It’s essential that staff receive support or they can’t do their job properly. Support isn’t limited to merely work-related aspects of the job but to other things such as morale and recognition as well.

There are plenty of different ways employers can support their staff. Here are a few thoughts to keep in mind in your work environment.

Training is vital
It’s crucial that staff receive all necessary training when they start a job and also ongoing training as often as required. It’s also essential that training is consistent for all staff members. It’s not acceptable for answers to vary from one employee to another because this can cause confusion and further problems. Proper training is inevitably what makes better quality employees.

Positive work environment
Whether you work in a call centre, an office or a retail store, it’s vital that you have a positive work environment. If employees dread the thought of going to work each day, they’re not going to perform at their best and they may even feel resentful for being there.

There are many ways to create a positive workplace. Attitude is essential — people should be respectful and friendly towards one another. Bitchiness or backstabbing should not be tolerated. Not just by supervisors, but among colleagues as well. If anyone has issues, the supervisor/manager should always be available to help resolve such problems so they don’t linger and taint the rest of the workplace.

Décor and proper equipment also contribute to your environment. Do you have ergonomic chairs and desks? Do you have a proper lunch room where staff can take breaks away from the public eye? Is there somewhere you can store your personal possessions if you don’t have a desk? All of these things contribute to a harmonious working environment.

Motivation is an individual thing
Employers should know what motivates their staff and use that knowledge to build stronger relationships. People are motivated by different things and so it’s important to learn what motivates each individual if that’s possible and incorporate that into your overall leadership strategies.

Take the time to get to know what motivates each member of your team. Having a staff suggestion box is a great way to get ideas and suggestions. Motivations change over time and if you want to keep your team working at peak efficiency, it’s vital that you learn what’s important to them.

Recognition and rewards
Staff have to be acknowledged and rewarded for the good work they do. Financial bonuses are always great if they are available — but they’re not your only option. You could have an employee of the week or month plaque that is presented and then displayed on the wall for everyone to see. Acknowledgement for most improved staff members could be another idea. When staff do something wrong, managers are quick to admonish them so they should be just as quick with their praise, in whatever form they choose. Like motivation, your team can also suggest great ideas on what works for them.

Scope for advancement
Most people don’t like to feel trapped in a dead end job. Internal promotions should always be considered before advertising externally. Staff are more motivated to excel in their work if they have a vision for the future growth and development.

If you’re not seen to be actively supporting your staff, you can’t expect them to perform at their best. Everyone wants to feel appreciated and to be a part of a team. If you do that, you can’t lose.

How often have you attended a meeting — or worse, a number of meetings — without any concrete decisions being made or action steps agreed?

Too often the team just seems to be going in circles.

This form of indecisiveness — or paralysis by analysis — plagues many organizations. In fact, some people actually use this as a strategy to avoid being held accountable for the success or failure of any initiative.

This lack of decision-making hurts organizations financially because issues and opportunities are not addressed and it creates a sense of powerlessness with the team members who recognize that nothing is happening. It effectively creates an under-performance malaise  that affects the financial goals of the organization and the engagement of the team.

Years ago I worked with a leader who was faced with a team that was unable or unwilling to make a decision. He decided that going forward they would make a decision and then be prepared to adjust that decision if it wasn’t the right one. He felt that they could make a decision; find out it wasn’t the ideal decision and then make a new decision based the new input — faster than they were currently making any decision.

This approach introduced nimbleness to the organization and also sent a signal that people would not be criticized for making a wrong decision. Both excellent messages for any organization.

Here are some tips if you are faced with indecision in your organization

• Ensure people feel safe when making decisions. Of course, decisions need to be made based on good information and thoughtful consideration, but if a decision turns out wrong based on the best use of information at the time, then people should feel safe from criticism.
• Use decisive language in your communication. Confidence and clarity in language sets a tone. Give people honest feedback and discourage indecisiveness. Be clear when providing direction and expect the same from others.
• Ask for opinions and then ensure the opinion is valued — even if everyone doesn’t agree.
• If a decision needs to be delayed, make sure there is a specific reason (i.e. additional information is needed) and establish a time-line to re-group with responsibilities identified to gather the missing information.
• Make sure every meeting ends with a summary of decisions and next steps. Every discussion point should have a concluding next step.
• Ensure each next step has clear accountability on time-lines and responsibilities.
• Follow up to ensure that next steps are being executed; offer support where needed to get the task concluded.
• Solicit feedback to ensure that the decision continues to make sense. This isn’t second-guessing, it’s simply monitoring outcomes. Don’t be afraid to re-visit a decision if the facts change. Sticking with a bad decision is as bad as making no decision at all.

My Perspective: Sometimes I like to say “I never change my mind.” The statement is intended to cause people to pause and think about what I said.

I then add that if presented with additional facts, I haven’t actually changed my mind — but made a new decision.

Good decision-making is evaluating all available facts and then having the courage to make a decision to take action. In some cases, that decision might be to take no action for a specified period, because you need more information — but it needs to be intentional, not by default.

Joseph Michelli, was granted full access to Zappos employees across the organization in preparation for writing his new book, The Zappos Experience: 5 Principles to Inspire, Engage and Wow. I have invited John to share some thoughts from his research with you this week.

For more information about Joseph and his book visit http://www.josephmichelli.com/

The Zappos Experience – Getting Caring Right!

It is a subtle but powerful distinction – do you care for or care about your customers?  I’m not suggesting that you can’t do both but I am asserting that most businesses struggle to do the former let alone the latter.  The “caring for” dimension emphasizes service competence while the “caring about” aspect focuses on the personalized or humanized dimensions of a compassionate experience.  In my recently released book, The Zappos Experience: 5 Principles to Inspire, Engage and Wow, I take a deep dive into how leadership at Zappos (an innovative online – clothing, shoe, and housewares provider) executes both the “caring for” and “caring about” experience dimensions of their business.

