More speed, less haste; performance synergy at work
More speed, less haste: performance synergy at work
Article by David Evans, Chairman and Chief Executive of The Grass Roots Group PLC, in Venture magazine September 2006
The fundamentals of performance improvement have not changed since the business was invented in 1930s America, but the tools of the trade have improved beyond recognition. Nowadays, we get better information to the right people quicker than ever before.
Early incentive programmes enjoyed immense novelty value. But of course the novelty wore off, as novelty does. Something more substantial was required to replace it, and it came in the form of intellectual justification from Herzberg, Maslow and others, more or less concurring that motivation entails appealing to certain types of unsatisfied personal need, in particular to the need for recognition. Fortified by this argument, motivation agencies continued to supply merchandise and travel, those being their sources of profit, but they felt better about what they were doing.
Eventually came a double awakening: clients jibbed at the price of the goods that ‘concealed’ a multitude of other costs and agencies realised there was more to motivation than incentives and rewards. By building up expertise in communication, training and research they created other saleable services and began charging for their time and ideas rather than supplying them ‘free’. And so, after a period of gestation lasting the best part of 50 years was born the Objective Solution.
At about the same time, technology was making the world a smaller and faster place to work. PCs, the internet and email broke down barriers of time and distance, enabling people to exchange current information electronically rather swap nostalgia by post. So when we make a Mystery Shopping call on one of our clients’ outlets or persuade one of their customers to give us their feedback, the outcome can be posted on a website or lodged on our IVR system within minutes for notice and action to be taken.
This is all part of an increasing focus on process and inputs rather than results per se. If we get all the steps in the selling process right, the sales will materialise as surely as night follows day. If we give customer-facing staff clearer direction, more knowledge and better skills, customer satisfaction will inexorably improve. If we pat someone on the back right away, they will know, remember and very likely repeat whatever it is that we clearly appreciated.
Sometimes there are defining moments that dictate specific intervention. Like its competitors in pre-paid mobile phones, O2 is prey to unheralded customer defections. We worked with O2’s specialist retention team to provide highly focused training on site, developing and then practising responses to predictable customer scenarios. With a competitive overlay and some added entertainment we helped reduce ‘churn’ significantly.
Speed is generally of the essence – a message often needs to be sent right away or not at all. Our innovative pure card was developed as a comprehensive motivational medium rather than just a reward mechanism. Every time a client participant earns an award, which is immediately credited to their pure card for redemption at selected outlets or online, we send them a congratulatory message by email or SMS.
These media are fast becoming the order of the day for dialogue with participants. A programme we recently ran for Lexus exemplified the best of ‘old’ and ‘new’, as we communicated to participants’ home addresses for family awareness and support and direct to their mobile/email for immediacy and individuality.
New technology has also contributed to increasing peer influence. Historically, incentive programmes depended on managers and management to determine criteria and distribute largesse. It is clear that, with the best will in the world, managers cannot be both ubiquitous and omniscient. There will be good deeds that escape their attention unless someone tips them the wink.
Sainsbury’s “Shining Stars” is just one example of a programme that enables staff to nominate their colleagues for helpful or valuable actions. “Shining Stars” enables employees to make online nominations of their colleagues for rewards that are approved at Branch level and reported via the web (thereby vanquishing the twin enemies of accessibility and administration). Employees were also encouraged to “Tell Justin” (Justin King, Chief Executive) if they had a suggestion to make.
We have moved pretty swiftly to a world in which corporate values can be related to everyday life, and provide a yardstick for everyday actions. It is incoherent, illogical and insulting for companies to treat employees abominably whilst claiming (and telling them) to treat. the customer as king. Enlightened employers have cottoned on to the fact that you should show people how to treat customers well, not just tell them that they must.
The new performance improvement does exactly what it says on the website. It is less to do with artificially cranking sales up for a short period, and more to do with doing the job better. It understands that if people are given the right tools, and shown how to use them in the right way, they will willingly finish the job.