I’d written sometime back in one of my blogs that I feel HR is perhaps the most ill-educated and ill-trained department in any company. Any other department recruits only people who have the relevant technical background. For example the finance manager should have had courses in economics and/or chartered accountancy. If he/she had done MBA, then it’s very likely that he/she had finance as the specialization. But how many times did you hear that the HR manager of a company has studied psychology? For example the HR in my previous company did bachelors in zoology or something like that. Well, humans are also animals – so zoology might be a relevant subject….!! It’s really weird that one of the most critical and important positions in a company is held by people without any relevant background and knowledge. Even people, who come to HR with MBA background, are the ones whose scores or ranks in MBA are generally not among the highest because the best guys always opt for finance, marketing, business development and other higher-paying jobs. The result is that very few companies can provide the best of the HR services to their employees.
Perhaps the main task of the HR is to make sure that the employees are satisfied. It’s a common sense that satisfied employees would work more efficiently and thus result in better performance of the company. At the same time satisfied and loyal customers are also equally important for a company because at the end of the day the revenue comes from the customers. Though it sounds very simple but still I never came across any survey or theory that links between employee and customer satisfaction all these days. I’ve been sent to so many trainings on various aspects of management but somehow I was not getting exactly what I was looking for. Also I’ve been really getting frustrated with the way most HRs operate. Customer satisfaction is often taken very seriously in most companies, but employee satisfaction is not always taken seriously, even though you would find so many HR policies claiming to do so. It’s well known to all that an employee always ‘quits’ a manager and his/her team, but very rarely the attrition is linked with the performance of the managers. Very few companies even have the policy of taking three sixty degree feedbacks. In most cases managers play a vicious role in causing too much damage to the efficiency of a company, but seldom is he/she held responsible. Most of the HR surveys are too cumbersome and people always get demoralized to fill up forms with hundreds of questions with five options each and then sections to feed in justifications and comments. Even the performance review forms are never crisp. Being an engineer I always felt that HR needs proper engineering way of approaching things. I understand things only when supported by results and fitted to a graph or curve. I believe human behavior is also best understood through mathematics.
Not happy with any of HR practices I’ve seen in any of my previous companies, I wanted to venture into this domain myself. After a few days of studies I could come up with some very simple forms which I feel can be used very effectively in HR. Moreover I came across something that I was looking for all the while – a survey linking employee satisfaction with that of the customers. It’s called HumanSigma, researched by Gallup. The concept is based on Employee-Customer Engagement. It says that companies which have engaged employees and customers at the same time are super performers and do much better financially than companies where either the employees or customers are not engaged.
I like the ‘term’ engagement very much. It’s really very thoughtful. When a boy and girl get very close to each other, when they are satisfied with each other’s behavior and attitude and when they become committed to each other we say that they are ‘engaged’ to each other. The same applies to a company also. An employee is engaged to a company when there’s an emotional attachment, which comes from various factors. Considering this human aspect in understanding the relationship between a company and its employees is the basis of HumanSigma. This emotional aspect can be extended to customers also. The Human Sigma management approach takes human nature into account and then uses that knowledge to manage and motivate employees, and accelerate their development, as well as to engage customers’ emotions. The central premise of Human Sigma is that emotionally satisfied customers contribute far more to the bottom line than rationally satisfied customers.
Gallup has done an extensive survey on 1,976 business units across 10 companies, which had applied the best practices for employee and customer engagement and found that these 10 companies outperformed their 5 biggest peers by 26% in gross margin and 85% in sales growth. Organizations or business units that engage their employees without engaging their customers suffer from being too inwardly focused and have lost their direction. In contrast, organizations or business units that engage their customers without engaging their employees cannot sustain themselves.
Gallup has also developed a very simple mechanism to measure the Employee and Customer Engagement based on the scores of a set of well thought and researched questions to be asked to the employees and customers respectively. The HumanSigma or HS of a company is a function of Employee and Customer Engagement Scores.
Following is the result of this survey.
Organizations or business units at HS1 and HS2 perform significantly below par on employee or customer engagement metrics, and require significant intervention and improvement. Notice the long tails on these two performance bands. This extreme and unbalanced performance on the two metrics is associated with relatively poor financial performance. These two performance bands account for 37 percent of the companies studied. Organizations or business units at HS3 account for 29 percent of the companies studied and are also frequently out of balance, ranking high on one vital sign but poor on the other.
Organizations at HS4 are classified as “emerging optimized” performers. They have established balance in the vital signs of the employee-customer encounter, but there are still substantial gains to be made to strengthen these metrics. Organizations at HS5 and HS6 are classified as “super” performers. Overall, organizations in HS4, HS5 and HS6 are 3.4 times more effective financially than HS1, HS2 and HS3.
