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Communication Strategy Consulting Services
Consultants on our staff have earned national reputations as expert facilitators of group dynamics utilizing state-of-the-art adult learning techniques which gain full participant interaction and transfer of learning from the seminar to the workplace. An example would be facilitating the work of a cross-functional team to create a strategic customer service plan and rather than superimpose an external set of customer service performance standards , work with that team to customize those standards to your organization and link them to your perfomance review process.We provide consulting services for Employee Engagement as well as for call centers including call center specific training and call center analysis.
We provide consulting and training to support the establishment of a climate of open communication and participatory management. Our team can develop custom training applications for virtually any strategic initiative you are planning.
We perceive organizational development as part of a system to accomplish goals and a process rather than an activity. Our consultant then recommends a solution drawing on an extensive array of interventions, training programs and instructional materials including on-line and blended training.
We design and conduct Employee Engagement process " Leading 2 Engage ",Management and Staff training and customer service programs tailored to client needs and provide ongoing Executive Coaching when appropriate so that behavior alters and organizational effectiveness improves.Our programs are all available in classroom, on-line as well as blended learning formats.
Employee Engagement 2.0™
Bringing Updates and Relevancy to Employee
Impact and Productivity - EE9©
Employee Engagement 2.0™
In the last decade, leaders and organizations throughout the world have moved at lightning speed in understanding and embracing the critical role that engaged employees have in key customer outcomes, building growth and sustainable healthy margins. Data gathered from the 1970’s to mid 1990’s about what “engages” employees and the key characteristics of a great place to work was organized and later presented in the best selling management book of all time, First, Break all the Rules (Simon & Schuster). This provided a new view of human potential and how it can be measured within an organization. A new management approach based upon a solid research foundation was born.
This new “data driven” view came at a time when the new Global economy was emerging and creating differentiated competitive advantage was paramount. The timing was good and an examination of traditional HR and management practices was gravely needed. Now, being in the eighth year of the new millennium, it is hard to believe that almost all of the current employee engagement initiatives haven’t been updated since the time Bob Dole was running for president and the Dow Jones Industrial Average had just broken through an all time high of 6,000.
Science demands updates and progress and yet, we’ve failed to keep pace with the necessary innovation to help organizations remain on the cutting edge of human potential management. Modernized research and practice is critical in this new day when competitive advantage and differentiated brand is largely owned and driven by our employees – their talents, focus, engagement and development.
Organizations are now struggling with outdated approaches that no longer deliver the desired outcomes. Companies, hospitals, government agencies and even national economies are overdue for a thorough evaluation and update, as they all are now driven by the productivity, innovation, R&D and successful outcomes created by their employees, managers and leaders.
Let’s review a few current practices used today – examine current relevancy, apply the latest research data and courageously propose where we need to go from here.
Practice #1: Identify engagement variables found in common with successful workgroups and then measure those items on a yearly basis.
Review – This was effective in bringing focus to specific issues of the work environment like having the right tools, feeling recognized, trusting co-workers, producing quality, etc. Another benefit of this approach was that the long surveys of the past were discarded, and shorter surveys focusing on the real life workplace issues were employed. The shortfall of this approach was that workgroup engagement information was never incorporated into individualized performance development and coaching strategies. The realization that strong teams are made up of strong individuals was minimized. It was also found that yearly cycles of employee feedback was too infrequent to sustain focus and involvement of work teams. Significant problems were also observed in the time lag between when people completed the survey and when results were delivered – on average 45-60 days!
*New Research Update* – Over the past 24 months, thousands of individual high-performers have been interviewed and 9 isolated variables were identified and correlated to: 1) outstanding contribution, 2) work team performance, 3) collaborative culture, and 4) likelihood to stay, with documented development and linkage to critical business outcomes. These variables provide workgroup tracking of engagement, but most importantly translate to individual development and performance plans. Survey cycles are necessary every 6 months, with the time from survey completion to results distribution being less than 15 days.
