Respect

Emerson Eggerich has written a book called "Love and Respect". It is a relationship book for couples. (Note; It is a great book!) The premise is pretty simple. Men and women were wired differently by God. Women seek love and men seek respect in relationships. One of the more fasinating statements he makes is that in a poll they asked a rather provocative question to men. " If you had to choose that your wife could either love you or respect you (you can only have one or the other...) which would you choose? Over 80% of the men chose that they would rather be respected then loved.



In business the 'relationship" between an employee and the employer is all about respect. There is probably nothing that brings outside forces into your company faster than conflict over one simple word; "respect". It has become the "ender" and sometimes the best barometer that describes relationships that cannot be fixed or are irrevocably broken. "They don't respect us, we don't get the respect we deserve, i am tired of being dis-respected, our working conditions show no respect, how can i respect my manager when they do xxxx"; are all comments that you hear in organizations that have relationship trouble.

The thing about respect in business is that no matter how you want to look at it; just like relationships; respect is earned.

Respect is not given.
Hostile compliance is given.
"Going along to get along" is given.

Respect is earned.

Companies that have the respect of their employees got it because they earned it.

They earned it by being fair, successful, opportunistic and yes even tough. Respect is earned from employees where you create an environment where people can be successful at their jobs. Respect is earned when employees are acknowledged for their efforts, lauded for their sacrifice, encouraged when they make mistakes.

Respect is also earned when employees are held accountable for their actions, fired when they act and do things that are grounds for termination and yes even when employees have to be laid off because the business can not support their position or group. A business that makes the right choices, even the tough ones, are respected by employees.

When you have an employees (workforce)respect you can do most anything. You can compete in tough economic times, you can take risks in new markets and in todays times you can fight off outside forces that seek to change your relationship with your employees.

Too often we find ourselves looking for love from our employees when respect is what they want. In these challenging times find ways to build respect in your employee base.

Employee Free Choice Act??? The "Whopper" of all business legislation

Just in today...
http://www.seiu.org/change-that-works/burger-king/

Yes, this is from the Service Employees International Union site. Burger King has had a history of fighting unions. In the past couple of years they have spent money lobbying against unions. This recent story says they are "backing off". Who knows whether they really are or not.

Our point is that this legislation is coming. This is not a political blog. We think it is crazy to have a union in your business. If you want this bill or you look forward to having a union in your business then let's just disagree on that one. If you don't the time to act and protect your business is now.

Our point is that this legislation is going to change the rules on how a union can get into your business. It could get much, MUCH easier for them to become a part of your everyday life. Once in, they get to stay for two years and there is nothing you can do about it. Never heard of a card check? You need to go back and read some of the earlier blogs.

Our point is that if they vote the union in then you have to bargain for their employment package immediately and if you can't reach an agreement an arbitrator will be assigned and they will make the decision. The NLRB is slowly filling up with pro-union players.

Our point is legislation or not, unions feed off employees that perceive they are not treated fairly, that there is more of the "business pie" that they deserve and can get through a union, that there best hope for their careers and livelihood is not with the management of the company but with an outside organization they are willing to pay $300 to $600 a year to represent them.

Our point is that prior to a union "organizing" your employees; you need to be "organized" on how to keep control of your business, your workforce so that you get to keep making the decisions rather than someone else.

The decision to pass this legislation is already out of your hands. However you voted in the past election, the American people installed an administration that campaigned to pass this bill. A large if not the largest contributions to this campaign came from unions and union members. They have one key legislation and this is it. Right now the country has some much larger issues to deal with but this is coming and probably by this summer. Politicians love to spend money and right now the opportunity to spend money is much brighter than it has ever been. Like a feeding frenzy, Washington will take this opportunity while it is hot. Once this has passed the "payback" for the election must come and this legislation is at the top of the list.

You have time to prepare, protect and yes even be more profitable. Rarely do all of these converge. Our past blogs tell you how to start. Our future ones will tell you more. Thank you for reading.

Let's get started; employee free choice act or not

Activity everywhere. Rallies in Chicago, webinars with 1000's of attendees, AFL-CIO advertising, article after article all talking about the Employee Free Choice Act. Go ahead; google it and see what you get.

The time to prepare for this potential new business climate is right now. While we are giving you different factors to look for; the best and most solid defense is a business environment that would not want or need a union. That means employees that trust your company and feel they are valued and receiving value for their work. If you could pick one area where you could have the greatest impact on your business it would be the front line manager/supervisor. This is the person that can make the most mistakes but can also help cover and make-up for mistakes in the business.

