STRENGTHENING THE FRONT LINE
Price tag includes losing good employees and customers
By Emily Huling, CIC, CMC
As I travel around the country helping insurance companies and agents achieve customer service and sales excellence, I learn a lot about what management should and should not do. Bad management is costly to a business--good employees are apt to leave, work doesn't get done, and employees don't improve their skills and abilities. As a result customers become dissatisfied and go elsewhere, and new customer growth falls dramatically. Here are three ways managers fail to perform.
Failure to confront isolated personnel issues.
One of your employees spends too much time on personal telephone calls. Other employees have complained that her conversations interfere with their concentration. You've seen this employee's productivity decline. You decide the easiest way to handle the situation is to bring all of your employees into a meeting and restate your office performance standards, including phone usage. "What could it hurt?" you think. If the shoe fits, she'll wear it.
Two weeks later, a top employee quits with no warning. While she says it's for more money, what really happened is that by lumping all employees together (and this is not the first time management did something like this) into a "bad" group, management showed a lack of respect and appreciation for the good performers.
Management should have confronted the phone-abuse situation immediately by meeting one-on-one with the guilty party. By explaining what's expected and what will not be tolerated, management appropriately handles the situation without upsetting other employees. The guilty employee must be held accountable, and any further situation should be dealt with directly and firmly.
Failure to conduct personnel reviews. Every management book confirms that managers need to conduct formal employee reviews. These meetings, ideally held twice a year, give managers and employees a chance to discuss company and individual goals and assess how the employee is doing both quantitatively and qualitatively. "But who has the time?" you ask. "It's not just the time needed to prepare or meet for the review; it's the ongoing effort required to make notes about performance during the year."
But without formal performance reviews, employees are essentially formulating their own ideas of how your business should operate. Customer service standards vary from person to person. Internal operations, communication, and teamwork lose focus without periodic assessments and adjustments.
Employees truly want to know what's expected of them and how they are doing. If they aren't influenced by strong leadership, the weakest members of the organization influence them. Good performers will underperform when outstanding work is not formally acknowledged or treated differently.
Make a habit of recognizing employees' significant work, both good work and areas that need improvement. Follow one-minute management principles. Read the classic book One Minute Manager by Ken Blanchard and Spencer Johnson. By practicing one-minute praising and reprimands continually, the performance review will not be such an overwhelming task.
Two other methods can ease the evaluation process. One is to have employees complete the same appraisal form that management uses to prepare for the review. Use both completed forms as a conversation tool during the meeting. Also, conduct one-on-one employee reviews during several days that have been set aside for this important event. Employees will not be overlooked, and management will have an opportunity to deliver the same message about the business to all employees. This keeps everyone focused on the same goals.
By making time for one-minute management techniques and the formal reviews, management actually has more time to do its job. Instead of merely reacting to situations as they occur, management holds people accountable to specific standards and higher levels of performance.
Failure to hire the right person. You're desperate. You've been looking for weeks to replace a customer service representative who left the agency. Finally, you find someone who seems to know what she's talking about, has used your automation software, and has experience--at least on paper. You make an employment offer and it's accepted. You celebrate. However, it's a little premature. Like many managers, you have fallen short on some hiring due diligence.
Always check references. I'm continually amazed at managers who hire without checking past work experience. Whether it's just to confirm the accuracy of resume information or to seek out nuggets of helpful information, check with former employers, coworkers, clients, and community associates.
Conduct a skill or technical test during the interviewing process. Be careful not to rely solely on what the resume tells you about candidates' experience. If you are hiring them for their experience, create a verbal, written, or experiential test to be sure they have the knowledge to do the job. Can they work your agency management system like they say they can?
Have other people in your firm interview the candidates. By involving your employees, you create a team environment. Let them know that their opinions count. In most cases, your employees will interact more often with the new person than you will. Listen to what their impressions are of the candidate.
Proactively handling management responsibilities, such as confronting individual personnel issues, conducting performance reviews, and following prudent hiring protocol puts management where it needs to be--in charge and respected. *
The author
Emily Huling, CIC, CMC, is the author of Selling in a Hard Market. Emily helps the insurance industry achieve customer service and sales excellence through speaking, workshops, and consulting. For information, call (888) 309-8802 or visit www.sellingstrategies.com.