Step Five: Foster Employee Loyalty

NOTE: Skip Kapur and I got together recently to talk about the fifth of the Six Steps to High Performance. Here, things really start to connect.

—M. A. “Ryan” Yuhas, Process Effectiveness Consultant

In step 5, we directly link employee recognition to customer satisfaction.

—Skip Kapur

RY: What is Employee Loyalty?

SK: Employee Loyalty is a mindset. It means the employee always tries to do the right thing for the company. We believe that starts by doing the right thing for the customer.

RY: You place the customer ahead of the company?

SK: Yes, in a sense. Being as fair as possible with the customer means that customer will always be around. We're actually seeking a “win-win,” where the organization and the customer both benefit fairly. That usually means concentrating on what the customer needs first, and the employee has to have the authority to take care of the customer.

RY: So what kind of things do you do institutionally to reinforce this employee mindset?

SK: I'll give you an example. In my organizations past, I have implemented something I call “E3” awards. E3 stands for “Employees Excel Everywhere,” and is a program aimed at reinforcing the behavior that creates the desired results. In this case we look at customer satisfaction.

The way it works is that we put a survey process in place to proactively measure the results we deliver to the customer. When a customer responds they are satisfied that we've fully delivered what we've promised, the teams and employees responsible for that satisfaction get recognized. Please note that it is important that this customer satisfaction be achieved while meeting the financial targets of the company. It is easy to have high customer satisfaction while giving away the store!

RY: So you don't just have the process, you measure the results of the process, and then reward based on the results. None of these components work very well in isolation, do they?

SK: Well, as a matter of fact, I've seen the execution of the concept go very wrong when things haven't been put together well. With a previous employer, a division other than mine had heard we got great results by “listening to the customer.” So they started calling their customers. That's all, just calling and asking how the customer liked the service. They did not integrate this listening exercise with a reward system, and with a system to improve the process. They missed the point entirely, and they created few tangible results for their efforts.

RY: So the linking of process, results, and reward embeds the process into your culture. It highlights accountability in a very positive way. What is another way our readers can engender Employee Loyalty in their organizations?

SK: I'd say they should consider implementing programs through which employees can propose ideas for improvement and have their ideas reviewed in an open process. Wouldn't it be wonderful if ideas got to the top quickly? Of course, you should design recognition for this activity as well.

RY: Are there any other specific kinds of empowerment you would like to see organizations adopt?

SK: One program we tried with great success was called M3—Monday Meeting madness. In this implementation, we designated a meeting day, once a week, so that individual employees could raise concerns, improve processes, fix systematic problems, or seek management attention for projects in trouble. If you allow anyone to call a meeting on this designated day, it ensures empowerment. Of course, part of the process is an important business rule: Everyone has to keep their calendar free of other kinds of meetings that day, and no one can turn down an employee-requested meeting if the time slot is open.

I have seen this one technique produce amazing results in the attitudes and effectiveness of employees. As in everything else, it must be implemented consistently and the rules adhered to passionately. Most importantly, the M3 program allowed problems to be fixed way before senior managers were even aware of the problems.

RY: How could you ensure that individuals and teams within the organization don't become “siloed”—unable to share and collaborate?

SK: The compensation packages must be tied to the success of the organization. You have to assign a component of compensation to the results of the employee's immediate team for an individual to feel like they have an impact on the outcome. But you can assign a much larger percentage on the success of the larger organization and the progress toward key organizational goals. This fosters the kind of one-for-all and all-for-one spirit that the organization needs to succeed as a whole.

RY: Is just putting that in place going to be enough?

SK: No. The managers and leaders must constantly champion the organization's culture of customer orientation, open communication, no silos, “we're all in this together,” etc. Reinforce this in employee reviews, everyday conversations, monthly operations meetings, and in special all-hands meetings you call twice a year.

RY: To summarize, then, you foster Employee Loyalty by tying employee recognition to customer satisfaction, giving employees the power to raise concerns to management on a very regular basis, repeating a consistent message, and linking monetary reward to the results the company needs as a whole. Now we're coming up to the sixth and final step.

SK: Yes, next time we'll talk about Communication. Properly defined and executed, it is the glue that holds the entire process together.

© 2002 M. A. “Ryan” Yuhas and Sunil “Skip” Kapur
InterDimension Strategies Inc.