The link between creating a positive Customer Experience and an engaged workforce is widely accepted, so why do we find it hard to build motivated teams that are passionate about the companies they work for and ready to go the extra mile for their customers?
The answer often lies in how employees feel about their employers, whether the company culture creates a sense of well-being and opportunity in the workplace, and ultimately how happy employees are in their jobs.
There are of course many reasons why employees may be unhappy and thus disengaged, but something that often underpins many of these reasons is a sense of not being listened to; either when an issue occurs or after the event, by a direct line manager, the executive team, or the HR department. If employees don’t get – or don’t feel that they get – the chance to speak up and be heard, it’s highly unlikely that they will be motivated to make the effort. They are more likely to be dissatisfied and move on, costing the company in lost productivity and higher recruitment costs.
The challenge is therefore how to distinguish between a Monday morning gripe in the office kitchen and a concrete problem with a line manager or a business process that a quick chat over a coffee can’t begin to address.
A 2014 Gallup study found that the main cause of employee unhappiness is down to bad management, but the question is how much of that is likely to be because of a failure to listen, translate, or understand what is being said ‘in code’ around the water cooler into an issue that needs to be acted upon.
We’ve examined seven signs that employees are unhappy and how a Voice of the Employee (VoE) programme could help organisations to ‘listen’ and ‘act’ on what every employee is saying on a regular basis so that they are not only happy to be at work but engaged in the entire process.
“I’m retiring in two years. What’s the point in trying?”: Employees that can’t be bothered to challenge the status quo, even though they have the skills and experience to offer real insight into business improvements, are often demotivated by managers that are not willing to learn from those at the frontline.
- Encourage and ask for ideas, using short ‘pulse’ surveys to initiate conversations at key moments in the employee lifecycle (three-month review, after training, etc.) but also seek feedback when new products and services are introduced, for example. This doesn’t just mean deploying a big annual employee survey. They have their uses but companies who really want to engage their teams need to develop a much more agile approach to listening to employees.
“No one else is complaining”: Team members that don’t see any role for themselves in the Customer Experience process, or feel straight jacketed by rules and regulations, are less likely to think outside of the box.
- Enable employees to provide anonymous feedback at first so they feel safe and can learn to trust the process. Also be prepared to enhance your listening skills by leveraging unsolicited, reactive approaches such as online comment boxes and using social media sites such Glassdoor to capture information.
“I’m not going to wake the sleeping dragon”: This is a clear example of an employee that is asleep on the job, coasting, with no intention of putting any more effort into the work than is required.
- Encourage people to rock the boat and make it clear that all ideas are good ideas, even if it’s not ‘good news’. Employees that are encouraged to use their skills to resolve customer issues ‘on the spot’ – and more importantly are given permission to come ‘off script’ to deliver solutions without fear of being criticised – are much more likely to achieve higher job satisfaction.
“There’s no point in telling management what’s needed”: Even more damning, employees that feel that no one is listening, feel disempowered, or are demotivated, are less likely to flag issues that need resolving, or to suggest ideas that could improve efficiency, productivity, or the Customer Experience.
- Tell employees what you’ve heard so they can see that it is worth sharing ideas and act upon them as soon as possible. Employees that are provided with an opportunity to make a difference are more motivated and provide better Customer Experiences, which helps retain customers and spreads positive word of mouth.
“My manager just wants the job done”: Sadly, managers that don’t value or seek feedback and simply take a ‘tick box’ approach to the execution of daily tasks get exactly what they ask for – employees that stop thinking about how to do things better.
- Use a third party or separate department to encourage honest feedback, but also be prepared to offer best practice ‘toolkits’ that provide employees with the autonomy to challenge conventional thinking.
“It was my idea but as usual I didn’t get any credit for it”: Managers that take all the glory for themselves and don’t reward individuals that do go the extra mile run the risk of reducing innovation, but also eliminate any feelings of loyalty or emotional ties to the company.
- Build in reward and recognition to the feedback programme but also provide employees with a platform to share their experiences and knowledge with others. Harnessing storytelling as a learning opportunity not only passes on individual success to the team, creating an opportunity for viral change, but enables employees to be applauded for their efforts by their peers.
“They just want me to come up with ideas for free, in my own time”: If there is no incentive to be creative during normal working hours, resentment about lack of recognition can cause innovation to stagnate.
- Make it worth their while – gamify or incentivise the feedback process, but above all ensure that processes are in place to encourage continuous participation, sharing real feedback from real people about real experiences, across the entire organisation.
If you are prepared to read the signs, the link between happiness and employee engagement can undoubtedly deliver both job satisfaction and a great Customer Experience. As Richard Branson says:
“Clients do not come first. Employees come first. If you take care of your employees, they will take care of the clients.”
Improved listening skills and a willingness to act on what employees say is therefore a win-win for everyone.