Fusion Management Briefs - Issue 9

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BRIEFSEssential Insights for Automotive Professionals

FUSION SEPTEMBER 2013

NEWS: Op2ma breaks global barriers03Designing an effective Sales Compensation Plan04Building trust in the workplace07Fostering creativity at work 10How to encourage job ownership13

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AUSTRALIA

ABOUT USFusion Business Solutions is a performance-focused consulting group that offers a range of client solutions, including training, consulting and in-business coaching. We also operate a wholly owned software division called Op2ma, which provides leading-edge web-based management and customer feedback tools. With our Head Office in Adelaide, Australia, we operate in most markets throughout Australia, New Zealand, the Pacific and Asia. We have offices in Melbourne, Sydney, Perth and Shanghai (China). Our philosophy is to offer our clients profit-enhancing solutions, which are both cost-effective and innovative. With the business and retail landscape becoming increasingly more complex and challenging, companies must adapt and change, or risk falling further behind. Our clients see an ever-increasing need to enhance skills and processes such as pro-active financial management and employee performance management.

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UNITED KINGDOM

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CHINA

Shanghai OfficeRoom 1401, Building No.1,Lane 400 Tang Qiao Road,Pudong District, Shanghai 200127 (PRC)Telephone: +86-21 5138 3731E-mail: [email protected]

We would like to inform all our readers know that we will publish only the digital version from January 2014 onwards.

The digital version will have rich content such as videos, presentations, links to web resources and other interactive elements to enhance your reading experience. Although we will still provide a downloadable, printer-friendly PDF for those who prefer to read it in print, we will no longer send it by post.

So if you would like to continue receiving Fusion Management Briefs, kindly subscribe at www.fusion-solutions.com.

If you have any suggestions on how we might improve the content, or problems you would like us to cover, please let us know. Again, thank you and we look forward to see you in the next issue!

Regards,

The Fusion Team

We’re going digital...soon.

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Op2ma Breaks Global BarriersOp2ma Pty Ltd., recently completed a global CSI telemarketing project to contact thousands of customers across ten Asian countries in their native language. The project involved collecting sales satisfaction data from thousands of customers in those countries over the phone, managing multiple time-zones and dialects.

Customers in Indonesia, Brunei, China, Guam, India, Korea, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand were contacted and asked about their buying experiences with their local automotive dealer.

The project is well-suited to Op2ma, who is based in Adelaide. “We are in a very fortunate position that Adelaide has many students and immigrants from Asia, so finding the language and talent pool is easy” says Mr Brien. “The phone

surveys were mostly done in the native language of the customers though our telemarketers have to be able to speak in English if need to. This is not your normal telemarketing project!”

Op2ma is also currently running CSI surveys for several automotive manufacturers and dealers in Australia.

“This is a big coup for us and Adelaide.” says Mr Marc Brien, Managing Director. “It is quite an accomplishment considering telemarketing is a very competitive business, especially in Asia. Although many companies are sending their telemarketing activities off to India or the Philippines, there are still some who want a service provider with global experience in the automotive industry. It was a great opportunity for us, and a definite endorsement of our experience and capabilities.”

Group photograph of our telemarketers from different countries

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Designing an effectiveSales Compensation Plan

Sales compensation is an important part of motivating the sale team and boosting revenues. To serve its purpose, an effective sales compensation plan must be built to keep salespeople on track to meet their goals and sales targets. It should also ensure a steady stream of new and repeat business for the dealership over time.

Unfortunately, most sales compensation plans work against the organisation that set them up. Too much focus on the connection of compensation to particular quotas sometimes lead to unmotivated and unproductive sales teams, which sell only if commissions keep increasing and price keep falling; this is unsustainable in the long term.

Although earnings, in terms of commission and compensation are important to the salesperson, they should not be the only consideration in the design of an effective sales compensation plan.

The sales quota system can sometimes become a trap if it is built on increasingly thinning margins because of higher incentives to motivate the sales team to meet quotas. There are several ways to overcome this problem and develop a comprehensive sales compensation plan that benefits all involved; the salesperson, the company, and the customers.

