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You are richer than you think - part 3
Under this title – and as part of my theme that People matter critically when pursuing a Customer-Focus strategy - I published two prior blog posts. The first one suggested that a lack of Employee Engagement is resulting in a sub-optimal return on a company’s investment in employee payroll / benefits. The second post offered two practical suggestions to support and catalyze (customer-driven) change. The first one is to systematically make Communications into a forethought by appointing a Communications Advocate on a steering committee. The second one is to consider the benefits of a social intranet: a (cost) effective tool for engaging managers and employees in conversation, getting feedback, developing a new understanding about change related issues, developing new ideas, creating value by providing new insights and knowledge and creating transparent, open lines of communication.
I decided to write this third blog post under the above headline to add a third practical suggestion to the above two. It has its genesis in Customer Experience Management. If you are a fan of Stephen Covey, you are familiar with the espoused principle of beginning with the end in mind. In this arena fo CX management it is common to first draw up a Customer Experience Statement before engaging in designing an experience improvement program or process. It serves as a litmus test or touchstone for implementation initiatives. It is a clear articulation that can be used to determine actions with a customer and it guides decision making about What you are trying to deliver as Customer Experience and How. Thus it also takes into consideration the customer’s emotions and feelings.
Specifically, the third suggestion for boosting Employee Engagement for organizational effectiveness and harvesting your richness is to mirror this practice internally and create an Employee Experience Statement. It creates an opportunity for combining awareness of the company’s Values and helps operationalizing them in the practical context of pursuing a (customer-driven) change initiative. It blends the Values into what we want the employees to know and feel so that they are engaged, optimally productive in any way, and are loyal to the organization as well as its customers.
Is there a prescription for doing this? I don’t think so. It requires intelligence and sensitivity. It is obvious that this will require the presence of a quantitative employee survey with enough engagement probes built in. Formulation of the Employee Engagement Statement will undoubtedly also involve the intelligent use of group discussions and internal polls (great use of a social intranet).
The upfront creation and use of an Employee Engagement Statement will undoubtedly save you retracing steps and losing time while pursuing change..
I welcome comments and debate about this idea to mirror a Customer Experience and a Customer Engagement Statement.
Eric Fraterman is a Customer-Focus transformist with a wide and deep customer service consulting experience in more than twenty industries and six countries over 25 years. He helps organizations create a Customer-Focus advantage for gaining and retaining business through exceptional customer service and experience.He can be reached at [email protected] .Websites: www.CustomerFocusConsult.com & www.CustomerExperienceWorkshop.netLinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/440216ericfraterman
