by | August 12, 2009

Cultural Differences and the Impact on Survey Scores

Recently, an interesting piece of survey research was brought to my attention.  It briefly summarizes the trend of Hispanics consistently using the more positive ratings within survey response scales and the possible reasoning behind it.  Jeffry Savitz, President of Savitz Research Solutions, (ranked one of the top 50 market research companies in the U.S. according to Marketing News, June 30, 2009) shares these findings and thoughts…

Hispanics ‘Give Higher Ratings in Surveys’

Hispanics in the US, especially those who are more recent arrivals, give higher ratings in product surveys than their non-Hispanic counterparts, according to a study designed by Jeffry Savitz, President of Savitz Research.

Dallas-headquartered Savitz Research offers a bilingual/bi-cultural research division created to help clients understand and address the special needs of the Hispanic market.

In his study, Hispanic and non-Hispanic respondents were asked to assign a numeric value to five rating labels – excellent, very good, good, neither good nor poor, and poor.

Using a scale of 0-100, with 100 being the highest, it was found that Hispanics were consistently giving higher marks to each label (except in the case of ‘poor’) with an average difference of 5.9.

Savitz, who is also Professor of Marketing Research at the University of North Texas, says that the results have significant implications on multicultural advertising and marketing, as well as on which products and services should be offered to Hispanics.

‘Hispanics are taught from an early age that it is in poor taste or inappropriate to openly criticize or berate when asked their opinions,’ Savitz explains: ‘More research is needed to measure the effect of the ‘cultural lift’ on various categories and other factors.’

This article triggered a discussion with Jerry Halamaj, Senior Consultant and Director of Client Services and Strategy at The Foresight Group.  Not only is this a trend in the U.S. within consumer surveys, but Jerry added “this parallels the highly positive response we find within employee surveys in Mexico and Latin American countries and confirms the value of considering local country norms as benchmarks.” 

 As the Hispanic market quickens its pace to first place in the consumer market here in the U.S., it would be interesting to delve further into the many Hispanic subcultures and various demographics to further investigate this trend.

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Filed under Benchmarking, Business, Cross-Cultural, Employee Engagement, Employee Surveys, Human resources, Labor Relations, Management

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by | August 7, 2009

Nuggets of Wisdom…

More from Brian DiBartolomeo, Project Director with Lightspeed Research – The Foresight Group….

Recently, I attended an HRMAC (Human Resources Management Association of Chicago) networking conference downtown that had three CEO’s talking on the topic, Impact of Culture Change on Business.  The CEO of Motorola, Greg Brown, was one of the most compelling. He shared great case studies on the impact of culture within his organization and throughout the presentation he provided what I would term, “nuggets of wisdom.” These words of wisdom are applicable in all our daily lives. This is especially true with our interaction with our internal and external clients.

Please take a few moments to really think about what he said. I hope you find this as thought provoking and useful as I do.

Nuggets of Wisdom 

  • Before answering a question understand the intention. Find common ground before you answer.
  • If you want to be perceived as a leader or someone of influence, assume the role; do not ask to be brought to the table.
  • Practicing more than everyone else makes YOU great. People want to beat you every day!
  • When talking with people you should be saying “I know” vs. “I think.”
  • The worst thing about a mistake is NOT fixing it.

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Filed under Business, Employee Engagement, Employee Motivation, High Performance Organization, Human resources, Labor Relations, Leadership, Management, Performance Management

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by | August 3, 2009

The Bottom Line – Employees Want to Be Valued!

Part two of Sharon’s blog – Sharon Parker is a Director & Senior Consultant with The Foresight Group.

In last week’s blog we talked about the comparison to good customer service and good employee service.  In the article, “What Customers Want from Customer Service,”  readers ranked things like product value, level of service, time of in-store waiting, clear communication, individualized solutions and whether or not they were greeted promptly as indicators of good customer service.  Bottom line, however, customers wanted to be treated like they were important and valued.  Last week we talked about product value, level of service and time of in-store waiting from the employees’ perspective.

Customers value clear communications just as employees value clear communications.  Yet, this is one area that employees say is often lacking in most organizations.  In fact, communications, as a category, typically scores the least favorable on most employee surveys.  Why is that?  Senior leaders and corporate communications staff will tell you that they spend a lot of time (and money) talking to employees, sharing company information and communicating important messages.  Employees on the other hand will say that while they hear things, they don’t always trust the message or the messenger.  Employees will often say they don’t feel they have a voice; that no one listens to them.  Communication is a two-way street.  Both listening and hearing have to occur.  Upward and downward communication channels need to be created and dialogue needs to be created.  Employees who feel they have a voice will be much more engaged in their work and with their customers.

