4Cs Blog: Happy Employees = Happy Customers

Should Work Feel Like Family? 

At Insightlink we often see comments about what employees like about their companies in response to open-ended questions in our surveys. Some examples about what people like most include “a close-knit family”, “that family-like atmosphere”, and “feels like a family”. From an employee’s perspective many say they enjoy companies that offer a family-like atmosphere but is that actually good or bad for the organization?

Co-workers are, in a sense, like family because we don’t get to choose who we work with. We also spend more time with the people we work with than our own immediate families. How we interact with the people we work with and the quality of those interactions does have an impact on our work, which of course means these relationships affect the organizations we work for in good and bad ways, so it’s important for organizations to foster the kind of relationships that benefits them most. 

The Value of Leadership

Most organizations in the U.S. are organized on a hierarchical basis with an "upward" reporting structure. Our work analyzing many different organizations using our 4Cs employee survey demonstrates that how employees feel about the leadership of their immediate manager and how they rate the direction from senior management can both have a strong influence on how engaged and committed they are to their work.

Some of our clients have tried to implement a "flatter" reporting structure -- doing away with formal levels of management -- but they seemed to have mixed success. There is a tendency for even "flat" organizations to retain some form of status rankings, whether formally or informally.

How to Handle Too Many Employees for Too Few Promotions

The organizational landscape for many companies and organizations has changed dramatically over the last decade. Some would say the old corporate ladder has toppled completely, as a result of downsizing and outsourcing. Despite these changes, many companies continue to hire people and establish their expectation that their performance will be tied to growth and promotions. This equation for success isn’t happening, however, as a bulge of talent in many companies leaves fewer opportunities for advancement. In fact, our research shows that only 36% of employees in the U.S. are satisfied with their opportunities for advancement and may be looking for career advancement elsewhere.

How Can You Improve Your Communications Effectiveness?

One of the steadiest results we see in our annual survey of employee attitudes is that many organizations do not rate very well on the topic of communications. This year, for example, just four in ten of all U.S. employees are extremely or very satisfied with the effectiveness of communications within their workplace.

One of the recommendations we often make to clients who see weak ratings on communications is to conduct a thorough “communications audit” as the first step toward making improvements. But what does that actually mean?

 Interesting article from Bloomberg Businessweek. 

Cybersecurity breaches such as those at Target (TGT), Home Depot (HD), andJPMorgan Chase (JPM) are expensive and embarrassing. While attacks may come from outside hackers, the FBI recently issued a warning that internal hacking from current and former employees poses the biggest threat—and is on the rise. The FBI recommends companies take additional security precautions such as changing their passwords more often. There may be a simpler way: Pay employees more to keep them from becoming disgruntled in the first place.

What's your take on this? Is your business at risk from disgruntled employees? Read the full article on Bloomberg

 Lack of employee engagement is a real problem facing businesses in all industries. Gabriel Stulman shows how innovative leadership techniques from the restaurant industry can help other companies succeed.

The Fifth ‘C’ of Employee Engagement is Congratulate

You will never get the best effort from employees simply by paying them more. Employees who only want more money will never be satisfied with what they are paid and their expectations will rise with each increase. What employees really need and want is to be congratulated, recognized or appreciated in a meaningful way for doing a good job. Recognition is so important that over 75% of people who quit their jobs say it is because they were not appreciated. And our research shows that only 36% of U.S. employees are currently satisfied with the level of recognition they receive at work.

An important measure of the health of the U.S. job market can be found in the monthly "Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey" (JOLTS) results from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).

Since hitting a low point in September of 2009, when just 1.6 million Americans voluntarily left their jobs, the average number of quits for the last five months has been more like 2.5 million. This number has increased steadily over the past three years, rising from 1.9 million per month in 2011 to 2.1 million in 2012 and up to 2.3 million last year.

Who Are We? What Do We Do? What Do We Stand For?

What is “corporate culture” and why it is important? Is it a predictor of corporate success?

In the simplest sense, “culture” refers to a system of values and norms that are shared by a group of people and gives its members a framework for thinking, planning and behaving. In this context, “values” represent the shared assumptions of what “ought” to be or, in other words, what the group believes to be right and desirable, while “norms” are the guidelines that define the expected behavior of group members in various circumstances. 

 When we become stressed or feel overwhelmed dealing with our jobs, it is not uncommon to search for ways to feel better. Many people turn to food, alcohol and drugs as a way to boost their spirits short term but these addictions don’t help us combat stress and, long term, they will destroy us, not help us cope.

Our survey results show that it is likely that at least one-quarter of employees in the U.S. is experiencing a high level of dysfunction due to stress and overwork.

What we also learned is that:
• One-in-four employees reports that they continually have more work than they can finish;
• One-in-three strongly agrees that their work is stressful; and
• Only one-in-four strongly agrees that they are able to find a satisfactory balance between personal/family obligations and career responsibilities.

In addition, less than one-half of U.S. employees agree that "Senior management encourages employees to have fun at work”.

So we searched our great land to find out how this issue is being addressed in companies across the U.S., which led us to a recent article by Argus Leader, and the story of one group of employees that have found the perfect answer.

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