Practice #2: Take results of the engagement survey to the most local level possible and engage everyone
(at the local team) in a dialogue around the results.
Review – True engagement is indeed built or destroyed at the local level, thus measurement scope is still relevant. Dialogue around results though, became item-specific (focus on and build an action plan around no more than two questions) without clarity built around the relationship between items. Example, what does it mean to have “clear expectations” at the 90th percentile, and feeling one has a “strong relationship with their manager” at the 33rd percentile? Thus, pertinent cultural items were never explored and even minimized in the name of “action planning.” Because of broader perspective, i.e. “how do we get the recognition score higher,” little individual commitment and accountability occurred. This practice also yielded an s-curve (flattened out maturity) result within the first 3 years. Relationship of employee engagement also showed little to no linkage to customer results.
*New Research Update* – Results of the survey must be examined from the perspective of reviewing current work/people systems and assessing the engagement effectiveness overall. These systems include: communications, metrics management, priorities and goal setting, to name a few. Through the creation (or deletion) of work systems, sustainable change occurs and workgroup energy is utilized effectively. With the creation of more efficient and effective work systems, individuals realize the utility of such approach and a reinforcement loop is built. The result is sustainable improvement and sharp impact on customer outcomes.
Practice #3: Monitor the percent of employees who are “engaged, not engaged and actively disengaged” and try to achieve a 4:1 ratio between engaged and actively disengaged.
Review – This overarching index brought a simple and quickly understood concept for leadership to understand the tipping point between how many people were engaged, not engaged and so forth. While this provided an overall view, it did not measure the most credible indicator of employee potential to utilization ratio. This basic percentage of utilization metric has demonstrated to be a key outcome to overall relationship to business performance.
*New research update* – Having every employee operating at high levels of potential is the ultimate goal of any engagement initiative. When employees feel their talents and abilities are utilized, they are substantially more productive, content, collaboration driven and significantly less likely to leave. This human capacity index can be applied at the local team level, division, region or overall organization to gauge. Through a brave and on-going review of past research efforts, implementation models and points of view, MAJERS, our affiliate research organization, is committed to shedding out-dated, ineffective approaches. This is critical to insuring that our clients are learning and most importantly, applying the most up-to-date research and practices leading to outstanding outcomes.
The Next Generation of employee engagement: ee9©
1. I know the outcomes for which I am accountable.
2. My manager really knows me.
3. My talents and abilities are fully utilized.
4. My successes are recognized by my manager & coworkers .
5. My manager does a good job of coaching me to build on my strengths.
6. Of all the managers I’ve had, my current manager is the best.
7. Everyday, I see clearly the value that I bring to this organization.
8. I am a member of one of the strongest teams in this organization.
9. In the past year, I have grown professionally more than any other year.
If you would like to learn more about the current state of the art with employee engagement or see if ee9 is a good fit for your organization call us at 212 362 5215 or if you prefer e mail us at info@communicationstrat.com
Communication Strategy is a New York City based Organizational Development and Training consulting firm with affiliates throughout the United States.
Contact: David Hellman (info@communicationstrat.com)
Employee and Customer Engagement
Organizations everywhere have embraced the belief that engaged employees create more engaged customers and business results This assertion has both common sense and statistical foundation. Everyone is shooting for the prize that can be found at the end of the " 75th percentile " rainbow.Once we get there , well everything will be functioning at high levels-right? Well , not exactly.
In reality that pot of gold has turned into a process of " getting employees to report that they are six feet tall." no matter what their actual height is . Sadly , what once was a very effective tool to retain talented people and increase productivity across work teams has become only about the " scorecard result." Obviously this is not the case with all organizations, but to determine if you are one of them, you can ask yourself three specific questions to ascertain the answer:
1-Has our revenue and / or earnings grown at the same rate as our scores on the employee engagement scorecard?
2-Have significant increases in customer engagement scores been documented?
