Archive for the ‘Carol Ann Morgan’ Category
Tuesday, June 10th, 2008
Today sees the start of a 4-day serialisation of our latest white paper - Understanding and Deveoping Your (People) Assets, by Carol-Ann Morgan. The next three parts will be posted on Wednesday and Thursday of this week and on Tuesday next week. This first part of the paper looks at why staff contentment is so important, and begins to look at the various literature on employee satisfaction that has emerged so far.
One in five employees has had sex in the workplace, one in three has taken Class A drugs at work, and one in six admit to ‘constantly’ surfing the web on matters totally unrelated to work, according to David Bolchover’s book “The Living Dead”. He suggests that these employees are bored with their jobs because they don’t actually have anything meaningful to do. He concludes that a successful employer provides workers with a job that is not only inherently meaningful but also has a wider purpose that is closely allied to the organisation’s wider goals.
This paper explores some of the theories about employee satisfaction at work and looks at approaches to measuring and addressing the issues raised.
Introduction
Measuring the satisfaction of customers is common practice in the business environment, particularly in the private sector, and most companies recognise the importance of understanding its customer’s perceptions, needs and motivations. However, coupled with customer satisfaction though, is understanding of what satisfies and motivates staff. The link between these two phenomena has been made by many business leaders and theorists alike, indeed some have built their business strategy around this.
Employee well-being is becoming increasingly important as organisations realise the link between happy healthy staff and their long term success
Nick Marks CIPD
Few would argue that the most valuable resource of any organisation is its people. Staff well-being and their level of satisfaction has been found to directly impact on organisational performance and ultimately organisational success; dissatisfied staff are unlikely to foster a satisfied customer base, and dissatisfied customers directly impact on the bottom line. Thus, measurement of the staff experience is an integral part of developing the customer experience. The link between these issues arose from the premise of the service profit chain:
- Internal quality drives employee satisfaction
- Employee satisfaction drives loyalty
- Employee loyalty drives productivity
- Employee productivity drives value
- Value drives customer satisfaction
- Customer satisfaction drives customer loyalty
- Customer loyalty drives profitability and growth
Source: Harvard Business Review OnPoint
The theory goes that if staff feel valued and involved, customers have great experiences dealing with the service organisation, and then positive business results follow.
The “Contract”
In its simplest form, the “contract” between employer and employee involves the supply of skills and service in exchange for remuneration, with the employer providing the tools to do the job. However, expectations have shifted over time, and both employers and employees now demand more from either side of the equation. The role of two way feedback at all levels within the organisation in developing a happy motivated workforce has been explicitly recognised. Appraisals which prioritise and evaluate work skills and identify staff development and training needs are common place, however, it is not always common place to seek feedback from staff about their level of satisfaction, happiness and/or loyalty to the company/organisation.
Happy Complacency Theory
There has been considerable debate on what employers want from their employees and what employees want from their employers. Early approaches to staff satisfaction tended to focus on the staff member experience; a one way perspective, often quite divorced from the organisational goals and expectations.
Most of us can relay a customer experience when, seemingly “happy” staff, enjoying their place of work, display little interest in serving the needs of the customer or of the organisation. This lies at the centre of the debate about the impact of staff “happiness” at work, and whether indeed, “happiness” is what an organisation should be striving for amongst its workforce.
Our customers don’t pay for us to have a dodgy day, they pay good money to receive a consistent level of service, and so each of our staff has a responsibility to lift themselves and their colleagues. I have learnt that you can only do this when you have champions in key areas – staff who really champion the cause and influence people.
Ian Mahoney, Reebok Club London
It has been suggested that people who are very satisfied are not necessarily high performers, and with the constantly changing business environment, employees who are too happy and content, feel less inclined to seek improvements, change, or do things differently. In today’s climate, this tends not to be a good position for any business; rather, a company needs staff who are energised, motivated and eager or willing to try something new.
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Friday, May 30th, 2008
Like many people, B2B director Carol-Ann Morgan believes that satisfied employees lead to satisfied customers. So, in this, her second Thursday Night Insight blog post, she assesses whether we should be doing more to understand what really motivates our colleagues.
New figures released in April by the Office of National Statistics reveal that three quarters of the UK population of working age are in work. This amounts to almost 30 million people; a record high. And of these, almost 8 million are over the age of 50.
The modern workplace has changed over time, and with it, the expectations of both employers and employees. The link between satisfied staff and satisfied customers has been around for some time. However, a newer, different, paradigm is now in circulation; one which identifies the need for employees who are engaged with the organisation and want to be aligned to the values of the companies they work for.
Yet as I look around our offices, and talk to my friends, I am reminded that one man’s meat can certainly be another man’s poison. It is apparent that motivations vary from individual to individual and are influenced by the life context of the employee. I can recognise groups of workers who come to work purely for the money, to survive; others who are looking for the social element and the pay is less important; others who are seeking challenging activities and have a strong desire to be involved in the strategic development of the organisation or company they work for.
The requirement to understand the needs of the customer base, and to segment these in order to serve them better is well understood. However, it is not so commonplace to apply the same strategy to our staff. By understanding what employees needs are from the workplace, are we more likely to meet these needs and build a loyal “engaged” staff, at whatever level it is that they are seeking?
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Friday, February 29th, 2008
Following on from last week’s inaugural post in a new series entitled "Thursday Night Insight", this week B2B Director Carol Ann Morgan investigates the personal and emotional pressures that are increasingly impacting upon our buying decisions.
I have recently changed my car, and in choosing my car, I did feel morally pressured to allow environmental issues to give way to some of my personal emotional attachments to aesthetics, speed and brand. The car I end up with might not be quite as pleasing to me, had I considered only my personal needs, but I am expectant of a “feel good� factor, in making the “right� choice.
Being a market researcher, I am constantly sussing out the people I interact with in my personal and business life to develop my understanding and feed my curiosity about what drives a buyer to choose one product or one brand over another.
Most business models explaining buyer behaviour boil down to three key considerations in this decision:
- Cultural needs of the organisation or the community we belong to (Corporate needs)
- Requirements of the product or service (functional needs)
- The emotional needs of the individual making the decision (personal needs)
Many of the research projects I have worked on over recent years have served to remind me of the strength external pressures in driving a shift in the weight of importance of these three groups of needs when it comes to supplier and product choices. Increasingly strong political pressures, in the form of policies, legislation and directives, are now impacting quite considerably on business and consumer buying decisions, and this influence seems to be growing.
Business purchasing decision makers appear to be coming under similar pressure, notably in relation to green issues, health and safety and social responsibility. Wily suppliers of the future might be those whose sales and marketing approaches take time to understand corporate needs and pressures. However, personal and emotional needs of the buyer fronting the decision need also to be addressed; after all, it is likely to be (s)he who is looking for the “feel good� factor too.
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