As a consultant, part of my job is to create individualized solutions for my clients.  Each client organization that I work with is special, with a special set of needs, goals and objectives.  Dell has it figured out.  Start with a basic computer; add your own “bells and whistles” to make your own special computer just the way you like it.  You can even get it in green if you like.  Nike has it figured out as well (just ask my 15 year old daughter).  No need to go to the store to buy the latest shoes for now you can go online and design your own in your very own, unique and special colors, individualized solution built just for you.  Just as customers want to feel they are special, our employees want to feel they are special as well.  How do we make our employees feel unique and special?  When you walk down the hall do you greet each person by name or do you walk past them without noticing?  When you developed goals and objectives for the year did you include a few development opportunities that were tailored to their unique sets of skills and talents?  When you selected employees for a cross functional team did you take into account their various and diverse skills sets so that you used the best of the best?  Have you created individualized learning opportunities or development plans for each employee to help them grow at a faster pace?  Have you asked your employees, “What do you need from me to help you do your job better?”

Greeted promptly, whether in person, on the phone or via a quick-loading web site was cited as a customer service “must have”.   Customers like attention and they like being noticed quickly.  As an employee, how easy or difficult is it sometimes to get attention in your organization?  We all have internal customers, others within the organization to whom we deliver a product or service.  If you work in Human Resources or Organizational Development, for example, the entire organization is your customer.  How quickly do you greet your customers?  An employee requests a form to change beneficiaries (I know most of this is online these days). Or an employee stops in to see you to talk about an issue they’re having with a coworker.  Or an employee wants to see the latest job posting.  There could be a dozen reasons why an employee needs our attention.  As a manager, how good of a job do we do in getting back to our employees?  How quickly do we reply to emails?  How quickly do we provide answers to their questions especially on issues that they feel are important?  We’re busy; they’re busy; we’re all busy.  Prompt service is important.

Bottom line: employees want to be treated like they are important and valued.

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Filed under Business, employee communication, Employee Engagement, Employee Motivation, High Performance Organization, Labor Relations, Leadership, Management, organizational culture, Organizational Effectiveness, Performance Management

by | July 31, 2009

Does Good Service to Employees = Good Service to Customers?

Part One – by Sharon Parker, Director, Senior Consultant with The Foresight Group

Recently, I followed a link on msn.com called “Good service? What customers consider to be good treatment”.   Behind this link was an article written by Barbara Findlay Schenck titled, “What Customers Want from Customer Service.”  Readers ranked things like product value, level of service, time of in-store waiting, clear communication, individualized solutions and whether or not they were greeted promptly as indicators of good customer service.  Bottom line, however, customers wanted to be treated like they were important and valued.

So I started thinking how different is that from what our employees think about us as employers?  How good of service are we offering as employers?   Let’s start with product value.  Customers want to make sure product value exceeds the price they are paying.  Employees want to make sure they are getting “value” at work.  Translating this to the workplace this means paid fairly for the work they are doing.  We call this equity.  We measure both internal equity – fairness of pay to others in the organization that are doing the same or similar work and external equity – fairness of pay to others outside the organization in a same or similar industry doing similar work.  We also measure equity by the amount of work that we do compared to how much we are paid.  When we feel that the amount of work is worth more than the compensation received, the “value” is out of balance and equity shifts.  Just like the customer who feels they don’t receive value for a product purchased and they return the product or leave, an employee has a choice – they can stay, maybe become a disengaged and disgruntled employee or they can leave the organization and find someplace else to work.

What about level of service?   Customers expect the level of service to rise above their expectations.  They want courteous, competent and professional sales people who can answer their questions and provide the level service they expect.  Employees also expect their managers to be competent and capable.  Employees want their managers to be technically competent, i.e. know about the work that they do, but they also want them to be managerially competent.  Managers need to know how to provide constructive feedback, set clear job directions, coach employees on their performance and identify opportunities for development.  You know, those “soft skills”.  A good manager helps their employees do their jobs.  A great manager helps their employees get promoted.

