you could count on what he said.
Steve: Yea, Bill is great. In fact, he hired on with my new company. We’re working together again, and our new boss couldn’t be more pleased. Bill is still pretty young, but he’s smart and shoots straight.
John: So Bill’s working with you, huh?
Steve: Yep. We’ve got some openings. Want me to put a good word in for you?
The same story, over and over. Employees being chased out by dishonest leadership. I kept thinking how glad the competition must be to have an employer who chases good employees, particularly a young “up and comer”, right into their hands.
Can Changes In Employee Engagement Fortell Movement In The Economy?
24 Aug
My friends at Quantum Workplace think there’s substance to this question. At their The Science of Work blog earlier this month we find their most recent post on the topic:
Our June 30 blog post predicted July would be an “up” month for the Dow Jones Industrial Average. And “up” was an understatement as we saw the stock index climb 8.6% in a single month. That improves the record of our linkage analysis between our Employee Engagement Index and the Dow–successfully predicting movements in 12 of the last 15 months.
Unfortunately our Engagement Index showed a slight decline between April and March. Due to the 4-month lag in our model, we’re expecting a corresponding decline in the Dow for August.
CNBC, are you listening?
The theory behind this is interesting– if we’re more engaged as a country, for example, and four months later our “extra effort” shows up in improved company performane as measured by movement in the Dow Jones.
We know there is a relationship between employee engagment and business performance at an individual company level– could it translate on a “macro” level?
Stay tuned!
Business Travel Not What It Used To Be???
22 AugI travelled this week for business, and felt a lot like this! Have a wonderful weekend, Mark
Yet Another Study Linking Engagement & Patient Satisfaction
21 Aug
Yet another study reported by PR Newswire of the relationship between employee engagement and patient satisfaction:
“In the health care industry, as in other service-related businesses, having engaged, empowered, loyal employees can lead to increased retention, lower costs, enhanced reputation, and a profitable business picture,” said Forum President Michelle M. Smith, CPIM, CRP, vice president, business development, O.C. Tanner Company. “And now, we are finding that having satisfied employees leads to higher quality of patient care and overall better patient experiences.”
Some key findings from the study, found at www.performanceforum.org, include:
- Patients that have higher levels of satisfaction are most likely to recommend the hospital to others when they are treated by highly-satisfied employees. Word of mouth, more than any other source of marketing promotion, is a primary driver in patient care decisions.
- As the popularity of electronic testing and monitoring expands, health care employees, more than ever, need to exercise “the personal touch” in caring for patients.
- In addition to what health care workers do, emphasis needs to be placed on how employees feel about what they do. Patient experiences will not be good if employees are not happy.
It’s beyond my pay grade to sort out all the reform that we need in our health care system, but it’s above anybody’s pay grade to see the evidence that more engaged employees is one key factor to the success of our health care delivery model– more engaged employees leads to more satisfied, healthy patients.
Case closed.
Good Bosses Gain Employee Loyalty
20 Aug
This Associated Press article features Leigh Branham, my co-author, talking about the importance of employee retention for small businesses:
Many employees of small businesses are grateful to have a job, even as salaries are frozen or cut and they’re asked to take on more responsibility. Company owners shouldn’t take those good attitudes for granted — they need to show workers some loyalty so staffers don’t jump ship when the economy gets stronger.
“This is a crucial time,” said Leigh Branham, owner of Keeping The People, a human resources consulting firm in Overland Park, Kan. “Employees are testing you to see how loyal you are to them, to decide if they’re going to stay.”
The article presents several excellent ideas for keeping employees in these more difficult times.
Hopefully, you’ll read the article, manage accordingly, and “pass the test”.
Debunking Myths of Employing People With Disabilities
19 Aug
A new brochure from the US Department of Labor provides useful information about hiring individuals with disabilities. It does a nice job of factually reporting certain “myths”, including that reasonable accommodations mandated by the ADA law are costly (they aren’t, most cost nothing) and that you have to learn a different way of managing the disabled (you don’t, just manage well).
You can find a link to the brochure at Examiner.com.
Want Lose Millions In Minutes? Disengaged Employees Will Do That
18 Aug
According to a study posted at DestinationCRM.com disengaged employees are a growing problem in the financial services industry, one that cost a company dearly:
The problem created by disengaged employees is that it affects how they perform their tasks. This goes from the customer-facing agents dealing with consumers to the fund managers and traders. “For fund managers, lack of employee engagement may not necessarily mean losing a customer, but rather $4 million in five minutes,” says Aaron Horenstein, research analyst at ORC Guideline. “To have those employees disengaged or not fully engaged would have a tremendous impact on the industry.”
As the saying goes, now we’re talking about real money. The ROI is quite clear- disengagement can cost an employer dearly– leaders have to stop giving this lip service and start managing to engage.
Expectation + Opportunity = Full Participation
17 Aug
From Aspen Publishers:
“Expectation + Opportunity = Full Participation” is the official theme for October’s National Disability Employment Awareness Month (NDEAM), announced the US Department of Labor (DOL) on June 26, 2009. NDEAM is intended to urge employers, as they seek to fill positions, to embrace the richness of America’s diversity by considering the talents of all workers, including workers with disabilities.
Bravo for this unique theme, one that I do hope highlights what individuals with disabilities to do to contribute productively to our places of work.
If you think that hiring the disabled is to hard or will be too expensive or won’t address some of your current staffing challenges… think again.
Mark Hirschfeld 