No other team of poeple within your company can have a bigger short term or long term impact.

Obviously with great opportunity comes great risk. You are at more risk in this area than any other as well. What these folks do affect your profitablity in both the short and long term. One bad apple can spoil the whole bunch.

Step One: Assess your front line management team.

Who are they?
Which ones are Roses (great)? Which ones are Daisies (Middle of the pack)? Which ones are weeds(no explanation needed)?
How many people are your weeds responsible for?
Are the weeds people that have shown a propensity to change or are they un-changeable?
Are your Roses really any good or just better than a poor pool to choose from?
What is your investment in this group?
Have you tried to make them better?
Are you capable of making them better? Can they learn?
What does your next level of management that runs this group look like?
Are they capable of instituting change?

If your front-line management is a strong group you are at an advantage and you are in good shape to compete for your employees if you are ever challenged by a union. Yes, I said compete. That is what you are going to end up doing. You will compete for your employees.

If this is a weak group, the cost to fix it is much less than the cost of working with a union. Assess your team today.

What to look for...

The Employee Free Choice Act may or may not ever come into existence. We believe it will however that plus $4.17 will get you a Grande Decaf Java Chip Frappucino from Starbucks and nothing else today. While we watch and wait, companies are still at risk.

Companies today are always susceptible to union overtures. Every situation is different and no environment is ever the same. There are trends and "hints" that your organization may be moving in that direction. Don't get paranoid. Not every single one of these means you have a one way ticket to a union. They can be a direction or at the very least a small warning. Here they are. They are not in any sort of order...

1. People you don't know or have never seen before start showing up in your offices and property.
2. Employees from multiple areas start having "out of the way" meetings.
3. Secrets...(like when your kids were young and stopped talking when you came around)
4. Union literature... (yes, that is obvious!)
5. The types and nature of employee complaints change and grow in volume.
6. The best and most loyal employees are not popular anymore.
7. Quality of work of your best employees starts to taper off.
8. Your worst employees start performing better.
9. A "whiner/complainer" becomes much more popular.
10. Worker "conditions, rights, fair share, equitable, tenure, grievance, agreement, labor" become newly used words

We did not list that your folks start meeting with labor, cards get passed out, and a union holds an off-site picnic. We don't want to insult your intelligence. Hopefully you will have seen some of the above prior.

Any change in your culture that you did not direct, encourage or plan is a high level alarm that your way of doing business is at risk. If an employee or employees can change your culture on their own then you should begin immediately to build a culture that will not allow that to happen.

Like any business competitive environment, if you leave a space or an opening; someone will fill it.

A winning employee work 'life" environment

The Employee Free Choice act is coming to a local congressman near you sometime in this calendar year. Judging by the amount of press it is receiving the time for movement on the bill maybe sooner rather than later. Unemployment numbers continue to rise as companies slash payroll because inventories are up (not selling enough) and as a result manufacturing or the production of services is slowing down. With this rising number combined with the "greed on wall street and in the executive offices" the message switches to protection of the worker. That naturally leads to unions and how much protection and support the worker of today needs in these troubled times.

Remember it only takes two people to start a union. Imagine that just two people. That means this whole thing is very personal. It is as much about how they feel as what you or they can measure. That's right I said "feel". This means we need to look at not only the reality but also the perception of workers. Let's face it many times perception is far more important than reality anyway. Unions feed on the quality of work "life" at your business. (Note: The truth is that everyday your employees measure their work"life"at your business. They don't need a union to tell them that. How you treat them affects their productivity, quality of work and your profit.) While watching this legislation, here is one positive perspective surrounding "work life" you can be taking to either reduce your risk for a union at your facility or simply just to make your business better.

Help your employees be truly valuable to your business.

We hear it so often that you would almost think that it is universally accepted and practiced in every corner of the world. The words are not exactly the same but the message intended is consistent.

“Our employees are valuable.”

Dictionary.com says the definition of valuable is:

1: having great material or monetary value especially for use or exchange; "another human being equally valuable in the sight of God"; "a valuable diamond" [ant: worthless]
2: having worth or merit or value; "a valuable friend"; "a good and worthful man" [syn: worthful]
3: of great importance or use or service; "useful information"; "valuable advice" [syn: useful, of value] n : something of value; "all our valuables were stolen"

We throw the term “valuable employee” around quite a bit in the business world. The frequency in sales and service is equal to or better than most other areas of the enterprise.

