Friday, December 26, 2001
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Friday, December 26, 2001 |
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A top ten list for next year's success By
Gregory Smith Yogi Berra once said, "If you don't know where you are going, you could wind up someplace else." Business success in 2002 is not going to wait for those who are indecisive about what direction to take. For those businesses who would like some advice I provide the following top-ten list. F Conduct a vampire extermination expedition. The beginning of the year is the best time to analyze your organization's work processes. Determine what is wasteful and what is productive. Eliminate what is causing people not to perform at their best. Exterminate the "vampires" sucking money and resources from the bottom line. F Build a high-retention work place. High retention begins the first day on the job. Put extra effort in your employee orientation programs and build a bond with new hires. A major factor causing workers to stay beyond 90 days in good part depends on how they were treated the first two days on the job. Managers should meet with new workers during the first week and conduct a new hire survey approximately 30 days after they have been on board. F Don't work for a jerk. Those of you who watch the television show "ER" saw Dr. Peter Benton quit his job. The reason he quit was his boss was a jerk. The fact is that good people will quit bad bosses. A survey we conducted showed 35 percent of the respondents had quit their last job because of their immediate supervisor. F Create an appreciation program. Reward and recognition programs are fine, but what people really want is appreciation. A survey I conducted for my book "Here Today, Here Tomorrow" showed that, when asked, "What causes you the greatest dissatisfaction at work?" the answer with the most responses was lack of appreciation. Setting up a program to make people feel appreciated is not difficult. A well-administered program builds camaraderie and values, and makes people feel good about themselves and their jobs. F Some dogs don't like bones. A good organization is one that creates a motivating work environment. Be careful not to assume what motivates your people. In one organization I worked with, management was absolutely certain employees would select cash as their preferred form of recognition. Turned out, money didn't matter, but parking did. While executives and certain top employees could park in the lot next to the building, most employees had to park several blocks away. With this information in hand, we built a very effective reward program allowing select employees to use the executive parking lot. F "I need to take a break to call my baby-sitter." Most organizations don't realize the impact family-friendly benefits have on productivity and retention. First Tennessee National Corp. started taking family issues seriously and made them top priority. They reshaped the rules they had forced employees to live under, added many family-friendly new benefits, and sent managers through three and a half days of training. Employees stayed twice as long and the bank kept 7 percent more of its customers. F Put a parachute on your back. Can you imagine parachuting out of an airplane with no training? Many times, the first expense eliminated during a bad economy is training and development. In a study of more than 3,100 U.S. work places, the National Center on the Educational Quality of the Work Force found that on average, a 10 percent increase in work force education level led to an 8.6 percent gain in total productivity. On the other hand, a 10 percent increase in new equipment expenditures only increased productivity by 3.4 percent. F Use bottom-up involvement for high performance. Studies show that having workers involved at all levels has a major impact on improving productivity, morale and motivation. A good example is Guardian Industries, an 800-person glass plant in Indiana. They decided to start listening to their employees to find out their opinions on how to staff the plant's 24-hour work shifts. The employees decided instead of working rotating day and evening shifts, they would rather work permanent 12-hour shifts. The result turnover fell by 50 percent. F Take a laxative for "mental-constipation." Many organizations suffer from what I call mental constipation or the "We've never done it that way before" syndrome. Rubbermaid is one of the most innovative companies in the world. They generate hundreds of new products a year almost one new product a day. Products from the most recent years contribute to 33 percent of their sales. F "Don't answer the phone ... it might be a customer." People in the U.S. have lowered their standards and accept lousy customer service as the norm. Many businesses have designed and blindly placed impenetrable voice mail and automated phone systems in the way of good customer service. The reason for all the "voice-mail hell" is because organizations ignorantly think it is less expensive than paying a person to answer the phone they are wrong.
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