Engagement is frequently identified as a leading indicator of ROI. It’s the measure of a customer or employee’s involvement and commitment to the company or brand, while satisfaction is the measurement of recalled service delivery against a prescribed set of drivers.
The differences are subtle, but important:
• Engaged customers are more likely to be involved in the company: more loyal, committed, likely to excuse error, likely to return, likely to refer, and likely to spend more.
• Disengaged customers on the other hand, while possibly satisfied, are brand-ambivalent, or worse active campaigners against your service.
• Engaged employees are more likely to be involved in the company: more loyal, and likely to stay longer.
• Disengaged employees may very well be satisfied with elements of their work, but fail to contribute the discretionary effort required to deliver outstanding service.
• Disengaged employees can impact the engagement level of customers, and vice versa.
Net:
While traditional satisfaction surveys are helpful tools to isolate and improve performance, there is not necessarily a correlation between engagement and satisfaction. Not measuring customer or employee engagement can lead managers down the path of false positives – assuming that all is well with the business, yet market share and other key indicators could be about to take a tumble.
We advocate an annual survey of the engagement of clients and staff, along with satisfaction/incident tracking surveys, as management deems necessary to facilitate performance improvement.
We just released a whitepaper that outlines a process by which managers can maximize organizational performance improvement planning, by bringing together the engagement statistics of both the customer and employee engagement surveys, to define a process that is most efficient for the organization.
JS
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Monday, January 16, 2012
Autopilot
Have you ever been on a long-haul flight and wondered if the plane is being flown by autopilot?
Does it bother you that your fate could be in the hands of a computer program, or are you (like me) somehow comforted by it?
When you go to work tomorrow, take a look at the faces of your colleagues - or better yet- ask them outright: 'are you on autopilot?'.
The idea here of course is to determine if your colleague truly has an understanding of her role in the company, and her contribution to the success of the firm.
I'd bet there's a better than 60/40 chance that the response will refer to 'just keeping up', or 'handling the volume of work'...a couple of hints that maybe things might be drifting a little, and that the link between goal achievement and corporate objectives might be graying.
Net:
Autopilot is fine for an aircraft...it can be a signal of stagnation (or worse) for a workplace, and an opportunity for managers to call an impromptu huddle, and realign priorities, and clarify roles (particularly in relation to customers, sales, and rewards).
Recognize Autopilot through ad hoc conversations, engagement surveys, and customer satisfaction surveys, and stats like lead generation activity.
JS
Does it bother you that your fate could be in the hands of a computer program, or are you (like me) somehow comforted by it?
When you go to work tomorrow, take a look at the faces of your colleagues - or better yet- ask them outright: 'are you on autopilot?'.
The idea here of course is to determine if your colleague truly has an understanding of her role in the company, and her contribution to the success of the firm.
I'd bet there's a better than 60/40 chance that the response will refer to 'just keeping up', or 'handling the volume of work'...a couple of hints that maybe things might be drifting a little, and that the link between goal achievement and corporate objectives might be graying.
Net:
Autopilot is fine for an aircraft...it can be a signal of stagnation (or worse) for a workplace, and an opportunity for managers to call an impromptu huddle, and realign priorities, and clarify roles (particularly in relation to customers, sales, and rewards).
Recognize Autopilot through ad hoc conversations, engagement surveys, and customer satisfaction surveys, and stats like lead generation activity.
JS
Wednesday, January 11, 2012
20 Minutes Too Late
I heard an expression the other day that I thought was funny, in a subversive way: "He has a knack of managing 20 minutes too late."
The expression was meant to convey dissatisfaction with feedback and action that rarely arrived, or arrived too late.
As I drove back from my meeting, I reflected on the manager in question, and what the opposite to '20 minutes too late' might look like.
Clearly, it's a pro-active approach that coaches, guides, and helps remove organizational obstacles to achievements.
Net:
The point of this blog is to challenge leaders to a moment of introspection.
As a leader, you know that your staff are talking about you with friends and family (this is positive, and inevitable).
Can you change the story from: "20 minutes too late" to "a terrific coach that inspires me to achieve my goals"?
JS
The expression was meant to convey dissatisfaction with feedback and action that rarely arrived, or arrived too late.
As I drove back from my meeting, I reflected on the manager in question, and what the opposite to '20 minutes too late' might look like.
Clearly, it's a pro-active approach that coaches, guides, and helps remove organizational obstacles to achievements.
Net:
The point of this blog is to challenge leaders to a moment of introspection.
As a leader, you know that your staff are talking about you with friends and family (this is positive, and inevitable).
Can you change the story from: "20 minutes too late" to "a terrific coach that inspires me to achieve my goals"?
JS
Friday, January 6, 2012
Toward a Culture of Safety
The WCIB estimates that 40-50% of workplace incidents in Canada go unreported.