Why?

It sounds good. It sounds reassuring, progressive and empowering. Not everyone is insincere. Many companies actually do feel their employees are valuable and they say it. We think there is another prevailing perspective is that most organizations know how to say it but many less actually know how to “do it.” “Valuable employees” is not something great organizations simply own or declare; for great companies it is something they practice and improve day-in and day-out.

From our perspective, in order to “do it” we first need to break down the word “Value-Able”. Recognize them as different and distinct in our day-to-day operations and with this as our baseline compete with the rest of the world with our Value-Able employees.

First, we need to “Value” our employees. We need our employees to feel important. We need our employees to feel significant.We need our employees to understand what their individual roles are, and why they are important.We need our employees to connect their responsibilities with their teams and the product or service we deliver to our customers.

We can’t stop there however. We also need to make them “Able.” We need to give them the skills and tools to do their jobs. We need to give them timely and accurate training and re-training to perform their role for the company. We need to give them the right technology and business tools to perform the job with excellence.We need to provide them the relationship skills and models to deal both internally and externally with the people that they interact with on a day-in and day-out basis.

When we help our employees feel valued and provide them with the “Able” to do a great job, then they are Value-Able both to our customers and to our company.

What is really cool about this philosophy is that it works at home for every parent as well.
We want our kids to feel valued. We want them to know they are loved, that they are precious in God’s sight, and that they are significant. However, let’s face it, we also want them to LEAVE some day as well. We need to make them “Able” to go out into the world. We want to help them not to be a menace or danger to society! Seriously, we need to help them as they are growing up, so we send them to school, spend decades teaching lessons and wisdom so they can go out into the world and be successful. We need them to feel both valued and able to give them the best opportunity to succeed.

Many companies often say they do both and yet many often lean very distinctly towards one or the other. One can often find a company more “Value” driven and less “Able” or vice-versa. If you have ever had your sales or service group referred to either internally or externally as a “sweat shop” most likely you are “Able” tilted. Equally, if the organization has poor process, weak technology, yet lots of potluck dinners and brown bag lunch meetings you are probably more “Value” tilted. In difficult situations, they do neither very well. Both “Value” and “Able” require constant re-enforcement and practice to be done right.

Are your employees “valued” by you and your organization?
Do your employees feel valued?
Do they understand their role, and how they fit in to the larger picture?
Do you give them the tools to be “able” for you and your organization?
Do your employees feel that you have invested in the skills and tools they need to be able?

If you don't know these answers, we can help. http://www.tamerpartners.com/

Great organizations understand that employees need to feel valued and given an opportunity to be able to get the job done. When done together you produce team members that can deliver intergalactic sales and service. When walked rather than just talked, you produce profits, growth and superior customer experience and maybe, just maybe no unions.

It is usually a trust problem...

A short while ago, we released a book called "The Four Minute Customer". It was intended to share insight on how to better service and sell customers. One of the chapters was entitled the " Ten Truths of Sales & Service". If you read this blog long enough, you will get to see or hear all of them.

Here are ten truths of sales and service.

1. Companies rot from the top down
2. You only get what you pay for
3. The key to sales & service is communication, communication & communication.
4. There are two new hire classes in every organization. The one you pay for and the one employee’s give each other.
5. It’s usually a trust problem
6. Bad sales and service habits on the outside are learned on the inside
7. Customers are like elephants, they don’t forget.
8. In sales it is not why you lost that counts the most, it’s when.
9. If you leave a “space”; someone or something will fill it.
10. Nike was wrong: Losers “just do it”; winners “Do it right.”


Our focus today is on number 5. "It's usually a trust problem"


The Four Minute Customer:

"It was very hard not to write that it is always a trust problem! Time and time again, we find that the root cause of most problems in a sales and service organization revolves around trust. Trust permeates every area:
Do they have my back if I get in trouble with a customer?
Is the technology going to fail me again?
Is the sales compensation plan fair or set up to make us fail?
Does my manager have my best interests in mind?
Is all this technology designed to find me doing something right or something wrong?
Which one of my peers can I trust to not stab me in my back?
Those are simply a few of the questions being asked right now within your team. We build trust through almost every contact and relationship we have; manager and employee, C-level and front-line supervisor, customer and employee, technology and employee, company and company, workforce management and employee/manager, just to name a few. Our challenge is that we have to do ALL of them right in order to be successful.
Your direct manager is very important to the process. We all know that “if you don’t trust me; I sure won’t trust you.” An environment of mistrust is bad on many levels. The worst part is that we spend time and energy protecting against ourselves, competing against each other, and always looking inside. When we turn our attention inside; we lose focus on our customers and prospects.
I “trust” that you will take this seriously within your team or organization."