Offering competitive termsIf a compensation plan is not competitive

or uninspiring, it can be a challenge to motivate the sales employee to achieve reasonable targets. Unless your competitors are offering worse terms, you may find it difficult to keep good sales employees or attract star candidates to work with your organisation.

Although there are other factors influencing sales, such as brand equity, product quality, competent sales managers, and price, sales compensation is the direct factor that affects sales employees’ motivation and morale. Here are some effective steps that you can take to improve your sales compensation plan.

• Define the desired results and related behaviour: A purposeful sales

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compensation plan is created with only one goal: to affect particular behaviour. If product A has a higher profit margin than product B, then the focus should be to sell more of product A. So how can you adjust the commission schedule so that the sales team will put more effort and focus on selling product A?

• Effective use of precursors and consequences: Precursors come before the required behaviour, and are intended to motivate or inspire desired behaviour. They set the stage for a favourable outcome; examples include putting in place the right price, having the right products, etc... Consequences, on the other hand, are the results of a particular behaviour. Both should be correctly applied to achieve a desired outcome.

• Defining roles associated with the desired results: Desired results might require modifying both the compensation plan, and the structure of your sales team. If the key desired result is increased customer satisfaction and retention, incentives to achieve sales targets (acquisition)

may be reduced in favour of achieving a higher customer satisfaction index. An adaptive compensation plan is able to achieve various behaviours or results instead of just focusing on sales volume.

• Determine the “right” quota: Quota is still an important structural element of the compensation plan. The usual sales compensation plans should provide compensation equivalent to the base salary if 100% of the quota is reached. Beyond the quota, “accelerators” should be built-in to encourage over performance. To be effective, commission periods should not be too long, and keeping it simple will help the sales representatives understand the compensation plan.

• Managing change and enlisting the sales force: Effective sales managers encourage and create a culture of over performance. Open communication and a nurturing (but competitive) workplace is part of a successful formula; goals, expectations, and compensation are clearly defined and understood. Occasional boosters that could affect commissions (for example,

reducing commission to reduce price) should be discussed and buy-in achieved before implementation. Open, team-oriented, communication will help built trust and encourage teamwork and loyalty.

• Finding and hiring the right fit. Sales managers should align the characteristics of the sales team so there is synergy and cooperation. There is nothing more self-defeating than a “looking out for No.1” mentality where colleagues only care about themselves or undercut their teammates to achieve sales quotas.

A different approach for automotive dealershipsTraditional commission-based compensation plans were designed to increase sales but nowadays, customer loyalty and advocacy is becoming more important to a dealership’s long-term success.

Incorporating other departments, such as the Service, F&I and Parts department, is a good way to generate repeat business as there is now less focus on acquiring customers (new sales) and more on

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retaining (service) customers. Some suggestions include:

• Build an integrated sales process: An effective compensation plan may include incentives paid to other departments who help acquire new customers. Whether through referrals or advocacy, if every employee in the dealership views a customer as “my” customer, the sales team will have a much better chance of success in the long term. Similarly, if the sales team have a vested interest in returning customers, they are less likely to keep a short-term view and close a deal at the expense of customer satisfaction and repeat business.

• Extending the sales process to include continuing ownership experience and not just buying experience. Most dealerships and manufacturers are only concerned with what happened at the point of purchase, and CSI incentives are paid to dealerships who did well when the customer bought. Even Service measures only the experience of the first service. But for the customer, satisfaction is measured by the continuing relationship with the dealership. Every service, every call and touch point constitutes a part of the continuing sales process. In today’s market, the sales process ends when the customer leaves permanently, not when they sign the contract.

• Sometimes, the compensation plan is not the problem. Sales managers who are frustrated that salespeople not focusing on the new model may not realise that maybe incentives and commission for other products are better. Or the new model may be more

challenging to sell and salespeople prefer to promote what is easy in spite of higher commission for the new model. In such situations, increasing sales incentives or reducing the price may not be the solution. Perhaps it is better to focus on creating brand awareness or giving prospective customers more time to accept the new model.