3-As employee engagement scores have risen, has our efficiency improved and thus been reflected in higher gross margins?
If you answered " no " to any of these three, don't feel bad, you are probably in the majority. Frankly, few have seen the sustainable business results that were to accompany the alleged increases in employee engagement.
Why? The answer and its simplicity may surprise you! The most salient reason lies in the fact that the vast majority of organizations did not focus upon and create the " systems" required to operationalize the employee engagement they were working so hard to create. While those organizations did in fact measure, report and " dialog " about engagement, they did not involve employees in defining those " work systems " that underlie how work gets performed.
Here comes the missing piece. MAJERS Research Institute has conducted break through research and field application to develop a technology that takes a system based approach to engagement. Research across healthcare, hospitality, service and manufacturing clearly suggest that key operating systems can improve and sustain the working relationship between people, their talent, and their productivity.
These critical systems in all organizations by design or default can be examined for their effectiveness in delivering business outcomes. Highly effective teams develop these systems by design whereas less effective teams develop them by default. Default systems are much like the rutted cow path that develops when they blindly follow one another to the watering hole. They get there more or less, sooner or later, but perhaps not as efficiently as they might were the path "designed " efficiently.
The MAJERS technology creates a working environment of " enlightened engagement ", which is a powerful combination of employees who are engaged and have the sytems to consistently and effectively do their job, by making the key activities they follow more reliable, more repeatable and more predictable.
In summary, while data for engagement efforts alone are likely to show only a temporary performance improvement when they attempt to clone best practices, employing an "engagement and systems methodology " will bring a long term and sustainable imprrovement to business performance.
This is a very exciting development for employee engagement and organizational performance.
If you would like to learn more about this process and the " Leading To Engage " program which puts it into action and how , perhaps, it fits into your organization please contact us by telephone 212 362 5215 or e mail : info@communicationstrat.com
Communication Strategy Consultants is a New York City based affiliate of MAJERS Corporation certified to facilitate " Leading To Engage "
Contact: David Hellman (info@communicationstrat.com)
"Great organizations achieve sustainable growth and profits because they do what other organizations don't: they maximize the innate, individual talents of their employees to connect with customers. They know that tapping the resources of humans is the only remaining area where significant improvements can--and do--lead to an unlimited source of competitive advantages." Curt Coffman, Gabriel Gonzalez-Molina, in Follow this Path 2002. Curt Coffman is the co-author of " First Break All The Rules ", creator of " Employee Engagement 9 " and plays a key role in the leadership of Majers Corporation ( a leader in the practical application of Employee Engagement techniques) an affiliate of Communication Strategy.
Many of us have heard the old joke in which a manager is asked how many people work in his company and he responds, "About half of them." Not so funny when you look at the following statistics and begin to realize how much time, energy and resources are wasted.
Alarming Statistics
The statistics on workforce engagement are shocking. According to a recent semi-annual Employee Engagement survey
• 29% of employees are actively engaged in their jobs
• 54% are not-engaged
• 17% are actively disengaged
What's going on and what can be done about it?
How to Keep an Employee Engaged
Engaged workers produce more, make more money and /or generate similar value for the company, and create emotional engagement and loyal customers. They contribute to good working environments where people are productive, ethical and accountable. They stay with the organization longer and are more committed to quality and growth than are the other two groups of not-engaged and actively disengaged workers. How do they do so?
• Employees have a strong relationship with their manager
• They have clear communication from their manager
• They have a clear path set for focusing on what they do best
• They have strong relationships with their coworkers
• They feel a strong commitment with their coworkers enabling them to take risks and stretch for excellence
Engaged employees tend to get the least amount of focus and attention from managers in part because they're doing what they are needed to do. They set goals, meet and exceed expectations and charge enthusiastically toward the next tough task.
The challenge for managers comes when the first signs of disengaging appear from an engaged worker. The symptoms need to be addressed immediately or else the disconnection is likely to continue. Most of the time this disengagement process can be interrupted by having meaningful conversations that strengthen commitment through relationship.
