What Do Employees Want? By Harris Plotkin

Transcription

1 What Do Employees Want? By Harris Plotkin In the employee attitude (or climate) surveys that we have conducted for clients over the past 30 years, several issues that employees have expressed unhappiness with have remained constant. Employees feel that: 1. They are not paid fairly. 2. They are not paid as well as employees in similar jobs at other companies in the same area. 3. They learn more through the "grapevine" than from formal means. 4. Their opinions, ideas, or suggestions are not solicited. Regarding employees' issue with their pay Usually when the client does a compensation survey of pay scales in their area, they find that they are paying their employees as well as their competition, and in some cases better. Also, they often find the benefits they offer are equal to, if not, better than other companies. This type of information needs to be communicated to employees provided their pay truly is the highest. With regard to communication Unfortunately, this issue is a real problem. Most companies don't seem to be motivated to take the steps necessary to improve communication. In the golf industry, this appears to be a greater problem than in other industries for which we've done surveys. Head professionals, food and beverage managers, golf course superintendents, and even general managers, are usually guilty of not holding regularly scheduled staff meetings. These meetings would eliminate many of the problems created when information is passed through the "grapevine" rather than through official channels. As an example, I've trained over one hundred courses in our ABOVE AND BEYOND customer service training program. At almost every course, we get into a discussion of how to deal with irate customers in a golf shop. Too often, we find that the head golf professional has not taken the time to train his people, nor does he hold regular staff meetings. This usually results in each assistant head professional developing a different idea of how to deal with irate customers and their complaints regarding returning shoes, golf equipment, apparel, or rainchecks. The members of a private country club can, and will, take advantage of this and go to the assistant professional who will let them do things that violate club policies and procedures. They're just like our kids they know which parent will give them the answer they want.

2 One solution is to hold regular meetings so that problems are discussed and everyone gets on the same wavelength, so that all situations are handled similarly. I don't mean to pick on golf professionals the same situation holds true in most every golf department. Where communication really bogs down is between middle management and front-line employees. The surveys we've conducted consistently indicate that department managers feel they are receiving good communication from their boss, but the front-line employees feel they're receiving no communication from their department heads. If there are any staff meetings, it is usually between the general manager and his department heads. Too often, the department heads do not pass on the information to their staff, resulting in miscommunication and rumors among front-line employees. With regard to opinions not being solicited This particular issue is on the rise among employees. The American worker over the last two decades has felt he or she should be more and more involved in the decision making process. This may be due to the increase in the empowerment of employees, which in some cases has created more confusion. Employees hear the Japanese do this and have been very successful (until recently). Also, workers do not automatically give respect to authority as in past years. Workers feel that the decisions made should be collective ones, and they want their opinions asked. In response to this, it makes good sense to ask. You never know what good ideas front-line employees may have. In surveys we've done with managers being surveyed separately from front-line employees, we oftentimes find front-line employees offering much better suggestions. These have been concrete, to the point, and well thought out suggestions, regarding what management should do to either reduce overhead or increase sales. Middle managers completing our surveys tend to be very happy with their lot, and oftentimes they do not have suggestions to offer. It's unfortunate that we've grown away from the "suggestion box", and companies holding regular staff meetings. Why is it unfortunate? Because that's where employees opinions can be solicited and good suggestions can be made. What we've done is stifle our employees' creativity, robbed ourselves of good input to reduce overhead and increase sales, and created some animosity by making employees feel that we could care less about their opinions. If you talk to successful business owners and executives, they will tell you that although they are in charge and they make the decisions, very often they will ask their people for their ideas before making final decisions.