Working backwards from the company’s goalsIf a salesperson is expected to achieve $250,000 in sales revenue, and the typical deal is $50,000, then five sales are needed to achieve that goal. If the salesperson usually has 10 opportunities a month and closes one in four opportunities, then there are 2 things that salesperson can do to meet the shortfall:

The first is to ensure that they create more opportunities (at least 20) to meet the $250,000 target each month. This means modifying the compensation plan to include incentives for the salesperson to meet more people and make more calls.

The second is to focus on improving the closing rate so they consistently close 2 out of 4, in which case 10 opportunities would be sufficient. This means modifying the compensation plan to include incentives tied to closing ratio or investments in training and development.

Once the parameters are in place, it is easy to determine which outcome is more likely to help the dealership achieve its targets and align the overall compensation plan to support the objective.

Create a compensation plan modelled on an equilateral triangleThe equal sides of the triangle constitute the need to ensure that each of the following is equally important when building a compensation plan: the salesperson, the customers, and the distributorship. If the triangle is off balance, it will create undesirable consequences for all involved. The purpose of an effective compensation plan then is to create and maintain this balance.

An example is when the compensation plan rewards the salesperson for acquiring new deals but not for providing continuing service. As a result, the salesperson gets paid all the money upfront and there is now no incentive to support the customer. Service suffers, and customers are lost.

Or when a dealership continually reduces sales commission to increase margin. While this benefits the company initially, the salesperson eventually finds that there is no motivation or incentive to provide any kind of service and subsequently, service suffers and customers are lost. In both cases, everyone loses.

The indicator of a good sales compensation plan A good and effective sales compensation plan will benefit all parties in the transaction. The salesperson receives a fair reward based on the behaviour that the dealership would like to encourage, the customer receives good and consistent service not just from the salesperson but from everyone in the dealership, and the company receives consistent profit and loyalty from both the customer and sales employees.

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Business owners and managers are always looking for ways to increase productivity and retain quality employees. One important factor is the element of trust in your company culture and workplace. Studies show that employees with high levels of trust in their companies are more engaged and effective. Not surprisingly, those companies who either never had or lost the trust of their employees don’t experience high levels of success.

Why does trust matter so much?Trust is one of those things that when you have high levels, you don’t notice its presence, but when you do not have it everything goes wrong pretty quickly. Trust is essentially a deep-seated knowledge that the other

Building Trust in the Workplace

party you’re dealing with is going to behave predictably, and that they won’t purposefully do things, which would be harmful to you. Trust has to be built over time. It cannot be won with a single act or in one fell swoop.

When employees lose trust in their employer, they withhold their best efforts and they disinvest themselves personally in the company. It is a defensive mechanism rather than a conscious decision they’ve made. Productivity and quality will suffer immensely when this happens. Unmotivated employees are a boss’s nightmare. When this stems from a lack of trust – often the case – nothing but restoring trust will cure this state of affairs.

How is trust in employers these days? A recent study of American workers revealed that 70% of employees reported that trust and loyalty within firms is declining. Another 60% stated they didn’t think their management was upright, ethical and honest. Out of the 57 organisations, which participated in the survey, 50% reported that a lack of trust is a problem in their workplace. However, 70% won’t speak up because they fear repercussions. Trust is at a low within organisations.

External circumstances affecting trustHistory has shown that trust is often threatened during periods of widespread economic distress and struggle. Citizens tend to begin to lose trust and question

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the institutions in their lives—their employer and their government—as well their fellows. The infamous depression of the 1930s brought about this climate and the current recession has brought this to bear as well. The media continues to bring news of Big Business greed and unethical practices. That means companies must work harder than ever to instil and maintain the trust of their employees.