Great managers don't leave these excellent employees alone. They spend most of their time with the most productive and talented people because they have the most potential.
Expectations, Clarification and Measurement
To grow and sustain employee engagement managers must regularly provide expectations, clarification, and measurement. Usually companies hire people to do three things:
1. Achieve the business outcomes of their roles
2. Contribute to creating a productive workplace
3. Drive customer engagement
A good place to start is with conversations about expectations for every person in a given role. Get the individual to view his or her role from a broader perspective instead of from a narrow task-oriented point of view. Encourage the employee to see how his or her work contributes to the organizational future. Ask, "What are the outcomes you are supposed to achieve? What were you hired to do? How do you contribute to making this a great place to work? Are you creating engaged customers?" The objective is to focus employees on outcomes as well as the steps it takes to get there.
Next, managers can help employees clarify how they can achieve outcomes. Sometimes they can help employees change their roles to better fit their talents. A person who is not adept at written reports and details can collaborate with someone who is. This requires self-awareness of strengths and weaknesses on the part of both the manager and employee and a willingness to be flexible and find solutions.
Measurement is crucial to an employee's feeling of success, as long as the measurement focuses on outcomes, not steps. Good measurement includes regular feedback, aligns with outcomes and matches the expectations for the role.
Expectations, clarification and measurement are the keys to helping employees stay in the engaged range, and to keeping them involved and committed. Engaged employees need strong relationships and clear communications from their managers. They also need to be stimulated and challenged in their areas of talent and strengths to help them to continue to grow.
Effective managers and leaders help the people who work with them to design and own their own goals, targets and milestones. Everyone needs support and help with focus in order to keep the goals aligned with business results. Great managers provide coaching to facilitate progress and build talents into strengths.
Handling "Not-engaged" Employees
Efforts to raise levels of engagement are worthwhile for those in the not-engaged range. Not-engaged employees tend to concentrate on tasks rather than the goals and outcomes they are expected to accomplish. They want to be told what to do just so they can do it and say they have finished. They focus on accomplishing a task vs. achieving an outcome. Managers who only provide tasks to an employee reinforce not-engaged behaviors and actually move 180 degrees away from engaging the heart, mind, and soul of that person.
Employees who are not-engaged tend to feel their contributions are being overlooked, and their potential is not being tapped. They often feel this way because they don't have productive relationships with their managers or with their coworkers.
The way to get people to become a part of an organization is through relationships. Employees who feel disconnected emotionally from their coworkers and supervisor do not feel committed to their work. They hang back and do the minimum because they don't believe anyone cares. These employees "lower the bar" for themselves by doing the least amount of work necessary.
Managers need to demonstrate a sense of really caring about employees and what's important to them. Managers can help employees refocus on the demands of their roles and on the skills, knowledge, and talents they bring to their jobs. The manager who takes the time to have a dialogue about an employee's strengths and how these can make a difference forges essential ties and connections that lead to employee commitment.
Managing "Actively Disengaged" Employees
Too often people have to work with others who have become disenchanted and actively disengaged. Actively disengaged employees aren't just unhappy at work. They act out their discontent and sow seeds of negativity at every opportunity. They undermine the work of others. They are not just indifferent to company goals and mission; they express mistrust and outright animosity.
As workers increasingly rely on each other to generate products and services, the problems and tensions that are fostered by actively disengaged workers can cause great damage to an organization's functioning.
Studies reveal estimates that there are 22 million actively disengaged employees that cost the American economy up to $350 billion per year in lost productivity, including absence, illness and other problems that result when workers are unhappy at work.
A good manager will identify those who are disengaged and explore the reasons behind the disconnect to determine if coaching or other interventions are appropriate. In some cases, people will respond favorably to opportunities to reconnect and rekindle their interest and enthusiasm for their jobs. Most people search for ways to make their lives and work meaningful and only disengage when they feel hopeless.
