Manage-Wise

Treat your employees like customers

Customers frequently get our best, and whatever is left over goes to our employees. Employees are really our customers, too. They are our internal customers and are as important to our core business as the external, or paying, customers.

If we applied the principles of customer loyalty to employee loyalty, we just might see a decrease in turnover and an increase in motivation and loyalty. There are a few significant factors of building and maintaining loyalty.

The build, cement, or destroy factor

Every interaction you have with employees (your internal customers) has the potential to either build, cement, or destroy the relationship. Customers and employees want relationships based on authenticity and trust. When we don’t try to make them understand us, we violate that trust. When we don’t deal with them authentically, we violate that trust.

It is all about communication. I don’t just mean verbal communication. There are many ways to communicate, including e-mail, fax and teleconference. Choose your words and presentation formats to make your employees most comfortable. Our buzzwords may not be theirs, especially for newer employees, and may even make them uncomfortable or put them in an underdog position. Efforts to dazzle can blind.

The most important resource: people

In this day of massive meltdowns and layoffs, mergers and acquisitions, the emphasis on people is all the more critical. Why are people so important? Because the personal relationship is still at the core of the customer relationship. Employees want to work with people who they believe are genuinely interested in them, who speak their language, and who seem to have a vested interest in their success.

Don’t be afraid to put your money—your budget—where your mouth is. Resources for development are critical to a healthy organisation. Try to keep the flames alive once the development spark has been lit. It’s like a romance: dating, honeymoon, and then the day-to-day. Keep that romantic spark! After all, if you’re not romancing your employees day in and day out, year in, year out, someone else will!

Touchy or techie

The most successful companies will effectively meld high-tech with high- touch. Technology doesn’t necessarily give us more free time, does it? Use it carefully and understand your metrics. Use metrics to lend clarity and track employee behaviour, and to improve employee loyalty and retention. How can you use this to better understand your employees as human beings rather than as objects or commodities?

Excerpt from Transform Your Workplace by Lynda Ford.
Reproduced with permission.
© 2005, Tata McGraw-Hill
Price: Rs 195. E-mail: vishwanath_mum@tatamcgraw-hill.com