There are two foundational questions that employers (and risk managers) need to come to grips-with:
1. Why are so many safety-incidents unreported?
2. What can we do about it?
It would appear (at a macro level) that the reason that such a large volume of unreported incidents has allowed to continue as unreported is that the system simply tolerates it, if even tacitly.
If substantial will existed for change- change would happen.
Now, given this, there are of course many cases of exemplary employers and leaders across every industry who place priority on the management of cultures of safety, wherein the reporting of every safety violation or incident is encouraged.
These organizations make every effort to make it easy for their employees to report an incident, and provide loop-closing activities to assure escalation from incident to accident is minimized.
These firms provide easy reporting tools, ample time for the associate to complete their work as well as report incidents. They train all supervisors frequently in company policy and communication skill - things like ways to create an environment of trust and communication, and provide managers and supervisors with the opportunity to train their crews in safe work procedures.
Additionally, for remote workers, best-practice employers provide remote training and performance support resources to assure understanding, compliance and access to safety information, training, and on-the-job safe-work resources.
Net:
A culture of safety is the end-point of a continuum that begins with a culture of complacency.
The first step to move beyond complacency, and toward a safety culture requires the courage to gather the data (via a safety culture survey) to get your employee's perspective of the efficacy of your safety management system.
JS
There are two foundational questions that employers (and risk managers) need to come to grips-with:
1. Why are so many safety-incidents unreported?
2. What can we do about it?
It would appear (at a macro level) that the reason that such a large volume of unreported incidents has allowed to continue as unreported is that the system simply tolerates it, if even tacitly.
If substantial will existed for change- change would happen.
Now, given this, there are of course many cases of exemplary employers and leaders across every industry who place priority on the management of cultures of safety, wherein the reporting of every safety violation or incident is encouraged.
These organizations make every effort to make it easy for their employees to report an incident, and provide loop-closing activities to assure escalation from incident to accident is minimized.
These firms provide easy reporting tools, ample time for the associate to complete their work as well as report incidents. They train all supervisors frequently in company policy and communication skill - things like ways to create an environment of trust and communication, and provide managers and supervisors with the opportunity to train their crews in safe work procedures.
Additionally, for remote workers, best-practice employers provide remote training and performance support resources to assure understanding, compliance and access to safety information, training, and on-the-job safe-work resources.
Net:
A culture of safety is the end-point of a continuum that begins with a culture of complacency.
The first step to move beyond complacency, and toward a safety culture requires the courage to gather the data (via a safety culture survey) to get your employee's perspective of the efficacy of your safety management system.
JS
Monday, January 2, 2012
12 Performance Improvement Resolutions for 2012
Here are 12 resolutions to adopt to improve the performance of your workplace in 2012:
1. Hire an external firm to assess the engagement levels of your staff.
While it can be done internally, we've recently seen cases where the biases in the survey were (not intended) astounding, and skewed results dramatically. An engagement survey can be adapted to focus on safety issues, if this is a particular concern for the business. The results of either survey will provide solid insights into planning organizational change to assure the targets of 2012 are achieved.
2. Conduct three random and heart-felt 'thank you's' per week, to anybody on your staff, where you invest a minimum of 10 minutes per conversation.
3. Ask a senior manager how they are progressing with their goal-achievement- then acknowledge them in front of their peers if they can recall their goals with out looking them up.
4. Visit quarterly with each member of your sales team, and ask the question "what do we need to do, to be doing better?"
These are the folks on your front line. You hired them. Listen. Act.
5. Ask your direct reports, privately: "how can I be a better manager for you?"
If you're really committed, invest in 360-feedback surveys for your management team, and commit to action plans to improve the results.
6. Take your banker and accountant out to lunch - together, and ask-for and listen to their advice.
7. Assess your risk tolerance, and challenge your business plan from both an opportunity and risk management perspective.
What 3 things can you stop doing, because they've never really carried their weight from a profit-generation perspective? What 3 things can you add that will add profit to your firm?
8. Put-together a "diversity board"- consisting of people whose sole function is to provide perspective that you might not be getting.
Consider a 20-something, a visible minority, a senior, and so on. If you're not listening to these constituencies- you're likely not listening completely to your market.
9. Go mobile.
Challenge your team to develop performance support resources for mobile workers to achieve specific business objectives.
10. Recognize that training has a shelf life.
People forget classroom training within a matter of days...are you still training in a classroom-style? Consider weaving accountability into every training program, via rapid e-learning- where managers author their own training content as required.
11. Invest in transforming your performance appraisal process into a performance management process.
Performance appraisal is 'broken' in most places to the extent that appraisals are rarely done (on time), and the goal-setting process is very often ineffectual (or the follow-up is).
12. Connect the dots between accomplishment and aspiration.
Maslow nailed the whole concept of motivation by pointing out that unfulfilled needs are what motivates us as individuals. Find a way to align the achievement of the unfulfilled needs of your staff with the achievement of your strategic objectives, and you're good to go. Your process may involve an incentive plan or a reward and recognition plan. It will definitely include improving managerial skill, better communication/listening, and better goal management.
