Employee Satisfaction

Just read this article and could not but share it:

http://www.iccds.com/t/employee-satisfaction

This is an excellent example of employee satisfaction and Customer satisfaction as a matter of fact. The story is:

A customer at Virgin Atlantic was supposed to be picked by their free limo service at his hotel.  Some kind of confusion took place and the limo waited at a different door than the one the customer waited at.  The customer took a taxi to the airport and arrived so angry because there was a risk that he misses his flight. A virgin agent met him at the airport and knew why he was so angry so she helped him out to speed up the procedures until he caught his flight and she even paid him the taxi fare from her own money. When her direct supervisor knew he refused to pay her the money she paid to the customer to compensate for the taxi fare.  But the airport manager got to know about the incident and made the financial department pay her the money. He also made a point to make the supervisor understand that she acted the right way and took a decision that made an angry customer become pleased and satisfied and this is how every employee should act in similar situations.  This is the kind of environment that Virgin group has, Leadership is inherit in the organization and even the most junior employees are encouraged to judge, decide and act on their own the way they see fit.

Of course this employee was happy that her company acknowledged her efforts and that she got her money back. She will never hesitate to do whatever it takes to please the customer in the future because she loved her company. And because she knows that her company respects her efforts and appreciates her dedication.

Richard Branson , the owner of Virgin group, said: “When your employees are happy, your customers are happy, and therefore, your company is happy as well.” …. And this is very true, please your employees and they in turn will please your customers.

Group Bonding Activities

Want to achieve your goals? Want to gain customer and employee loyalty? The keyword is Motivation.  Motivate your employees and respect their work-life balance and you will be amazed by the results.

How to motivate your employees? There are several ways and techniques to do so; one of them is group bonding activities.  Companies can utilize group activities whether for work or fun to motivate their employees and get the best out of them.  Examples are:

If a company wants to design a brochure for marketing purposes or come up with a new slogan for the company they can make it a competition inside the company.  They can divide employees in groups and ask each group to come up with an idea and a plan how to market it and utilize it.  Each group has to be diversified i.e. from different departments inside the organization.  And the group who will have the winning idea will be acknowledged in a company meeting and all members will receive a monetary bonus. Such activities have sound benefits on the organization on all levels. This way you are making your company a fun place, you are raising the employees’ morale and making them enjoy being your staff, you are strengthening the communication channel between different departments, you are making your employees feel that their contribution counts and affects where the company goes and you are benefiting by getting lots of ideas with a chance that you will get a really effective one out of them.

 
Holding a social event for employees and families in special occasions or at least once a year can also be a great group bonding activity.  Employees can play games together, eat together and have fun.  These events constitute a good chance for employees to get to know each other better which smoothes their communication for work purposes later.  It is also a chance for the company to show that it values family life and that all employees are members of one family and their company is the parent.  Team working spirit and knowledge sharing and continuous development can be strengthened in such events.

 
You can also utilize such activities to involve all employees in decision making. If a company has a certain problem to deal with, it can be publicly posed to employees to share their ideas to resolve it.  If a company needs to increase productivity for instance, again employees can be divided to groups with a leader and each group can come up with an idea and full plan on how to implement it.  And the winning idea will be implemented and its team rewarded.

It is amazing how a company can flourish and beat the competition by making itself a fun place to come to everyday.  Show your employees that you care, and they will strive to make you the best in the market.

A People-First Culture

A people-first focus in any company is a prerequisite to winning employees’ commitment and hence motivating them to execute corporate strategy and reach the desired goals.
By a people-first culture, I mean that the company has to do the following:

 

1. Start by hiring the right people. How? Know what your objectives are, what you want to be known for in the market and where you want to be positioned in the market.  Deciding on that, you can decide on your core competencies and hence define the set of skills needed to achieve your goals.  Done with that you can then define the selection criteria for hiring employees and then start hiring.  This way it is guaranteed that you have the right people in the right place at the right time.
2. Devise and execute a clear performance evaluation system.
3. Continuously coach and mentor employees.
4. Help them develop and learn new skills.
5. Devise a training system to help employees develop and learn something new.
6. Encourage employees to assume new responsibilities and help them perform up to standards.
7. Start from the top. i.e. make sure you are highly selective in your top management to ensure that motivation, innovation and continuous development stays the number one priority.
8. Encourage employees to be creative and innovative. The more employees feel that their ideas are being implemented the more they become loyal and feel that they belong to the company.
9. Involve employees in the decision making process, make them feel that their input is needed and appreciated.  The more they get involved in decision making the better their output.
10. Respect the employee’s personal life and make them able to achieve the work-life balance.  Expecting employees to be at work all the time and give more than 50hours of work per week is just wearing them out and increasing the possibility of their quitting.
11. Publicly acknowledge good performance and remarkable achievements.
12. Privately penalize under-achievers and at the same time help them develop and learn from their mistakes.  Never make the employees feel that they are penalized for the sake of punishing but rather make them feel that you are keen to make them learn and develop.
13. Give your employees extra benefits, like discounts in some hotels, special deals for holidays, discounts in restaurants ..etc. and every now and then make family gatherings to increase the sense of belonging to the place.

Doing that it is guaranteed that your employees will have a sense of belonging to the company and hence will give their best, which directly means that the company will flourish and achieve its goals.