I’ve written about employee engagement in previous posts, but today is all about the customer. 

PeopleMetrics, Inc. recently released it’s 2009 Most Engaged Customer Report.  According to their study, the companies that have the most engaged customers include: 

Ritz-Carlton
Google 
The Four Seasons
Netflix.com
Cartier
Armani
Newegg.com
Wegman’s Food Market
Coach
Costco

Not suprisingly, a number of the companies that made the top of engaged customer list are also companies that are famous for their focus on employees, including Wegman’s, Ritz-Carlton, and Costco. 

Want to read more about engaging customers and employees? The Executive Summary is available online for free.

Last week I posted about my experience with jury duty and mentioned that good communication should meet the audience where they are.  I recommended three phases when communicating with people in tough times.

#1: Empathize with the emotions people are feeling

#2: Inspire by appealing to a sense of purpose

#3: Provide information on the details

I was pleasantly surprised yesterday when I came across an article by leadership expert John Baldoni describing how President Obama is using a similar approach.  Baldoni writes:

I think Obama is an excellent example of the three phases I discussed.  In his campaign he addressed the emotions people were feeling and then moved on to inspiring with his “yes, we can” message.  Now that he is in office and faced with implementation and execution, his communication is focused on helping people understand both the plan and their part in it.

For more, check out Baldoni’s article Great Communicators Are Great Explainers.

Since I’m married to a video producer, thought we’d combine work and play! 

I was summoned to appear for Jury Duty today and was pleasantly surprised when the experience resulted in an effective example of communicating with an audience full of resisters. 

After the 30 or so of us signed in with the Court Clerk, we were shown a video.  I admit to bracing myself for something preachy and boring. However, 30 seconds into watching “The Colorado Juror” I was digging in my bag for a pen and paper to capture notes on how good the video was!  I thought it was an effective example of the order in which to cover points when dealing with a resistant, skeptical, or hesitant audience.

#1: Start with empathy for the emotions people are feeling.

The video started with clips of four past jurors talking about how anxious and annoyed they were when they received their summons.  As people chuckled and nodded along, the tension in the room started to dissapate.

#2:  Appeal to a sense of purpose

Following the four clips, the narrator said, “I’ll bet you are thinking that someone else with less important things to do should be here instead of you.”  This got a good laugh as we all realized that we all thought our agendas were more important than everyone else’s. After empathizing, the narrator then came on to say, “We know you might not be thrilled to be here, but you are playing an import part in the process that makes our country great.”  The video went on to talk about the role that juries play in giving people a fair trial and how important each juror is to the process.

#3: Provide details of the plan.

Only after relating to what people were feeling, and appealing to a higher purpose, did the video go inot the nuts and bolts of how the process would work.  This stage a) gave the jurors information about the types of juries, the selection process, etc. and b) helped us know what to expect for the rest of the morning.

What struck me most was the fact that if the information in this video had been covered in a different order it would not have been nearly as effective.  Whoever wrote the script realized that starting with emotion, then moving to purpose, and finally getting into details/plans/information would fit the psychological state we jurors were in. If the video had started with information – I have no doubt that we would have rolled our eyes and felt unappreciated. 

All in all, a great example of how a well crafted message can turn resisters into supporters.

A new MetLife Mature Market Institute study, conducted in partnership with Boston College’s Sloan Center on Aging & Work, indicates that the economic downturn has had a greater psychological effect on younger workers than it has on workers of the Baby Boomer and Traditionalist generations.

The results of the study are summarized in the report, “Engaging the 21st Century Multi-Generational Workforce.”

The primary focus of the study was on whether generational differences matter when it comes to employee engagement.  In short, the answer is yes.  Marcie Pitt-Catsouphes, Ph.D., director of the Sloan Center says, “We found that different factors ‘drive’ the levels of engagement of different groups of employees.”

While the insight into engaging the different generations is reason enough to read the report, I was particularly interested in the findings related to how different groups of employees are weathering the economic storm. 

Employees from both Generation Y (age 26 and younger) and Generation X (age 27 – 42) reported a drop in engagement, while employees in the Baby Boomer and Traditionalist generations reported almost no change in engagement. 