Where does low trust come from?Most often when an employee doesn’t trust their employer it is because of their experiences with the company. If employees feel they are deprived, trust will be low. Feelings of deprivation can stem from low salaries, lack of amenities, or even a lack of autonomy. When your employees feel excluded socially in the workplace, trust erodes. But beyond the social exclusion, if employees feel closed out of the process, they don’t trust. Feedback and participation in planning are key components of feeling included professionally. It is also possible that the employee has merely had no positive attachment experience within

the company. This would mean there has been no opportunity to establish trust.

Trust ErodersEven lesser offences of management abuse, such as a superior taking credit for the work of an underling erodes trust over time. A recent study showed that 90% of employees report eroding trust in their employer. A 2010 American survey revealed some frightening trends for employers: That 30% of employees are waiting for the economy to improve so they can find another job. The reason cited by 48% of them is lack of trust.

Communication is one of the biggest factors that help build or destroy trust in your company. When companies are not open or honest with their workers, this takes a toll. Companies who refuse to share decision-making logic with their workers suffer significant trust erosion.

Accountability is another factor affecting trust. What is accountability? It is essentially taking responsibility and asking yourself what you can do to influence a situation. Indicators of low

accountability can be seen in the phrase “I’ll try.” Employees would rather hear a definitive “no” than a “try.” Rather than saying “I don’t know,” another accountability shirking phrase, employees want to hear “Let me find out and get back to you.”

Abuse of management status is another factor in trust retention or loss. When employees are treated poorly, not valued, or otherwise discounted, trust is compromised. Bosses who can’t empathise with their employees destroy trust levels.

Trust BuildersOne of the biggest things a company can do to instil and maintain trust from its employees is to stick to their word. If you say you’re going to do something, do it, and all members of management need to live by this credo as well. When your managers do not live up to their word, your company suffers.

Owning mistakes is a giant leap toward trust. No one expects perfection from anyone else, or from their company.

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But they do expect people to admit wrongdoing. When the company or one of its managers makes a mistake, it’s important for them to step forward and own that mistake. Foster a climate of ownership – and taking responsibility so that everyone understands the expectation of admitting wrongdoing. Further, people do not get into the desperate thinking that one mistake will mean termination that fosters the tendency to pass the buck and not own mistakes.

Just listening is a trust builder. Take the time and care to listen to everyone’s voice in the company. When you do so, you are demonstrating respect for them. People crave being heard. You are not required to agree with what is said. But you need to listen and consider what your employees have to say.

Build a fear-free climate. When you are predictable and consistent in your responses and actions your employees trust you and their level of fear is diminished. This is done through more than just words. You need to think about your non-verbal behaviours as well. When you communicate with your employees, be open about what is happening—both positive and negative. Be consistent and clear. And be focused on the current issue. Do not throw the past into the employee’s face or get personal, delving into personality quirks.

Honest feedback is a key component of trust as well. Employees need to believe they can trust your feedback. Have clear expectations and clear praise. Don’t counter praise with a backward criticism.

Repairing broken trustIf you already know you’ve broken trust with your employees and you want to repair it, now what? There are steps you can do to regain trust.

1. Admit past mistakes and take responsibility. Own what has happened in the past. Hold a public forum and be prepared to allow your workers to air their grievances. If something was mishandled, there is much hurt and disappointment. It is important to hear that and own your role in it.

2. Create a better plan for the future. You need to share that plan with your employees after you’ve sufficiently apologised and taken responsibility for the past mistakes. Lay out your plan clearly and let them know what to expect.

3. Let employees know what you will be expecting and be open to feedback in future. Create a system for routine feedback from your workers, clients, and the community. Show that your company’s integrity and commitment to moving forward with new practices by being open to getting honest criticism.

4. Respond to problems as you become aware of them. Don’t pass the buck to someone else hoping they will tke it up or ignoring the problems altogether.

5. Stand by what you say you will do. When your employees see a consistent alignment between what you promise and what you deliver, trust builds.

6. Have regular communication with employees. Share crucial or necessary information, explain decisions, and provide performance-enhancement information. Resist the urge to flood your employees with information that is useless or doesn’t apply to them.

