Comcast, Dish, Charter
Named to ‘Most Hated Companies’ List – The TV Answer Man!
Having several friends and family members who work for these companies, this headline is not a shocker at all. Customer experience will never rise above employee experience. Even though customers are a company's most valuable assets, their experience is simply a reflection of the company's culture. How employees feel about their job, their boss, and their company will be passed on to the customer through words, attitudes, and behaviors. Employee net-promoter scores at these companies likely bear this out. This is not a matter of job satisfaction, but employee engagement - and the two are not synonymous. Employees are engaged, that is, they bring their best self fully to the work role with energy and enthusiasm, when four conditions are met:
1. There is
alignment of meaning for the employee and the company (extrinsic
motivators are not as powerful as intrinsic motivators)
2. Employees
feel their "voice" is heard and valued
3. There is
psychological safety (from bringing up new ideas to bringing "bad
news" to light)
4. Employees
can make the job their own ("knowledge" workers always being told what to do and think
ultimately stop thinking, and job ownership declines
precipitously)
Ensuring these elements are part of your culture is what great leadership is all
about. Where
senior leaders are insulated from front-line employees or first-line
managers, these elements are generally missing. If you
want a better customer experience, check your culture and ask the hard
questions about the environment you've created or allowed to exist.
For more information on employee engagement, you can reach Mike Felix at mike.felix@att.net.