Net:
Use the energy and good will of the new year to realize that performance and ability improve when managed as one.
JS
Saturday, December 31, 2011
The Juniors: A Performance Management Template from the Hockey World
Every Canadian knows that the most fun and energetic hockey tournament in the world is the World Juniors, held every year between Christmas and New Years Day.
This year- Calgary and Edmonton have showed the world that we're not just great hockey fans, but great hosts as well.
The Canadian teams are usually dominant at these tournaments, even during those occasional years when we lose.
The point of this blog is to comment on how this team (and presumably that of every other international team) comes together, and what we can learn from the process, to strengthen our teams and workplace performances.
'The Juniors' is a quickly-compiled team consisting of the best-of-the-best under 21 players across the country. The 40 or so invitees to training camp are quickly cut into 'The Team', and undergo intensive personal coaching and skill development to become ready for high-level international play a few weeks later (classic project management methodology).
During the coaching and development phase, talented players are brought together, taught a new system, and to play as a unit, to achieve the goals of the organization (winning tournament gold).
Each player has a role, which may be very different from the player's usual role with his home team. Role-articulation must be crystal clear: the player either buys-into the coach's vision for him, or he's cut:
- One is 'the sniper'
- One is 'the scorer'
- The 'set-up man'
- The 'power play face off man'
...and so on.
These new roles, the required skill and specialized knowledge are patiently taught to each player and drilled to assure understanding and compliance. The training is intensive, and is designed to assure compliance with the coach's vision. To achieve this, the players are provided with immediate feedback via video, one-on-one conversations with assistant coaches, group conversations, and so on.
By tournament time, every player has:
- Complete goal awareness, and role-clarity. Every player knows their role to achieve the goal.
- Received, and relies-on continuous feedback to assure peak performance on the job
- Expects to win, and be rewarded with national recognition and a shot at a very lucrative and highly valued pro contract when the team (usually) wins).
Net:
The essentials of an effective performance management system can often be found in high-achieving athletics:
1. Role clarity
2. Training
3. Effective communication from managers
4. Ongoing feedback/corrective guidance
5. Rewards that are valued, expected, and aligned with the objectives of the firm
JS
Friday, December 16, 2011
The Multiplier Effect
You may recall the term 'The Multiplier Effect' from your days studying economics.
It's the term that economists use to describe the potential impact of an injection of money into an economy - to get a handle on the potential net result of changes to fiscal policy.
But it also has an application in the field of Performance Improvement.
In a blog a few months ago, I described a process to diagnose motivation drift (http://www.caffeineperformance.blogspot.com/2011/06/diagnosing-motivation-drift.html); in it, I outlined a process by which the assessment of certain dimensions of behavior should be multiplied to arrive at an overall assessment for the person in question.
I received a lot of feedback on this point - all of which challenged me: "why not simply add the dimensions instead of multiply them?".
The reason we multiply the dimensions (job clarity/ line of site to reward/ value of reward) is that each dimension is a dependent variable of the other: if one variable is strong, while another is weak, the net effect will be a moderated effect on motivation.
Of course this simplified model of the Motivation Multiplier Effect is presented for illustrative purposes.
Caffeine Performance Management provides a detailed assessment of motivation by manager, strategic objective, and a variety of other dimensions to help you drill-down to the root cause of performance-stasis, or failure to achieve goals or significant organizational breakthroughs.
Net:
Use a detailed Motivation Diagnostic as a the basis of a performance improvement plan by manager that addresses organizational priorities. It can be a very easy tool to implement, and does not necessarily require the intrusiveness of other employee surveys to yield high-impact insights.
JS
It's the term that economists use to describe the potential impact of an injection of money into an economy - to get a handle on the potential net result of changes to fiscal policy.
But it also has an application in the field of Performance Improvement.
In a blog a few months ago, I described a process to diagnose motivation drift (http://www.caffeineperformance.blogspot.com/2011/06/diagnosing-motivation-drift.html); in it, I outlined a process by which the assessment of certain dimensions of behavior should be multiplied to arrive at an overall assessment for the person in question.
I received a lot of feedback on this point - all of which challenged me: "why not simply add the dimensions instead of multiply them?".
The reason we multiply the dimensions (job clarity/ line of site to reward/ value of reward) is that each dimension is a dependent variable of the other: if one variable is strong, while another is weak, the net effect will be a moderated effect on motivation.
Of course this simplified model of the Motivation Multiplier Effect is presented for illustrative purposes.
Caffeine Performance Management provides a detailed assessment of motivation by manager, strategic objective, and a variety of other dimensions to help you drill-down to the root cause of performance-stasis, or failure to achieve goals or significant organizational breakthroughs.
Net:
Use a detailed Motivation Diagnostic as a the basis of a performance improvement plan by manager that addresses organizational priorities. It can be a very easy tool to implement, and does not necessarily require the intrusiveness of other employee surveys to yield high-impact insights.
JS
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