7. Treat everyone as a partner. That means treat everyone the company comes into contact with respectfully and as an equal partner in the mission.

The Trust Pay BackIf this sounds like much work, keep your eye on the prize. The pay back for employees having high trust in the company is immense. Companies where employees have high levels of trust have typical turnover rates that are half that of their peers. And when they do need to replace an employee or fill a newly created position, they find their pool of candidates are more highly qualified than their competitors.

They enjoy higher profitability and productivity. Litigation costs drop. These companies enjoy responsive and effective crisis management. Their alliances are strategic and constructive. Their customers report higher levels of loyalty and satisfaction.

The thing about building trust is that it takes on a life of its own. Being trustworthy pays off in dividends from all sides, and the benefits far outweigh the effort and work. Thus, it is appropriate for companies to work toward gaining and maintaining trust. In business, having a reputation of being trustworthy is everything; build it and guard it well.

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How can a successful team be more successful? How do you improve radically instead of just incrementally? To realise that potential, you need to build a creative work environment that brings out the best in your employees. Creativity is an essential factor in every organisation when solving new problems, finding fixes for current ones, and leading innovation in your industry.

Research indicates that fewer than 60% of employees think that developing new ideas is essential for the progress of their companies. The same research indicates more than 50% of employees agreed that they could be a more profitable company if they could be more creative. One-third of all employees said they had no opportunities for collaboration with colleagues. Most expressed the problems associated with creativity as the following:

• Feeling stuck and unable to concentrate because of new technology

Fostering creativity in the workplace

• Distracting and unproductive meetings

• Managers who lack skills to facilitate collaboration and cooperation

Age is not a problemAlthough it is said that the best age for creativity ends at five; after five, it is all downhill. This should not forestall the effort to develop a creative and innovative culture, especially in the workplace.

Below, is a list of on-the-job creativity boosters. These are fun, simple and free methods to introduce into any work environment, and helps promote collaboration and cross-pollination of ideas. Creativity is mostly experimentation, so pick a few from the list and test. Do it now:

Ideas to test on your colleagues• Identify the most creative colleagues

in the company and just ask them for ideas

• Take the entire team off-site for a day, or even for a couple of hours. Break the routine.

• Go out for lunch with your team or lunch with different people over the next few days.

• Initiate cross-functional brainstorming sessions; instead of having just the sales team brainstorm sales problems, include employees from service or parts departments.

• Swap seats or office with your employees or colleagues for a week.

• Instead of an outside facilitator, invite your best customers to join in brainstorming sessions.

• Ask for collaboration on projects from people whom you do not directly work with.

• Ask the first three people you meet today about how they would improve on your idea.

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• Remove boundaries, and test current assumptions.

• Invite the smartest people you know (or don’t know) for lunch.

• Look for three alternatives to every solution you originate.

• ELI5 - “Explain like I’m 5.” Simplify; explain each solution to a 5-year old child to see if they understand.

• Ask impossible questions.

• Do whatever is necessary to create limits and urgency; reduce budget and timeline to the absolute minimum, then reduce again by 50%.

• Have short meetings; use a timer to set limits for items on each agenda and commit to resolutions within that period.

• Visit your customers more frequently, talk to them, ask them how you can serve them better.

• What would you do if you’re the enemy? Think like your competitor; constantly devise ways to defeat yourself or take business away from yourself.

• Don’t ask for permission; ask for forgiveness instead. If you have an idea that you think is good for your company, do it. If it fails, ask for forgiveness.

Ideas to test on yourself• Set up your smart phone to capture

ideas when you have them; don’t let ideas just disappear.

• Have a daily brainstorming session when going for a walk; or when driving to work.

• Play Classical/Heavy Metal/Rock music in the office. Something different from what you normally listen.

• Read books or magazines that you don’t normally read – pick materials not relating to your work.

• Take a shower in the middle of the day, or night.

• Wander around a bookstore while thinking about a problem.

• Bring your project or challenge to mind before going to bed.

• Record your dreams in a dream diary that you put next to your bed.