When you look at the potential of the Employee Free Choice Act affecting your business you can assess your risk right from the start on the level of trust you have in your organization. Please don't just look at it from your perspective or your department. If you have just one area where there is a high level of distrust you are at risk. Look through out your organization and not just in sales and service. This risk is not simply for unions. It can be a risk to the very viability of your company. It is hard enough to compete in the market without also having to fight a trust problem within your company.


For starters; "Do I trust my direct manager?" If you are a leader, "do I trust the people I have in management? When the answer is no to either question; you have a problem. If the answer is "multiple no's" as in we have a bunch of managers that fit in this category you are at serious risk. There are only two ways to deal with a manager that has "trust issues" that go up or down in an organization. One remove the manager either from the position or company. Second you train, mentor or "encourage" the manager to change their ways. Our challenge is that it is easier to get into trouble with a trust problem than it is to get out of it. Time if of the essence. I implore you to pick one direction immediately and be on purpose about taking action.


Nothing will derail a department from making their goals like trust issues. Nothing will kill a company faster than a trust issue.

Less education: More short term action

This is a big subject. There are many things to consider: how you treat your employees, measuring their "temperature"; how to create an ongoing high performance sales and service area that thrives and is not susceptable to this type of intervention; are just a few.

While you get up to speed here are some very quick hits that you should consider.

1. Make sure you have a no solicitation/distribution rule within your organization. Don't let people bring in and leave materials in your work place. This includes internal people and external people. It needs to be the same rules for everyone. Yes this will effect the girl scouts and all the "nice"programs.

2. At worst don't allow solicitation in your workplace and if you just cannot resist keep it restricted to lunch rooms only. Don't allow employees to pass out personal material at desks at any time.(Re-read number one and do that one...)

3. Have a no-access rule for outsiders. Don't let anyone in your company that does not belong there.

4. Don't allow employees in the building that are not working on that day. Employees that are not working do not need to be at your facility.

5. Make sure that you protect and control employee information such as names, numbers and addresses.

6. Don't let employees work other places if you can avoid it. Many companies have restrictions on employees working at other places. The more places they work the more new ideas and challenges they may bring.

7. Be very aware of who you hire. You should do this anyway. Obviously do not discriminate and follow all your rules. We are just suggesting that before you hire a former union steward from the call center down the street you simply consider the new world we may be entering. Make sure you know who you are hiring and do very thorough reference checks.

8. Begin to take a serious and professional look at how you treat your employees, the quality of your supervisors and simply the kind of environment you have in your company.

We can help with this last one. This blog will be a great place to hear how to protect your company and how too make it better.

Here is a little taste of the news today:

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/02/04/union-activists-rally-support-pro-labor/
http://www.pww.org/article/articleview/14398/

A little bit more on Card check

The reason for the controversy is pretty clear to organizations that have ever dealt with the spector of having a union in their facility. A little deeper dive can help you to understand why this bill is so significant and why it could go from not even a consideration in your business to a reality in a nano-second.

Today the NLRB (National Labor Relation Board) requires 30% signed union authorization cards as showing interest for secret ballot elections. The employer can then say "great" let's have a union or call for a secret ballot.

The reality is that in most instances where companies battle unions, the union needs about 60% plus to have any shot of getting a union secret ballot vote. The reason is that getting an employee to sign a card is pretty easy. Assuming they do not intimidate anyone, there is no downside to signing. Someone shows up at a picnic at your house and asks you to sign a card, no harm done. Maybe you sign just to get back to grilling. The announcment of a ballot allows the company to present their side of things as well. The secret ballot avoids any sort of "go along" momentum if people really don't want a union.

Under this bill all they need is 50.1% of cards signed and the union exists for two years. Once signed that means you have to start negotiating a collective bargaining agreement and you have no choice. If you can't negotiate one you are forced to accept what an arbitrator decides.

You can imagine how drastic a change this is for a company. If you are not even on the radar today, with this bill you might be.