I found the set of questions, used by Gallup to measure Employee and Customer Engagement, very useful and handy to use, in case the company is in service industry. For the first time I came across a survey with only 10-11 questions which are so easy to answer. Based on these Gallup surveys, with a little modification here and there, I’ve come up with a few simple forms which can be used for the following purposes:
- To measure Employee Engagement: Gallup Standard Q12® survey
- To measure Customer Engagement: Standard Q11® survey and its derivative
- To calculate HumanSigma – which can be used as a measure of the overall health of the company
- To review employee performance: EPR
- To review performance of managers: Leadership Index (LI)
Each of these questions are to be answered in points between 1 and 5, with 5 meaning strongly agree or very good and 1 meaning strongly disagree or very bad. Scores between 4.5 and 5 correspond to an ‘Ex’ grade. Scores between 4 & 4.5 correspond to an ‘A’ grade. Scores between 3.5 & 4 correspond to a ‘B’ grade and so on.
Standard Q12® survey for Employee Engagement
This form should be filled by each employee of the company. Scores above 4.5 would mean that the employee is highly engaged and is very likely to perform very well too.
Score Q01 I know what is expected of me at work. 4.6 Accountability Q02 I have the materials and equipment to do my work right. 4.9 Support Q03 At work, I have the opportunity to do what I do best every day 4.8 Achievement Q04 In the last quarter, I have received recognition or praise for doing good work. 4.4 Performance Reward Q05 My supervisor, or someone at work, seems to care about me as a person. 4.9 Team Q06 There is someone at work who encourages my development. 4.9 Development Q07 At work, my opinions seem to count. 4.9 Alignment Q08 The mission or purpose of my organization makes me feel my job is important. 4.8 Alignment Q09 My associates or fellow employees are committed to doing quality work. 4.8 Commitment Q10 I have a best friend at work. 4.9 Team Q11 In the last six months, someone at work has talked to me about my progress. 4.9 Performance Q12 This last year, I have had opportunities to learn and grow. 4.3 Development Average 4.8
Standard Q11® survey for Customer Engagement
Score | |||
Q01 | Overall, how satisfied are you with our company? | 4.5 | Overall Satisfaction |
Q02 | How likely are you to continue to choose our company? | 4.6 | Continuing Relationship |
Q03 | How likely are you to recommend our company to a friend/business acquaintance? | 4.9 | Recommendation |
Q04 | "Your company is a name I can always trust" | 4.3 | Trust |
Q05 | "Your company always delivers on what they promise" | 4.8 | Quality & Credibility |
Q06 | "Your company always treats me fairly/ethically" | 4.2 | Fairness & Ethics |
Q07 | "If a problem arises, I can always count on | | |
| your company to reach a fair and satisfactory resolution" | 4.4 | Troubleshooting & Competence |
Q08 | "I feel proud to be a your company's client" | 4.5 | Association |
Q09 | "Your company always treats me with respect and professionalism" | 4.9 | Respect & Professionalism |
Q10 | "Your company is the perfect service partner for company like ours" | 4.4 | Alignment & Relevance |
Q11 | "I can't imagine a service partner without your company" | 4.5 | Branding |
Average | 4.5 |
Ideally this should be filled by the customers. But in many cases, especially when the company provides certain services to its customers, the later might not feel comfortable to answer questions like, “How likely are you to continue to choose our company” or “How likely are you to recommend our company to a friend/business acquaintance”. In such cases it might be wise to frame a different set of outcome oriented questions from the answers of which we should be able to derive the answers of the uncomfortable questions. There are several sites which enlist set of parameters which a customer generally looks for in a service provider. Based on these parameters, it was not hard for me to ‘derive’ a set of questions that would lead us to the Standard Q11® survey for Customer Engagement.
The following chart shows how the new set of questions is derived.
Q01 | Overall, how satisfied are you with our company? | Overall Satisfaction |
Q02 | How likely are you to continue to choose our company? | Continuing Relationship |
Needs minimum directions/tracking for best output | }Derived Questions | |
I have confidence in our company's technical capabilities and skills | ||
Communicates well with team and managers | ||
Has very good attitude, inter-personal skills and team spirit | ||
Q03 | How likely are you to recommend our company to a friend/business acquaintance? | Recommendation |
I have confidence in our company's technical capabilities and skills | }Derived Questions | |
Is matured, professional and abides by business ethics and norms | ||
Always delivers correctly on time | ||
Q04 | "Your company is a name I can always trust" | Trust |
Q05 | "Your company always delivers on what they promise" | Quality & Credibility |
Always delivers correctly on time | Derived Questions | |
Q06 | "Your company always treats me fairly/ethically" | Fairness & Ethics |
Is matured, professional and abides by business ethics and norms | Derived Questions | |
Q07 | "If a problem arises, I can always count on your company | Troubleshooting & |
| Competence | |
Q08 | "I feel proud to be your company's client" - No direct question | Association |
Q09 | "Your always treats me with respect and professionalism" | Respect & Professionalism |
Is matured, professional and abides by business ethics and norms | Derived Questions | |
Q10 | "Your company is the perfect service partner for company like ours" | Alignment & Relevance |
Is the perfect match for the roles considered | Derived Questions | |
Q11 | "I can't imagine a service partner without your company" - No direct question | Branding |
So finally this is the modified set of questions for Customer Engagement – to be filled by the customer.
