Most of the CEO’s I speak with agree that innovation and improved customer service is the key that will help their company emerge from the recession stronger than their competitors. To accomplish this requires employees with good morale and solid productivity. The problem may be that if your employees are like 55% of American workers, they are suffering from poor morale which is leading to dropping productivity and stifled innovation.
According to the Conference Board research group, employee job satisfaction in America is at a 22 year low with the largest percentage of workers suffering from poor morale and low productivity (http://bit.ly/4ViPWr).
The study reports the low job satisfaction stems from:
• Fewer workers consider their jobs to be interesting.
• Incomes have not kept up with inflation.
• The soaring cost of health insurance has eaten into workers’ take-home pay.
What really stood out to me was a quote from one of the research participants who said he wished bosses would take time to listen to worker’s ideas – and their difficulties on the job.
Many companies today are focusing on listening to their customers to find ways to improve customer service and drive product innovation. However, your employees represent the whole of your company’s brain trust. Many of our customers have also set up Voice of the Employee initiatives with the goal of identifying ways to improve employee morale, better engage their employees, identify ways to save money, improve procedures and in short, do things better and faster.
Since the same tools used to survey customers can be used with your employees for little or no incremental cost, you might seriously consider setting up a Voice of the Employee program.
We would love to hear your comments and thoughts on this.