Here are just a few Zappos examples from each of these categories:

Caring for (Operational excellence committed to “getting it right” and “making it right.”)

• Obsessive attention to website loading speed
• Consistent qualitative and quantitative analysis of user website behaviour as a guide to improving user experience
• Return policies that maximize customer ease (365 days to return product with free shipping both ways)
• Tenacious focus on the pictorial, video, and content accuracy when presenting products online
• Consistent training for call-centre staff (referred to as Customer Loyalty Team members) to assure product knowledge
• Email follow-ups after customer calls and web chat contacts to evaluate customer satisfaction and engagement

Caring about (Authentic personal connections committed to delivering happiness)

• Encouraging call-centre staff to form PEC’s (personal emotional connections) with customers
• Allowing staff to find products for customers that are not in-stock at Zappos by searching for those products at competitors’ websites
• Supporting staff as they send personalized handwritten thank you notes to customers
• Facilitation of staff development of personal twitter accounts so staff can authentically connect with customers
• Dedication of staff resources to immediately engage in service recovery conversations through social media

While The Zappos Experience offers a detailed exploration of how Zappos creates a service culture that has catapulted the brand from veritable extinction to a game-changing thought leadership, Zappos really offers an opportunity to benchmark our own business practices to see how committed we really are to world class customer-centricity.  In essence, are we doing what the best of the best service companies do to engage their employees and their customers.

Much of Zappos commitment begins with how well Zappos leadership cares for and about their employees (at Zappos this has led to being chosen among Fortunes best places to work) and it travels out to decisions that affect the daily customer experience.  For example, are you willing to spend less on advertising and spend more on expediting service?  Are you allowing staff to take the time needed to address customer needs or are you rewarding rapid movement of customers through lines or phone cues (possibly at the expense of accurate service delivery)?

If you say you care both for and about those you serve, what do you point to to prove your claim?  How do you know how well you are caring?  Would your customers’ assessments align with your responses?  In the end, Zappos get it! “Caring for” builds satisfaction — “caring about” fuels loyalty!

What might you learn from Zappos?

You have just established a new team. Maybe a small work group, or possibly you have moved to a new department in a leadership role. How do you set the foundation for a strong team to achieve their full potential?

There are 4 things I like to keep in mind.

1. Create a Strong First Impression: Make sure that you start out strong. Come to the first meeting/introduction prepared to make a good first impression and establish expectations. How the team initially starts their working relationship has a huge impact on their long term interactions.
2. Establish Expectations: Set expectations early. Don’t assume people have shared values on expectations and don’t wait until things are below and then try to rise them up. Starting high and keeping them high is easier than trying to raise expectations after they have settled in too low. Set ambitious goals together and then work hard to achieve your potential.
3. Create a Sense of Importance: People perform better when they believe that what they are doing is important and will have a positive impact. Create some urgency with a specific delivery date or milestones so the team has a concrete target and the opportunity to see the successful completion of their assignment.
4. Deliver a Challenge: Decide to do something that isn’t easy, but requires something extra. Set goals that will challenge the team to exceed expectations and will engender a sense of pride in the team. When faced with a challenge, people are willing to step up and achieve more.

My Perspective: Successfully leading a team is a complex task. By keeping these 4 thoughts in mind you can motivate, inspire and lead any team to greater heights.

In May we discussed the first 5 of 10 tips to create more powerful employee engagement. We are continuing this article with the next 5 tips.

Clarify what’s expected of employees
It’s essential that your team members know what’s expected of them. When they start, generally they’re given a job description but that’s not enough.  Clear expectations set the standards and means there’s no confusion and everyone is working towards the same goal. Putting things in writing is a valuable step to avoid confusion that can occur if only verbal instructions are given.

Offer internal career opportunities
People don’t want to feel they are stuck in a dead end job. If you consider current team members for promotion before ever going outside the organization, people will be more willing to stay because they can see room for improvement and promotion if they perform well. Give people opportunities to learn and grow within their own role. Make it clear that your desire is to promote internally where possible. This will also minimize people looking elsewhere for new jobs without your knowledge.

Empower frontline employees
Are your team members able to use discretion when handling customer complaints? Do they have to always seek permission for something that isn’t within their power to correct? A great deal of frustration can build up if frontline employees are powerless to take immediate action to satisfy a disgruntled customer. If they can save a customer having to wait for action to be taken, it’s a win-win for everyone.

Encourage teamwork
Employees should work together as a team and support each other. No matter what sort of work it is, teamwork is essential to a healthy, positive work environment and helps employees feel more engaged in their work. Team members also learn from watching other members interact with customers. No amount of training can prepare a new employee for what happens on a daily basis better than observing a skilled team member — regardless of whether they’re working with easy or difficult customers. If team members offer each other support, it enables them all to get through any difficulties they may encounter without having to necessarily get a supervisor involved.

Provide regular feedback to employees
It’s crucial for all employees to be given regular feedback on their performance. Regardless of whether they’re excelling at their job or they’re new to the company, people need to know where they stand. Are they doing everything they’re supposed to be doing? Are they doing too much? If they arrive late all the time and leave early, that must be addressed. If they’re doing other people’s work because some people are lazy, that should also be addressed.

Employees need to know how they’re doing and it does keep them more engaged if their performance is regularly being reviewed. It makes them work harder to achieve everything expected of them.

So now you have a reminder of 10 techniques that drive employee engagement. Maybe you are already executing all 10, but if you employ just one new technique, or renew focus on one you are not fully leveraging, you will see an improvement in your employee engagement and be closer to developing a high performing work environment