51job Training | Eliminating Performance Gaps in Your Organization

During tough economic times, all aspects of a company's spending come under increased scrutiny. Everyone tries to find ways to make the organization more efficient, more productive, and more cost effective. While many areas are easy to identify, one area of potential impact remains unexamined in most organizations. That area is people.

A new white paper by The Ken Blanchard Companies, The High Cost of Doing Nothing: Quantifying the Impact of Leadership, is shedding some light on this important area. It looks at the impact that leadership plays in three critical areas: employee productivity, employee retention, and customer satisfaction. Then, it quantifies the financial impact that less-than-optimal management practices have in each of these areas.

This paper looks at the high cost that companies incur when employees are not operating in a setting that enables them to perform at their best. The cost to most organizations? Over $1 million according to initial results from individuals using Blanchard's Cost-of-Doing-Nothing Calculator (www.costofdoing nothing.com).

Employee Productivity

Employee productivity is one of the first places where less-than-optimal leadership practices drain an organization of financial performance. When employees do not receive the direction and support they need to accomplish their key tasks successfully, the result is wasted time, substandard results, and costly rework. One big culprit? Unclear direction and lack of follow-up.

What gets in the way of managers being more directive with their employees? One challenge, according to Kathy Cuff, a senior consulting partner with The Ken Blanchard Companies, is that managers are concerned that providing too much direction might convey a lack of confidence in the intelligence or skill level of the direct report.

As Cuff explains, "I'll get comments from managers like, 'I don't want to insult my people by telling them what to do, or how to do their jobs.'" When Cuff hears this statement, she explains that direction is not about intelligence or potential. She illustrates by using an example from her viewpoint as a passenger in an airplane.
"I don't want people getting into the cockpit of my airplane trying to fly if they don't have their pilot's license and they've never had instruction. It's not about intelligence."

For Cuff, providing direction is just a natural part of the managerial process any time an employee is facing new or unfamiliar tasks. If managers don't give people the direction they need, when they need it, what happens is that some people may never get it—at least at the level expected of them. Or if they do, it takes a lot longer for them to learn. There is a lot of wasted time and energy when this occurs and morale goes down as well.

Good Leadership Can Make a Difference

Leaders can make the situation better by asking questions. Does the direct report have the knowledge and skill set to be able to perform this task without a lot of supervision or direction? What is their motivation to work on this? If managers ask the right questions up front, they can find out very quickly what somebody needs.

For managers looking to take this concept one step further, Cuff recommends sharing this thought process with their direct reports once they become comfortable with it themselves. By developing a mutual understanding about learning curves for new tasks and responsibilities, managers can "cut to the chase" and ask questions such as "What development level do you think you are on this goal or task?"

As Cuff explains with a smile, "Now, direct reports can help you do your management job because they're helping you to figure out what you need to provide for them. By educating and training them on this model, you can begin to have more effective conversations."

Employee Retention during Tough Economic Times

A second place where organizations typically see a drain in skill, experience, and performance is when they lose veteran employees. While today's economic slowdown has dramatically reduced voluntary turnover in most organizations, Cuff cautions employers not to become complacent.

"Just because people can't switch jobs right now and don't have other options, that is still not the type of strategy you want to have. Good people are always in demand, and you want your best people to know that you value them and want them to work for you." One of the best ways to show people that you value them, according to Cuff, is to continue to provide them with training and development opportunities. Nothing shows people that you value them more than by taking the time, and making the financial commitment, to invest in them—especially during tough economic times.

As an example of this type of thinking in action, Cuff shares a story about a recent client who is using the extra time available because of the recent slowdown to finally conduct the management training that everyone has been too busy for in the past. The program has two benefits for this organization. One, they are conducting training when opportunity costs are low. Two, they are making a powerful statement about the future—both for the company and the people they see playing a role in it.

Customer Service

Customer service is a third area that can use improvement in most organizations. Some companies do a good job in this area, but most organizations are still rated as only fair, according to national customer service indexes. This translates into hundreds of thousands of dollars in lost revenue growth for the typical company.

For Cuff, the secret to better external customer service begins with better internal customer service. As Cuff explains, "I'm still amazed at the stories I hear about internal customer service and how poorly employees feel that they are treated within their organizations. I think this is an opportunity where companies can see big gains if they would recognize that their first customer is the internal customer. How do they treat the people in the organization? Do they treat them the way they would like customers treated?

"As leaders, it's important to be there for employees and ask, 'What can I do to help you in your job so that you can, in turn, better serve our external customers?"

Pay It Forward

There are a number of things that managers can do, including providing people with direction and support, avoiding complacency, and looking at service as an inside-out proposition, but the most important thing is for managers to take care of the people inside the organization who are taking care of the customers outside the organization. When an organization sustains these behaviors, the result is higher retention of key employees and customers. Organizations with managers who model these behaviors will also create higher morale because people will know that they are valued.

As Cuff explains, "In difficult times it's important for everyone to reach out and help each other. It's a 'pay it forward' philosophy that encourages other people to reciprocate. And I think that's really what it's all about. When we feel that people care about us, we want to stay with them, continue to do business with them, and continue to work for them."

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