This phenomenon may be due to the fact that employees of the first two generations have never experienced tough times, whereas older employees have.  Having lived through previous downturns, Boomers and Traditionalists may have learned that things ultimately do get better.  As a group, workers over the age of 43 may therefore have developed more resiliency. 

The study reminded me of a recent BusinessWeek article about how the recession is impacting the country’s youth.  According to their Age of Anxiety piece,

” They (the millennial generation) are entering the workplace at a terrible time, and their first career decisions could have financial implications that last for years.”

So What?

Both the study and the article both point to the fact that we need to do more to help younger workers cope with the anxiety of living and working in a recession. 

If you are a Baby Boomer or Traditionalist boss, find time to have conversations with your younger workers about how they are feeling and coping. You may feel that you don’t have time to “coddle” younger workers given all of the other demands you face.  However, my own research and that from Harvard professor Bob Sutton, shows that employees can become paralyzed by anxiety which then results in decreases in productivity.

So taking some time to share your own stories of recovering from previous downturns and suggesting strategies that helped you cope in the past may ultimately improve the your younger workers’ productivity and your team’s results.

I recently worked with a Vice President from a defense company to create a town hall meeting that allowed and encouraged her more tenured team members to connect with the newer folks.  The experienced employees shared their suggestions for dealing with chaos, anxiety, and overwork.  The immediate result was a palpable sense of relief in the room and a heightened level of energy across the team.

HR professionals are often called upon to deliver tough messages – one of the toughest being talking to a senior executive about the negative impact of his or her behavior.  What do you do when you are asked to deliver difficult feedback to the boss?

Here are two good articles from Workforce.com on the subject:

• HR Feedback for Your Boss
• How Do I Counsel My Company’s Morale-Killing CEO (and Not Get Fired)?

Any time I see or hear something three times in quick succession, I sit up and realize that the universe is trying to tell me something.  Lately the universe has been talking to me about the fact that welcoming disagreement is an imperative ingredient of effective leadership. 

Sign #1:  From Richard Hackman

In the May issue of Harvard Business Review, Diane Coutu interviewed Richard Hackman, Professor of Social and Organizational Psychology at Harvard University and a leading expert on teams.  While the article is titled, “Why Teams Don’t Work,”  Hackman does offer insight into why and when teams do work.  One suprising finding of Hackman’s research is that every team needs a deviant.   According to Hackman,

Hackman argues that deviants open up more ideas and are a great source of innovation.  Of course, the problem is that these very people are often seen as resistant and as troublemakers. 

Sign #2:  From Warren Bennis

A month after Hackman’s article, HBR published a piece from Warren Bennis on the topic of transparency.  While the article is worth reading in and of itself, there on page 60 was a sign.  Bennis writes:

The lesson, according to Bennis, is “reward contrarians”.

Sign #3:  Jack and Suzy Welch

The last sign came in the June 8 edition of Business Week.  Jack and Suzy Welch devoted their weekly column to what they call, “The Power of Pushback.”   They write:

Conclusion:

As a driver myself, I recognize that it’s easy to get annoyed when people disagree and it’s tempting to squash dissention.  I think the universe (and business experts) are telling me and other leaders to reframe resistance and appreciate it when people care enough to disagree.  The result will be better in the long run!

Great article from Bob Sutton in this month’s Harvard Business Review on leading after layoffs.  Read the article “How to be a Good Boss in a Bad Ecomony here. 

You can also watch a 9-minute video of Sutton discussing the topic on The McKinsey Quaterly’s website.

Earlier this year I wrote about the fact that employees were craving information about how the financial crisis was impacting their jobs and their companies.  As the economy has worsened, this need has increased.  More and more companies have implemented layoffs and other changes and not all are doing a good job of communicating. 

Recently, the Opinion Research Corporation (ORC) found that about half of the employees surveyed said their companies have communicated well.  Which means 50% of employees think their companies could do better.

The survey also found that employees are two times as likely to go the extra mile for their company and almost four times as likely to recommend it to others if they are satisfied with the ways in which it communicates difficult decisions.  According to the ORC, employees are looking for:

To see the full results, click here.