• Carry around a sketch pad and make drawings of your ideas. These can be flow charts, illustrations, doodles, notes, anything.

• Create an idea bank where you store all your ideas. Organise them into categories and review them periodically.

• Get out of the office more regularly; exercise during the lunch break or sneak out for a movie.

• Daydream.

• Take unscheduled breaks.

• Take afternoon naps in the conference room or under your table.

• Talk to yourself; have a conversation with your inner muse.

• Most things are not life threatening, so don’t think too much; trust your instincts and go with the flow.

• Do speed writing; set your timer for five minutes and write as many ideas as possible, then stop when the timer goes off; do not censor anything; shoot for quantity and not quality.

• Open a magazine and free associate off on a word or image. Use a mind map to record the results.

• Take a break when you are stuck on a problem.

• Bring your notebook and work in a cafe or the local library.

• Transform your limiting assumptions by reversing the problem. Instead of “What can I do?” ask, “What can’t I do? And why not?”

• Attempt to solve a BIG problem like eliminating global poverty or finding a way to achieve world peace.

• Redesign or rearrange the office.

• Arrive earlier to the office than anyone else.

• Block off time on your calendar for “imaginative” thinking.

• Turn off the lights and work in the dark.

• Impose major silence on yourself for a day - do not utter a single word.

We help you scale new heights

Accredited Training for Sales, F&I, Parts, Service, and Management

Fusion Business College is Australia’s No. 1 automotive-focused Registered Training Organisation (RTO), providing leading-edge training solutions to dealers, manufacturers and financiers. Our team can help tailor and customise programmes to help you achieve your goals. Call Tim McGrath on 1300 807 177 to find out how.

BUSINESS COLLEGEA division of Fusion Business Solutions

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• Create a headline of the future and write the story behind it.

• Read a novel backwards starting from the last chapter.

• Conduct mental (or actual) experiments; ask, “What if...”

• Look for the simplest solution to every problem.

• Go on a vegetarian diet for a week; restrict the range of ingredients that you may use, or find several ways to cook “cabbage”.

• Incubate (sleep on it).

• Take more risks outside of work; pick up surfing, dancing, public speaking, among others. Go camping alone.

• When faced with a problem, pretend you already know the answer. What would it be?

• Give yourself an unreasonable deadline – and stick to it.

• Have fun; be sillier than usual. Laugh more, worry less.

• Ask, “How can I achieve my goal in half the time, with half the money?”

• Consider how Albert Einstein or Steve Jobs might approach your challenge. How would they solve the problem?

• Create a montage of images on your workstation that inspires you.

• Meditate or do relaxation exercises. Take up Yoga or Tai Chi.

• Find a mentor or critic who will help you refine your ideas.

• Acknowledge all your successes at the end of each day.

• Do not listen to or watch the news for a full day. Abstain from TV, the radio and the Internet. Stay away from Facebook or your personal email.

• Switch off your mobile phone for the weekend. Impose a technology-ban on yourself for a week.

• Write your life goals on a piece of paper, laminate it and paste it on the wall in your shower. Read it every day

Ideas for organisationsHere are some detailed, and possibly serious, creativity fostering tips for organisations:

• Encourage employees to brainstorm. Set aside half a day at the end of each month to collect new ideas while ensuring that all voices have a hearing. Order drinks and pizza while employees share their ideas freely. Identify the best ones for implementation.

• Creating an online mind map of the problem and invite everyone to participate in contributing to it.

• Group employees who do not normally work together into teams to collaborate on finding solutions for problems. One important consideration is that everyone on the diverse team has equal say and input.

• Reward excellent ideas. Set a prize for the best idea and have the teams vote for their peers.

• Redesign the workplace. Create an open and spacious environment for the team to work.

• Let your employees design and create the environment they would love to work in; do not keep to the outdated idea of the factory production line where everyone must work from 8 to 5 and at a designated workstation. Cubicles do not create a collaborative environment, and should be avoided if possible.

In any final scenario, employees must feel good while working, and be able to concentrate on the task at hand.