Employee Free Choice Act-Background

You should know about this. If you don't, here are the basics:

Definition: The Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) is legislation proposed to amend the National Labor Relations Act to establish an easier system to enable employees to form, join, or assist labor organizations, to provide for mandatory injunctions for unfair labor practices during organizing efforts, and for other purposes.It is often called the card check legislation because the card check is the key change.

Today if you seek to form a union within a business, the final decision is based on a private vote. In this new legislation, the final decision on the declaration of a union is based on collection of at least 50% of the employees cards. This legislation had a lot of support in 2007 in both congress and the Senate. One of its c0-sponsors was Senator Obama. Another c0-sponsor is now the recommended choice for Secretary of Labor, Hildy Solis.

Other unique aspects of this bill. Once your employees have signed the "cards". Here is what happens:

1. Bargaining for an initial contract with your new union begins within 10 days.
2. Requires mediation by the FMCS if the employer and the union can't come to agreement in 90 days.
3. If you can't agree 30 days later then an arbitrator makes the decisions for you.
4. Increased penalties to employers for Unfair labor practices, etc.
5. Guaranteed union for two years with no challenge to remove union.

Google the Employee Free Choice Act. It has momentum. It has potential. It can become a reality.

Don't care about a union in your sales and service environment, stop reading. Still interested, here is some more for you:

1. Number of employees required to start a union-2
2. Today unions are establishing workplace activists or unpaid work site volunteers
3. Lots of mobilization to move this legislation
4. The new President who said in the campaign he would sign the bill is talking about "negotiation" and that something needs to be done.

Why am I writing about this? What could we possibly have of value in this discussion? The reasons people start unions are as follows:

1. Poor communications and no forum to "complain"
2. Failure to be fair and even handed (Most often from front-line management)
3. Unkept promises
4. Perception of a lack of respect
5. Wages and benefits grossly out of line
6. Lots of people doing the exact same perceived lower paying jobs

We get this.

Maybe you have none of the problems above. Perhaps a union has never entered your minds and there is zero activity you are aware of within your business. This legislation-the mere discussion and negotiation of it will change your world. Get prepared.

The Problem

We (http://www.tamerpartners.com/) have spent the last seven years working with organizations to help them better service and sell to their customers. We are really good at what we do. People that hire us end up with a better customer experience, better employee experience and the most important result: higher profit. When you are on purpose about doing customer experience right you follow this mantra: "We provide the highest quality of service and sales at the least amount of cost that is profitable to our clients and profitable to our company. "

After seven years, we have had more companies not select our products and services than have joined our client base. For the sake of argument, we recognize there are other companies we compete with in the market, companies can and do excel without consulting and software companies assistance, and yes, we may be completely nuts and just not very good and that is why people did not work with us. Having acknowledged that there may be another answer, the clear reality is that we are very good at what we do, the results are incredible and companies that do work with us receive great value and would not hesitate to recommend us.

The reason that more companies did not work with us has more to do with the culture and perspective of the companies and how they relate to 'what we do" to achieve higher profitability. Our focus in achieving our goals has always centered on the synchronization of the customer, company and the employee. Valued and satisfied employees sell and service customers effectively and efficiently. Satisfied customers are only satisfied when their product or service works, they receive value and if or when they have a problem they are treated professionally. Satisfied and happy customers make for profitable companies.

This synchronization on paper makes sense. Companies buy into satisfied customers and obviously a desire to be a "profitable" company. Where the disconnect occurs is with the valued and satisfied employees. Many companies just don't value their sales and service employees. They would never admit it. They may "like them" but they don't respect them and they certainly don't value them as a competitive advantage. Most of our days are taken up with sales and service people that communicate with customers over the phone, web, or in a retail or public environment. This group quite often gets the short end of the stick and in many instances there is rarely a "carrot".

We often find that even companies that pride themselves on employee experience, may even win awards as a company may have a different approach and a gap in their sales and service areas. The ones that don't have this type of reputation can oftentreat everyone the same: as simply a number passing "through" or at worst; poorly.

Today the free market provides you with all the feedback and direction you need. For some there is no penalty. Profits are up, employees are plentiful. Business is good; no need to change. For the ones that struggle, they have sought other solutions besides employee empowerment, increasing customer satisfaction to increase sales and decrease costs. The free market keeps score.

The 'free market" may not be the only "free" a business owner/board of directors needs to focus on. A new world is emerging. There is a new "free" in town: The Employee Free choice act. Are you familiar with it? You should be.

This new 'free" is not free at all.