Score | |||
Q01 | Overall, how satisfied are you with our company's performance? | 4.9 | Overall Satisfaction |
Q02 | "Your company is a name I can always trust" | 4.8 | Trust |
Q03 | Needs minimum directions/tracking for best output | 4.8 | Management |
Q04 | "I have confidence in your company's technical capabilities and skills" | 4.9 | Knowledge & Confidence |
Q05 | Always delivers correctly on time | 4.7 | Quality & Credibility |
Q06 | Has very good attitude, inter-personal skills and team spirit | 4.5 | Attitude & Team Spirit |
Q07 | If a problem/conflict arises, I can always | 4.6 | |
| count on your company to reach a proper and satisfactory resolution | Troubleshooting & Competence | |
Q08 | Is matured, professional and abides by business ethics and norms | 4.8 | Professionalism & Ethics |
Q09 | Communicates well with team and managers | 4.9 | Communication |
Q10 | Is the perfect match for the roles considered | 4.4 | Alignment & Relevance |
Average | 4.7 |
The above chart is points out the traits and parameters that my customer would like to see in us. If that’s the case hen why not derive our employee’s performance review from this? There are multiple sites that point out so many traits to be measured for performance review. After a deeper look I could actually find out that most of these traits can be finally mapped into Customer Engagement. This is logical because finally the Customer Engagement is a function of the performance of our employees.
Following is a very simple form for Employee Performance Review (EPR)
Score | |||
Q01 | Overall, how satisfied are you with the individual's performance | 4.5 | Overall Satisfaction |
Q02 | Is very proactive and takes good initiative | 4.7 | Proactiveness & Initiative |
Q03 | Needs minimum directions/tracking for best output | 4.7 | Management |
Q04 | I have confidence in individual's technical capabilities and relevant skills | 4.8 | Knowledge & Confidence |
Q05 | Always delivers correctly on time | 4.9 | Quality & Credibility |
Q06 | Has very good attitude, inter-personal skills & team spirit | 5 | Attitude & Team Spirit |
Q07 | If a problem arises, I can always count on the individual to reach a proper and | 4.5 | Troubleshooting & |
| satisfactory resolution | | Competence |
Q08 | Is matured, professional and abides by business ethics and norms | 4.6 | Professionalism & Ethics |
Q09 | Communicates well with team and managers | 4.9 | Communication |
Q10 | Is the perfect match for the role considered | 4.7 | Alignment & Relevance |
Q11 | Has the desire to improve quality | 4.4 | Desire to improve |
Q12 | Is creative and innovative | 4.1 | Creativity & Innovation |
Q13 | Seeks feedback and takes feedback positively | 4.6 | Seeking feedback |
Q14 | Is highly committed and passionate about work/company | 4.7 | Passion & Commitment |
Average | 4.7 |
Leadership Index
Leadership does play a very important role in Employee Engagement. Also providing the effective leadership is one of the most important tasks of a manager. So I feel it’s important to measure the Leadership Index also. Gallup already has a very simple form for this.
Score | |||
Q01 | My manager/supervisor demonstrates competence in his or her job. | 4.6 | Competence |
Q02 | My manager/supervisor treats everyone fairly (i.e., plays no favourites). | 4.8 | Fairness |
Q03 | My manager/supervisor creates a motivating and supportive work climate. | 4.9 | Energize |
Q04 | My manager/supervisor represents my needs, | 4.6 | |
| ideas and suggestions to his/her manager. | | Open |
Q05 | My manager/supervisor takes an interest in | 4.7 | |
| my professional growth and development. | | Develop |
Q06 | My manager/supervisor involves me in decision making, problem solving and planning | 4.7 | |
| processes. | | Participative |
Q07 | My manager/supervisor creates a high performance and collaborative work team. | 4.7 | Performance |
Q08 | I have the opportunity to interact with | 4.5 | |
| Management above my immediate supervisor | | Less Hierarchy |
Average | 4.7 |
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