Lowering Standards
I read in this morning’s newspaper that the national unemployment rate is expected to hit 6% in the near future. As such, it only makes sense that we will all be asked to do more…with less. But, doesn’t it also imply that we will need to do more…faster and with fewer errors?
Seth Godin nailed it in a recent post about price pressure. It’s not about price…it’s about value. Just because you have less staff, it doesn’t mean you can deliver less service.
Now is not the time to lower your standards. Consumers have less money to spend so they are being much more careful and educated about who they give it to. If anything, it’s time to set higher standards. That’s the way to set yourself apart from your competition. And, the only way you are going to do that is by engaging your employees to be the best they can.
If you want to keep your employees motivated and engaged, consider the following:
- Set expectations. Tell your employees how they contribute to the company’s success. Employees don’t learn by osmosis.
- Reward positive behavior. When employees do something great, tell them!
- Coach your employees for success. If you ignore poor performance, it doesn’t go away. It just means that you provided tacit approval for the undesired behavior.
In 2006, Gallup released their famous Employee Engagement Study. Part of the study says that disengaged employees account for a loss of $350 million in productivity. Wouldn’t you like even a small piece of that right now?
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