AchieveGlobal's blog

Leading Through the Sudden Impact on Morale

By: Chris Blauth Last week, I discussed unnerving actions companies have been forced to make in response to quickly declining revenues. Even more unsettling, a recent AchieveGlobal study found 59.6 percent of leaders predict a hiring freeze and 43.6 percent expect to downsize or conduct layoffs throughout this year. These depressing trends have an equally depressing impact on employee morale. More than half of the leaders who responded to our survey reported that stress is a problem or severe problem for their employees, and slightly less than half the respondents admitted that stress is a problem or severe problem for them! So – how is a leader supposed to handle that? Very carefully. Still, even with all of this bad news, leaders are finding ways to boost morale and productivity:

• A majority say they “motivate employees through ongoing, positive communication.”
• About half say they “offer special recognition for employees who perform well.”
• 40 percent say they “hold fun events at or away from work.”
• 38 percent say they “offer non-monetary incentives or rewards such as time off.”
• 24 percent say they “offer monetary incentives.”
• 5.6 percent say “my employees don’t need more motivation and their morale is good.”
• And, thank heavens, only 5.2 percent say they “do nothing.”

What are some things you do, as a leader – or an employee – to help boost morale? With the economy always in mind, let’s assume that a big fat raise is out of the picture.

Top Corporate Actions Affecting Employee Morale In This Trying Economy

By: Chris Blauth We all have at least one thing in common these days. Uncertainty. The way we handle important decisions has been greatly affected by the downturn in the economy. Maybe now you feel slightly uncomfortable spending money on luxuries, or are a bit uneasy about how you diversify your portfolio of investments. Now we all are managing our decisions – and our life – differently. This change in thinking and behavior also translates into the business world. Like their teams, leaders feel the sting of what is now considered daily business events, such as budget cuts, office and plant closures, insolvency, and layoffs. In addition to pressures leaders feel themselves to meet corporate expectations, they also face the challenge of motivating others to execute actions that will help to attain goals. This is especially tough when companies are having to make serious cuts – in many aspects of the business. According to our research: • 75.2 percent of companies have cut discretionary spending. • 65.2 percent have stopped hiring. • 51.2 percent have frozen pay. • 49.8 percent have laid off employees. • 20 percent have cut working hours. • 19.6 percent have reduced employee benefits. • And 15.2 percent have closed locations. Which of the above actions, that your organization has been forced to make, do you think has impacted employee morale the most?

A Restaurant Performs No Better Than It ' s Managed

It’s no surprise that people are eating out less. According to a recent article on Restaurant.org, restaurant owners have seen a steady decline in sales and traffic counts due to the slowed economy. With more consumers being very cautious about how they spend their money, the expectation for good customer service is extremely high. That makes it especially important to teach managers how to work through the barriers to good performance—maybe equipment, maybe policy, maybe workflow. If managers are trained to coach, to give feedback, and to recognize others, they'll build employees and build a work environment where everyone performs more independently and reliably. We’ve all witnessed bad service at a restaurant. In some cases, restaurant managers often make matters WORSE when called upon to resolve customer complaints. Because managers often skip training, believing that the frontline employees have a greater need, they are ill-prepared for sticky situations such as service recovery. Let us hear about your worst restaurant service experience. Did the restaurant manager stop by and try to smooth things over? More importantly – did their schmoozing work?

“Um, most people say I’m a people person”

Even in this troubled economy, many companies are recruiting. In fact, AchieveGlobal’s own front lobby was busy this week with candidates seeking our open positions. Frankly, it felt good to see people getting hired. I’m often asked if there are job interview questions that help choose candidates who will provide the best customer service—no matter what the primary job function is. You’re wise to screen early. Our experience shows that later development (training, coaching, etc.) improves the majority of employees but has little impact on the lowest performers. So it’s best to hire those with the most potential. Here are six questions that you might want to add to your formal selection process.

• If I asked your external customers from your previous job, what words would they use to describe how it felt to do business with you? (Listen for adjectives that demonstrate the STAR qualities: Seamless, Trustworthy, Attentive, Resourceful.)
• If I asked your coworkers from your previous job, what words would they use to describe how it felt to do business with you? (Listen for adjectives that demonstrate the STAR qualities: Seamless, Trustworthy, Attentive, Resourceful)
• Tell me about a time when you provided really good service. What specific things did you do that made your service so good? (Listen for a description of positive defining moments, the STAR qualities, the three dimensions of service—and hopefully not a description of “services” or amenities that the candidate gave away.
• Tell me about a time when you were a customer and received really bad service. What specific things do you think the service provider could have done better? (Listen for a description of positive defining moments, the STAR qualities, the three dimensions of service—and hopefully not a description of “services” or amenities that the service provider could have offered.)
• If you had to think of the one or two most important rules of good customer service--the things we should always remember when serving customers—what would you say those are? (Listen for human connection, feelings, emotional response, exceeding expectations, etc. There are no “right” answers, but you would hope the candidate would somehow mention human dimension issues.)
• Tell me about a time when you wanted to provide good service but something got in the way—such as a policy or computer failure or something else outside your control. What did you do? Did the customer end up having a bad experience? (Listen for personal accountability—the aptitude to create positive defining moments as often as possible, despite barriers. Listen for an understanding of how an experience can be overall positive even if some defining moments are negative.)

These questions are intended to explore the candidate’s personality, not the candidate’s awareness of service models, language, etc.—or not even whether the candidate has already learned good service skills. Those things can be trained later. But it’s easier to learn skills and language when you’re already focused on creating positive defining moments. And if you find yourself on the other side of the table, be ready to weave those answers into the conversation. At any level, in any role, interpersonal skills give you a competitive edge--but only if the interviewer knows you have them.