Operational Audit: Staff

     I was part of a healthcare organization that was very focused on improving its patient (customer) satisfaction surveys. They created scripts that every employee had to say when coming in contact with a patient. They made sure that the script used the same words as the survey that would be received by each patient. Every employee wore buttons that proclaimed that they strive for the highest scores in patient satisfaction. So why didn’t the patient satisfaction survey improve?
     The reason the scores didn’t improve is because leadership missed a critical component to high patient satisfaction—happy employees. You see, customers can only be happy if your employees are happy. It doesn’t matter what you say to your customers, how many times, or that you advertise that you want happy customers. What matters is how your employees say it. I’m sure you have been in a situation where somebody has apologized to you but you clearly knew they were not sorry. That’s because their body language did not support their verbal language. And we all know that non-verbal communication is 80% of overall communication. John Maxwell in his book Everyone Communicates Few Connect says, “If you want to connect with others, you have to get over yourself. You have to change the focus from inward to outward, off of yourself and onto others.” This is very difficult to do if you are self involved with your current environment which is usually the case when employee morale is down.
     So if you identify that your productivity and sales are down. You observe that your customer complaints are on the rise, you learn that your customer satisfaction surveys are trending down—look to your staff’s morale. You should start by talking to them. You’ll be amazed at what you can learn by just asking questions, by learning what the environment is like. Of course, if you normally don’t engage with your team they may be hesitant to open up to you—more the reason to engage with your team at all times. Another great way to learn about your team’s morale is to speak to your internal customers. Most departments in an organization either support another department or work with them to provide the final product or service. The people in these departments will be a great resource for you because if your team is unhappy, they will usually be the first to feel it. You should also conduct an anonymous survey—it has to be anonymous so you can ensure full disclosure. There are many employee engagement survey templates on the web, research them and choose the questions that best apply to your department or organization. You should also observe the work environment. Take time to identify how your team works with each other and others by simply observing them. Are they engaged and excited or are they isolated and downtrodden? Another telltale sign is negative trending KPI’s (Key Performance Indicators). Your staff is the primary driver of productivity and quality. If the KPI’s are changing for the worse, you have to look at your staff.
     Once you identify that morale problems exist you have to take action! You need to start by ensuring that proper leadership exists. If leadership is lacking, staff morale will always be lacking. So if you are in the position that is responsible for leadership that is directly responsible for the employees; you need to make critical decisions—see my previous article titled Operational Audit: Leadership. If there are other factors that you learned from talking to your staff, internal customers, and by conducting an employee survey—then you must take action to improve them. One of the most common and least desirable causes of poor employee morale is poor employee attitude and behavior. You may learn that one or a group of employees is impacting your teams overall poor performance. If this is the case, you have to eliminate this cancer as quickly as possible. This may happen through candid conversations and a change of heart or it may happen by separation. Not every job is suited for every employee. This is very difficult for any leader, but as the leader you must possess emotional fortitude to make this happen.
     Bottom line you must get your team engaged by communicating to them what you learned and how you want to change their environment. Engage your team in determining what is most important to them that you need to change first. As this process begins you have to communicate ,communicate, and communicate. That in itself will begin to change the environment and ultimately your staff’s morale. Employees need to know that you care for them. So commit yourself to getting to know them, determining a plan of action, and loving on them. Happy staff equals happy customers!