Organizations are faced with an
eternal dilemma:
(1)What is more important –
Customer experience or Employee experience?
(2)Is there a cause- effect
relationship between the two; will one – better employee experience – lead to
the other – better customer experience? Is Vineet Nayyar the former head honcho of HCL right when he says 'Employees First, Customers Second"? or
(3)Should both be pursued
simultaneously?
Experience shows that happier
employees make an extra effort to boost customer experience; employees of Taj
Mumbai risking their lives, in 2008 - when attacked by Kasab & gang - for
the sake of their embattled patrons has become an international case study. Generally,
when an employee loves his organization he would be keen to make his customers
too have similar feelings; the trick therefore, is to make an employee fall in
love with the organization vide recognition & leave him with a lasting
impression that his company will take care of him & if possible his family too
in case of any unexpected eventuality. The Japanese mastery of the art of
lifetime employment & loyalty - without dishing out huge compensations like
the Americans - is brought out in minutiae by Akio Morita in “Made in Japan”.
Unfortunately, our US driven
business school MBA programs tutor us on "Customer First" & train us to see employees
as "cost" elements alone, leading to the current mess. During a
downturn managements sack employees to save costs even while there are other
cost elements that are in greater need for pruning. Many a times despite a
flawed strategy executed by top management being the prime reason for the mess,
they successfully retain their positions even while the frontline is served
with pink slips. Paradoxically, the top management in US banks during the 2008
financial crisis retained their position & bonuses while others down the
ranks got sacked enhancing employee angst. Would it not be better to disclose
the firm’s position to the employees – the “Internal customers” - & call
for a proportionate cut in the salaries of all personnel to achieve “cost” aims
rather than use the knife on select employees?
Employee loyalty to organizations,
today, is fickle; employees jump ship with abandon when the going is right
& get sacked with impunity when the penny drops. If companies carry their
employees during a business downturn after appraising them, will it not enhance
employee loyalty? Likewise, is it not prudish on the part of employees to shift
to competition, even without serving their notice period in full, when offered higher
compensation but complain, gherao management – like the Tiny Owl food delivery start
up case -or seek govt. intervention – like the IT employees case - when sacked?
Loyalty begets loyalty, it is prudent, therefore, that commitment gets enhanced
on both sides.
Loyalty to the organization can
be further enhanced if the employee’s family loves the organization. How to
achieve that in an era where better halves complain of no “work life” balance
ruining their family lives’ is a ponderable question. Family get togethers’
inculcate a feeling of shared solidarity, eve’s organizations – like in HUL - helping
a new recruit’s family/transferred family settle down is helpful in fostering
goodwill. Organizations stepping in to take care of health & education
needs of the family impart greater bonding.
There is a persisting myth that employees
leave bosses & not organizations; it is not necessarily completely true. If
the appraisal process is biased, & employee not treated without empathy by
the immediate superior, the boss is definitely to blame; but if organization
culture promotes ruthlessness & politicking then blaming the boss alone is
wrong. The "Bell curve" & force fit driven as part of organization
strategy & normalization thereof has annoyed many. IBM, Accenture & TCS
have moved away from the “Bell curve” system & replaced it with a process
of continuous feedback – rather than an annual appraisal - & employees are
now appraised on individual performance; perhaps, real time feedback is the way
forward which clarifies expectations - unlike an annual shocker of a process
currently underway – ensuring a win–win for both sides. The bottom 10% shall either quit early or have sufficient time to improve making
the process of separation – if inevitable - sans heartache; the employees leaving the organization should be made to depart with a feeling that the organization was not unjust in its dealings. Thus the onus is on
top management to build the appropriate culture & prod all
"bosses" to become its willing ambassadors. Wonderful customer
experience is then only waiting to happen.