Those who are actively disengaged may thrive on the negativity and refuse to become part of any solution, preferring to perpetuate problems. If they repeatedly refuse opportunities to engage again, terminating their employment should be seriously considered in order to avoid further damage to staff morale and organizational progress.
Leadership Actions: What Employees Want a Manager to Do
For great managers, the path toward engaging employees and keeping them engaged begins with asking them what they want and what is important in order to be effective in their roles. Here is a summary of what workers responding to a recent survey said they want from their managers;
• Focus me
• Know me
• Care about me
• Hear me
• Help me feel proud
• Help me review my contributions
• Equip me
• Help me see my value
• Help me grow
• Help me see my importance
• Help me build mutual trust
• Challenge me
And how do you do that?
• Provide feedback and guidance
• Make real time to discuss problems
• Seek ideas and input from everyone
• Provide the resources to solve problems or to do a job well
• Give real recognition and/or reward
• Provide opportunities for people to develop their potential
• Keep the pressure to perform and achieve more with less realistic
• Provide opportunities for social interaction
• Train people how to resolve interpersonal conflicts
• Promote joy and appropriate humor within the office
• Be flexible; help people to actively balance work and home responsibilities
PERHAPS WE CAN HELP: Our “Leading 2 Engage” Program is a unique
Employee Engagement Process . “Leading 2 Engage” has been
developed in cooperation with Curt Coffman, original co-author of “First
Break All The Rules” and co-founder of “The Q-12”, an early Engagement
Measurement System. Now working with our affiliate organization , Majers Corporation, Curt Coffman has
developed the newest and most powerful generation of Employee and
Customer Engagement Process, including both a powerful Assessment Survey
and an" Extraordinary Leader Workshop " that develops and builds engagement
at the team level.
The survey, “The Employee Engagement Nine” (EE9), not only assesses the
level of engagement for an organization, it also provides feedback on
the % of untapped capability employees feel they are not using.
This is a solid indicator of unused potential for the organization. The entire
“Leading 2 Engage” process is designed to raise the level of commitment
between management and employee to the “mission” of an organization, and through them
to the eventual “engagement” of the customer base.
We can facilitate our “LEADING 2 ENGAGE” Program* for you or if you prefer you can obtain the complete Turn-Key Facilitator Kit for your own in-house deployment.
So, in essence , there is available a process that will find out just how engaged your employees are right now, assist you to interpret the findings and create and put into action plans to really walk the talk that states " Our people are our most important asset." With a fully engaged staff you will be best able to engage your customers and live into your organization's vision, mission and strategic plan.
If you would like to learn more about how we can assist you to more fully engage employees and your customers please call us at 212 362 5215 or if you prefer e mail " info@communicationstrat.com
Communication Strategy is a New York City based Training and Organizational Development consulting firm with affiliates throughout the United States.
CORPORATE COMMUNICATION SERVICES
Business Writing
Presentation Coaching
Video Production
Internal Communications Consulting
Meetings Support
1. BUSINESS WRITING
Internal and client communications. Presentations, brochures, proposals, sales letters, scripts, ghost-written books, and more. Customized to your audience and outcome objectives.
2. PRESENTATION COACHING
No "one-size-fits-all" system. Customized programs for individuals and small groups … with extensive senior level experience. Program content would be developed specific to your business, with the focus on either general skills … or on making a specific presentation as effectively as possible.
3. VIDEO PRODUCTION
Internal videos, client videos, and corporate documentaries for major US and multi-national client companies; numerous industry-wide awards for excellence. For internal meeting openers and content support, new product launches, analyst and shareholder meetings, training, sales, new hire orientations, public relations, and campus recruiting.
4. INTERNAL COMMUNICATIONS CONSULTING
Creation and implementation of comprehensive internal communications programs. Furnish strategic thinking and creative vision and facilitate communications flow up-down / down-up / and laterally across organizations. Including training in how to be an "active listener."
