Creative Reaction

HBR’s What Happens When You Really Meet People’s Needs, explains the mechanics of Ritz Carlton’s excellent customer service, which starts with its commitment to its employees and extends to its guests. (This is a perfect follow-up to Monday’s post, Marketing is HR, HR Marketing.)

Half a dozen examples detail how the Ritz Carlton culture is reinforced, the most astonishing of which is the fact that each employee may spend up to $2,000 on a guest without managerial approval. This Forbes interview goes into even more detail and clarifies that $2,000 is merely a guideline and that the money spent is not necessarily to solve a problem, but to create an “outstanding experience” for a guest. The hotels’ General Managers often find about about these expenditures after the fact; further evidence of the trust they place in their teams. (The Forbes article describes its recruiting and training methodology as well.)

The results?

• The company’s turnover rate is a fraction of the industry average.
• Employee engagement scores are significantly above other “best in class” benchmarks.
• An increase of one per cent in employee engagement measurements translates into as much as $10M in additional revenue.

Hey, Economist: do you still think engagement is a “popular management fad of the moment“?!

Lean Startups follows up with a Part II to a great post from last Summer, How a foosball table can kill your startup.

At issue is motivating employees, but not in a way that hurts morale or adversely affects work. I agree with everything Apollo says. Focus on teamwork, health, having a life outside of work, and developing relationships with clients.

Every company has its own culture and needs. Maybe a foosball table or an espresso machine makes sense for you. The important thing is to choose what is best for your team members as individuals – people with mental, physical, emotional, and spiritual needs –  and in ways that allow them to be engaged in their work.

Matt Heinz at Blogging Innovation: “I love the idea of employees… thinking of themselves like entrepreneurs.” I couldn’t agree more.

He asks rhetorically, “What constitutes a set of entrepreneurial attributes that employees could emulate?” then answers his own question. I’ve paraphrased (somewhat).

1. Customer-centric thinking.
2. Frugality
3. Creative problem-solving
4. Immunity to fear
5. Acceptance of failure

Imagine having an entire company of people with these qualities. Wow. That’s an engaged workforce.