3 What other issues are of concern to employees these days? 1. The biggest concern over the last several years is the lack of customer service training. This issue has lately come out in the top three concerns of employees and in most cases has become a bigger issue than poor pay or lack of communication. If employees are not complaining about lack of customer service training, they're complaining that they don't receive it regularly enough to become proficient. This is interesting in that employees are suggesting to their employer that they do not receive sufficient customer service training. Any organization that has employees who do this should be happy. It means their people realize how important good customer service is, and they're pointing out to management that they need more or additional training so that they can be better at what they do. 2. Another employee complaint is that they do not receive adequate praise and recognition. This is not unusual, as this has been constant over the years. The most likely reason is most managers we've tested tend to be introverted and analytical. They would rather spend time in their office dealing with paperwork problems than with personnel problems. Recent surveys indicate that 56% of a manager's time is spent dealing with personnel problems. That number is going to keep rising as the country makes more and more laws protecting employees. The number of laws on the docket these days are so numerous with regard to sexual harassment, workplace violence, cultural diversity, discrimination, etc., that to be a manager at this stage in the United States is difficult. It would be hard to blame any manager who would avoid dealing with his employees and would rather stay in his office. However, even if that is the case, it doesn't hurt to give out more praise and recognition. When you come in every morning, try to find one employee whom you can praise for a job well done yesterday or recently. Try and give public recognition to your employees whenever possible by plaques, awards some kind of recognition in front of their peers, in newsletters, whatever it takes to make them happy. It can't hurt. 3. Lack of periodic performance reviews. This issue has been on the rise over the last decade, as management seems to forget that a six-month or yearly performance review should be done with their employees. This is not just the time to decide to give them a raise, but to give real feedback on how well they're doing their job, and what they should be doing to get better at their job. Most employees want this feedback. They know that they can move up if they do a good job, and they need to know what they are doing wrong. It is also smart for management to do these formal reviews periodically in

4 order to create a paper trail if later disciplinary or termination action is needed. The easiest way to avoid any wrongful termination lawsuit is to have a very good paper trail, and the time to do it is at performance reviews not just when problems occur. 4. The next big issue that has been constant for the thirty years we've been doing surveys is that employees do not feel there is sufficient effort to promote from within the company. Their complaint is that too often someone from the outside is brought in to run the department who hasn't the faintest idea of how the organization works or what is of importance to the organization. Employees have a valid point. Organizations do not do enough to develop their young talent. They usually do not have a formal process to identify individuals when they are hired who have the potential to move into management. These people could be placed on a fast track so that they are ready to take over a function when they are needed. This issue is currently a problem with our many golf management clients who are acquiring more and more properties at a rapid rate. They generally do not want to keep the existing managers at those properties and want to bring in their own people. However, they usually don't take the time to identify the assistant head professionals and other individuals who might move into the head professional ranks at a new facility or the head golf professional who can take over the general manager slot. Some of our clients are trying to alleviate this problem by using a mentoring process to prepare people to be general managers or department heads at their next property. Others are talking about creating their own schools to teach and prepare them. But on the whole, little has been done. Unfortunately, the PGA of America has not done enough to prepare their members to be general managers, much less run their own golf shops. 5. Another complaint heard often is communication and cooperation between departments is poor. This is an issue that has become more important as organizations have down-sized or are trying to do a lot of work with fewer people. When this happens, they have to work together so that the sum can be greater that all of its parts. In order to do this you have to start this process from when you first hire individuals. They need to be team-oriented. Also, they need to be trained in how to do their job as well as how to work as a team member. Then department heads have to be motivated to work together rather than create adversarial relationships. If you go to back to Business Management I, you will find that "artificial barriers" between departments always develop unless an overt effort is made to minimize the build-up of these barriers.

5 Other employee issues that come up depending on how well the organization is managed are: dissatisfaction with the club's policies and procedures; club management handles complaints poorly; supervisors discipline employees in front of others; supervisors do not give clear instructions; employees lack sufficient supplies and equipment; and the employees' workload is too heavy. For some clients we conduct an employee attitude survey every year. By doing so, we can track trends, and determine if problems from last year have been dealt with. Whether an employee attitude survey is done yearly or occasionally, they do need to be done. Nothing provides management with better information on what is going on in an organization than a survey of this type. If done properly, it provides terrific, specific suggestions on reducing overhead and increasing sales and profits. Whether an outside firm or the organization itself conducts the survey is a point of discussion. Results have consistently shown that using an outside firm is preferred by employees as they are objective, have no ax to grind, and no favorites. The problem with doing it internally by human resources or by the general manager is like asking the wolf to guard the hen house. If the person or persons conducting the study discovers something negative about themselves or other people in the organization whom they like, they are not likely to report as objectively as an outside firm. Outside firms can do a scientific, unbiased, study with recommendations based on their prior experience of conducting surveys in the same industry.