5. MEETINGS
Conceptualization and design of staging, meeting agendas, themes, activities, and ancillary materials.
For more Information or to start a dialogue e mail us at : info@communicationstrat.com or call 212 362 5215
CUSTOMER SERVICE EXCELLENCE
You are, we're sure, well aware that customer service is getting more and more attention today and makes a big difference in distinguishing one " brand " from another. Making a committment to make a positive effect on the quality of customer service or level of expertise of your management team and leaders takes more than just a quick fix and quick" in and over " training course. It takes a real customer service strategic plan for making a long-term sustainable difference. Let us know today via our on-site contact form how we can support you to avoid the "fade-factor " of most training programs.
We also provide consulting in
Call Center Analysis and Operations.
In today’s competitive business environment, the effective and efficient use of the telephone and e mail to deliver “World Class” customer service and to secure new clients while retain existing ones is mandatory. Telemarketing, both inbound and outbound, has become a regular component of the marketing strategy and call centers are being used to answer customer inquiries, provide problem resolution, and perform telemarketing.
However, for many organizations, their call center operations and telemarketing projects are performing below expected performance levels and managers are challenged with the task of improving performance. These managers, faced with multiple responsibilities, struggle with limited management resources, insufficient knowledge, and inappropriate management tools to identify the reasons for the performance deficiencies and when the reasons are identified, they become frustrated with lengthy and ineffective efforts to implement improvement action steps.
Our ally , KEY TeleServices Consulting , understands the experiences and frustrations of these managers. Their Customer Contact Management consulting practice has been developed with the commitment to provide clients with the knowledge, skills, and experience to identify, address, and resolve issues impacting the attainment of the desired business objective.
OVERVIEW
The consulting services and Call Center Analysis offered by KEY TeleServices Consulting are customized to address the business needs of clients. Focusing on effective and efficient use of the telephone and internet as a marketing and service delivery tool, KEY TeleServices Consulting has concentrated its consulting practice on meeting its client’s needs in the following areas:
Call Center Solutions
Telemarketing Project Management
Quality Assurance Services
TeleServices Training
Management Recruiting
Call Center Analysis
CALL CENTER SOLUTIONS
Call centers are dynamic environments and their success is dependent on a high level of synergism between many areas. These areas can range from the management philosophy to the technology employed. When call centers are performing at below expected performance levels, management must assume the additional responsibility of identifying and correcting the factors impacting performance. This process requires dedicated attention and a willingness to thoroughly evaluate the entire call center environment. To assist managers with this responsibility, KEY TeleServices Consulting has developed their Call Center Operational Review and Assessment Program. This program examines the entire call center and provides the center’s management with an assessment report designed to identify the operation’s strengths and areas for improvement. This report will function as the manager’s guide for optimizing the effectiveness of the center.
If you are interested in learning how we might be able to assist you with making a positive impact on the effectiveness of your call center, as we have with a significant number of well known organizations, please call us at 212 362 5215 or e mail info@communicationstrat.com
Our competency based management development process, The Managerial Assessment of Proficiency ( MAP ) and Managing to Excel ( Excel ) headed up with assessment of needs , benchmarking with over 100,000 other managers, industry norms and building of your own organization normative profile as well as leaders and supervisors whose scores we have on record, creation of feedback in a percentile basis of how your people stand on twelve key competencies , eight personality dimensions and their basic management style orientation, creation of Individual Development Plans ( IDP ), training and then reassessment goes far beyond simply putting on a workshop, its a highly motivational process earning participant buy-in and committment to learning and self-directed development and it works.
We work with our clients to facilitate and create teams to develop and install performance management and customer service strategies that go beyond "training and leaving" to true ownership of the initiatives by your people so that the programs will take root, create the results that you want and stand the test of time.
Call us at 212 362 5215 if you have questions or want more information or e mail if you prefer info@communicationstrat.com
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