Support creativityMost employees are instinctively creative, and when encouraged will take some risks if they know that they have the support of their managers. If taking risk is frowned upon,

If they think their idea will be shot down regardless, they will never bring it up, and nothing will change. Employees need to know that creativity is valued, and necessary for the long-term success of both the organisation and the people that work in it.

If you want your staff to take initiatives and to allow creativity to thrive in your organisation, don’t penalise employees for taking risks and thinking outside the box. Don’t be too quick to critise or jump to conclusions. Embrace ideas, encourage experimentation, and provide sufficient space for them to take root and grow.

Only then, can you hope to have an innovative and creative workplace adaptable to the demands of today’s competitive business environment.

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How to encourage job ownership

Taking ownership of your job is an essential trait of responsible employees, and necessary for an organisation’s success. Committed employees don’t “just do it” but often consider what needs to be done in the interest of the company they work with.

However, sometimes this sense of ownership can be misplaced, and employees become overzealous about their responsibilities or afraid to take ownership for fear of misunderstandings from colleagues. Despite job ownership being a simple concept, it may surprise many to know that it is not as well understood as it should be.

What does taking ownership mean?Taking ownership is about delivering the best service, based on a service culture and even a way of life, within an organisation. It is having a sense of responsibility and taking pride in doing a good job. “This is my job; and I will do my best to make sure that I deliver what is expected.”

It is not a series of steps, or a set of techniques. Employees who take ownership of the customer’s experience will gladly go the extra mile to ensure that customers are taken care of, despite whether what is required is within the scope of their job description. And an

administration staff who takes ownership of their job will ensure accuracy and quality in all areas of work, despite where the work originates. Thus employees engage their mind and heart in making the experience memorable and positive.

How do your encourage ownership?For a company to succeed, the quality of products and services must meet the long-term expectations of its customers. Although you can implement policies and processes to control quality, you have to depend on each employee to implement these effectively. This can only happen when there is ownership; when your employees care about the

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quality of products and services that they produce.

The best customer service begins with meeting the expectations of the customer. Every employee plays a role in terms of serving the customer, so even one that has no direct interaction with the customer must see their role as part of the overall effort to serve the customer.

You’re not just a cog; you’re THE cogLike a large machine with many moving parts, every employee makes a contribution in delivering value to the customer. It is so important for employees not to see their job as isolated from the rest of the company. “I’m just doing my job” is often another way of saying “I don’t care. I don’t care about what you do; I don’t care about the impact of my work on the rest of the team; and I don’t care about the customer who pays my salary.”

It is the same as when employees define their role rigidly so as not to be involved in anything other than what was specified in the job description. “This is not part of my job” is another way of not caring.

Sometime, the lack of commitment or a lackadaisical attitude toward work is not the reason for a lack of ownership. Most employees who do not take ownership of their job can appear to be extremely committed to their work. The problem is a self-centered, almost selfish, definition of what their work is. When employees decouple their work from the overall objective of serving the customer, there is no job ownership.

By drawing a clear line between what is their job and what is not their job, employees fail to understand that all jobs must ultimately do one or both of two things: Contribute to profit or customer satisfaction. An employee’s job is never just to file paperwork or generate reports.

Helping employees understand the importance of job ownershipHelping employees understand what is job ownership and taking ownership is an important part of investing in the future of your business. One way of doing this is to take STOCK of your current situation:

SINCERITY – Looking at a situation or event through the eyes of the customer

and putting on the customer’s shoes emotionally, and if need be, physically too. A customer can be external to your business, such as the person who bought a car from your dealership, or internal to your business, such as the sales person asking for help to complete the paperwork for a deal. Help employees identify their customers and see how their job is to serve that customer well.

TOUCH POINTS – A touch point is any occasion when your organisation comes into contact with a customer. It is also an opportunity to impress or disappoint the customer. Help employees understand that maintaining a clean and welcoming showroom is not just the responsibility of the sales team, and that making the customer feel welcome is not just the job of the receptionist.

