It's 7AM on Monday morning, and I like many home based business people are firing up our computer link to the world and are ready to go. Well my cable company has something to say about that. No matter what I do I can not reach my Internet connection. That means no E-mail, no online database access to my CRM system, no way of communicating to customers, prospects or vendors.
And no IT Department to complain to. Well you might think this is the opening for a tirade against the phone company or in my case the cable company. Well in fact this is just the sad predecessor to my real problem. For three hours I was unable to get the issue resolved. I am too small to have a dedicated sales representative. My cable company is too new to business telecommunications to have their own service offerings so they engage a third party to provide their cable modem services. I am thus subjected to a series of long holding periods, transfers to various departments, disconnects requiring me to restart the process from the very beginning.
I know I am not the only frustrated businessperson who has gone through this experience with their technology provider, or financial institution, or equipment vendor. It just seems to be getting worse and most companies have tried to solve the problem with technology, and I am finally convinced that the problem is more readily solved through people.
Keep in mind that once a problem occurs there is only one resource that can effectively turn that problem into an opportunity and that is the sales or customer service agent on the phone with the customer. If they are not well trained, if they are incompetent, if they are disgruntled your business opportunity is about to become a business nightmare. Now, sadly enough most companies today build some level of customer churn into their business plan to accommodate for poor service performance from their personnel. What I am suggesting today is that is an unforgivable concession to a fixable problem.
There are two things that every company should commit to today.
- Every employee and every employment candidate will be vetted out and we will only employ the best people for the job we are asking them to do. Impossible you say!! It is if you do not put a system in place to do it. The current hiring process is broken and the customer is paying the price. Ultimately the company will pay the price.
- Training of employees has become virtually non-existent in small companies, and a very dogmatic undertaking in larger ones. Companies need to commit to a minimum level of quality training for their employees every month that is measured and documented as part of the employee's and the manager's personnel review.
What we are suggesting is an "Employee Audit" starting at the screening point for new employees every candidate should be assessed and profiled against the top performing employees for any given position. This should become part of the hiring process, and it should be expanded to include every exisitng employee to see who fits the profile of top performers and who does not. This then can be the basis for remedial training, product training, skills training, or in the case of inappropriate employees it can be the basis for seeking outplacement.
There is nothing worse for the long term success of an organization than perpetuating the "Peter Principal", and sadly many companies today feel that the talent pool just does not allow them to hire and train the best of the best.
We say that this way of thinking is totally unrealistic, and if executive management accepts that position they are accepting that their company is not in business for the long term, And in fact I have met some business owners where that is the plan. They are willing to sacrifice the time, energy, and investment needed to build a first class organization and will concentrate instead on their exit strategy, which will no longer require them to worry about their other challenges, or so they think.
Our word of warning to acquiring companies is to make it part of your own Due Diligence process to conduct an "Employee Audit" before you buy. Acquirers make sure they check all the assets, all the contracts, and all the financials before they buy, but they take the Human Resources for granted. This can turn out to be a fatal mistake.
People are the most important assets you will ever acquire and to just assume they are a redundant, replaceable commodity devalues an organization and does irreparable harm to the morale and commitment of those left behind.
Companies must find ways to re-energize and re-commit their employees. Loyalty to the Mission and Vision of the company has become passe, except in those few companies that sit atop the 100 Most Admired organizations out there. It is not by accident that some of those companies come up year over year at the top. They respect and support their people.
Keep in mind when planing for your next technological breakthrough, or your latest financial re engineering feat that with a little focus on your next investment in your human capital the return on investment may dwarf anything else you are planning on dong.
If you don't believe it ask your customers not your investment bankers, or technology consultants.
Oh by the way that problem I reported earlier took a little over 2 hours to fix, negating 2 online conferences I had planned which are now rescheduled for two weeks hence. It took a few more than five contacts to be told the problem was with my computer, and one other phone call to the management level of my cable company that apologized but they had a server outage at 3AM in the morning that had not yet been reported to their third party broadband service provider. I am glad to report that the problem was resolved at 9:09 AM and I have a delayed revenue stream by at least two weeks. You think good people and good communications among them is not that critical to my business?