ORGANISATION – Is the individual employee self organised, and is the entire job process well designed? Are these the most effective or efficient ways to accomplish the required task? It is important to ensure that as a company, you do not create processes and policies that obstruct employees from taking ownership. If someone breaks a rule to

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help a customer, or does something that delights a customer though it is not their job, for goodness’ sake do not punish them. They are taking care of your customer.

CARE – Be passionate about what you do. One of the most important elements of job ownership is caring about what you do and why you do it. Without care, there cannot be ownership no matter how precise you do your work.

KNOWLEDGE – Help your employees learn by creating the desire for continuous improvement. Do not see training as just meeting minimum requirements but as a way of self-improvement and enrichment.

This process will help your employees better perform their roles and create positive influence on your bottom line.

Identifying the source of the problemEmployees who are resistant to taking ownership of their jobs are usually the individuals on your team who have what it takes to make a difference but somehow to just stand and watch. They are usually disengaged from their work and have lost motivation to care.

This lack of commitment is a reflection of the company’s own culture, a culture that usually lacks commitment towards its employees. To earn commitment, you must also give commitment, and companies must take ownership as well by defining its commitment to employee and customers, then communicating it to the employees. Failure to explain the big picture and the rewards it brings is one reason the individual employee fails to take ownership.

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Silent expectation does not improve employee commitment. There are several steps companies can take to initiate the process:

• Have one-on-one discussions with employee to understand how they perceive their roles; what excites them? Discuss what is positive and how the company can help create an environment for it.

• Inspire your employees with a clear and compelling vision. If leaders cannot even spell out what they want and give clarity to potential rewards, how can employees be expected to buy in? There’s nothing worse than management taking on a because-I-say-so approach in today’s business environment. Without buy in, employees will “tune out”, resulting in poor attitudes, sloppy work and inconsistent quality.

• Employees cannot be expected to take ownership unless there is a light at the end of the tunnel. Nobody wants to work harder and longer to achieve the same results. Employees, too, seek recognition and profit. Extra effort should amount to something worthwhile or result in improvements in their lives. Although monetary rewards are not the only motivation for employees, they should not be a constant distraction from putting in their heart and soul.

Cultivating job ownership Job ownership is essentially an attitude, it combines a sense of craftmanship and pride for one’s work, it is caring about the quality in what we do, a desire to deliver more than is expected, a sense of mastery.

It is a seemingly simple though not necessarily easy achievement.

Having that sense of ownership ensures that every task is done to the best of one’s ability. At the same time, it helps employees achieve a sense of satisfaction. Job ownership is always complemented by a desire to learn to be better at the task on hand and never settle for “good enough”.

Encouraging job ownership begins with the management, and can be encapsulated in two words: trust and value. Unless there is trust, there will be no buy-in. Trust is earned, or lost, daily as a result of how management behaves and treats employees.

Most employees want to feel valued, and will not commit or take ownership if there is a feeling of being cheated or unappreciated. If employees does not think their efforts will lead to something better, that it is not valued, there will be no buy-in, and subsequently no sense of job ownership.

Do you care?Job ownership is a consequence of having a culture and environment that encourages employees to care about the company as a whole. It is grounded in fairness and human decency; an approach towards creating profit by delivery value to the customer.

An organisation that looks on its employees as the most valuable asset will learn to care for them so, in turn, they will look after the interests of their employers. Only then can companies expect employees to take full ownership and delight the customer.

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OUTSOURCE YOUR CUSTOMERCALLS AND SURVEYS

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Call ANN CAWKWELL / MARTIN DENNIS on 1300 807 177 for a no-obligation discussion about how Op2ma’s survey and telemarketing services could work for you.

www.op2ma.com

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CSI Surveys for Sales & Service

Lost Sales Surveysof Prospects ThatDidn’t Purchase

Event Invitationand AppointmentBookings

Telephone Follow-Upfor Vehicle Sales

Telephone Follow-Upfor Service

Service RetentionSurveys

Documents

Fusion Management Briefs - Issue 9