Time of in-store waiting is an interesting concept when you apply it to an employee experience.  What do we make our employees wait for?  We make our employees wait for answers, for decisions, for direction, and for approvals.  We make them wait for our signatures on forms because a policy demands it.  We make them wait and for resources to do their jobs adequately so that their customers can complain.  We make them wait for feedback on their performance because we’re too busy to stop what we’re doing.  We make them wait for simple things that stop them from doing their jobs on a daily basis.

More to come.  I’m going to make you wait for the rest…..

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Filed under Business, Decision Quality, employee communication, Employee Engagement, Employee Motivation, High Performance Organization, Labor Relations, Management

by | July 27, 2009

A Leader Is as a Leader Does…

Some interesting insight on leadership from my colleague, Brian DiBartolomeo, Senior Project Director for The Foresight Group.  Read on…

Over the past few weeks I have watched the Linked In “group posts” flow into my inbox.  Most recently was a post, within Human Resources Group, asking how leadership is defined. This particular question has inspired some thought provoking discussion on how people view leadership.

Some respondents have made it crystal clear that a leader is someone who “walks the walk and talks the talk.” Meaning that the leader is someone who acts as an example when leading people to a common focus/goal.

Many others have identified a leader in a different manner. Some of the most interesting posts are:

  1. Patient listener
  2. Hard task master
  3. Free and friendly – social off hours
  4. A father and mother figure to his or her team
  5. Approachable – shares with others
  6. Has a smile on his or her face

Although I do not agree with all of these above mentioned traits/behaviors, from my research I agree that a leader is one who has the ability to persuade other people to set aside, for a period of time, their individual concerns and to pursue a common goal that is important for the responsibilities and welfare of the group (Hogan, Curphy, and Hogan, 1994)*.  Although the definition is brief and somewhat dated, I believe it embodies the operational definition of leadership, specifically, how a leader can motivate a diverse group of people to rally together for a common goal that individually they would never have attained.

How does your organization define leadership?

For more information please contact Brian Di Bartolomeo bdibarto@foresightint.com

*Hogan, R., Curphy, G., & Hogan, J. (1994). What we know about leadership. American Psychologist. 49, 493-504.

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Filed under employee communication, Employee Engagement, Employee Motivation, High Performance Organization, Labor Relations, Leadership, Management, organizational culture, Organizational Effectiveness, Performance Management, Uncategorized

by | July 22, 2009

Look Inside Your Organization for Success

by Sharon Parker

Sharon Parker, Senior Survey Consultant for the Foresight Group, continues her discussion on benchmarking below…

In an earlier blog, we talked about the use of external benchmarks or norms as a way to understand your survey results.  Internal benchmarks can be just as helpful, if not more so, in understanding and interpreting your organization’s results.  Internal benchmarks such as historical comparisons, best-in-class groups and total company aggregate scores can shed light where external benchmarks often fail.  Here are some examples of how organizations have used internal benchmarks to improve their interpretation and understanding.

  1. One client organization created a best-in-class benchmark that was the aggregate of the top 10 percent of all workgroups in the organization based on the overall engagement score.  All work groups were ranked from high to low on the overall engagement score.  The top 10 percent of workgroups were selected and this group’s scores were aggregated on each survey dimension/category and item to create the Best-In-Class score.  This internal benchmark was set as a stretch goal for all other workgroups in the organization.  The best-in-class groups were also interviewed to find out how they were driving engagement.  Best practice stories were then shared with others across the organization.  The Best-In-Class benchmark can be segmented by region or business group to provide greater focus and clarity and to “normalize” for local cultures.
  2. A second client organization created a total organization score for every survey dimension and item and included this score on each manager report.  As a decentralized organization, managers had not had the ability to benchmark their scores with others in the organization.  This new internal total company score provided a comparison point from which to measure their employee survey results compared to others in the organization.  Managers were now able to see if they were above the norm or below the norm on employee engagement and set action plans accordingly.
  3. A third client included multiple years of historical trending on their survey results to highlight opportunities for improvement.  Year-over-year change was measured in both actual change (percent favorable scores) as well as difference scores.  A special report was created to show the year-over-year change in an easy to use “snapshot”.  Color coding was added to indicate significant positive change (green), little to no change (yellow) and significant negative change (red).  This stoplight approach quickly enabled managers to spot the significant changes, both positive and negative.  At a glance, managers could tell whether or not their efforts had any effect on the survey results. 

Normative data provides a way for managers to interpret results, set goals and priorities, define strengths and opportunities, and create action plans.  Both internal and external benchmarks create comparisons that are useful if you understand how the benchmarks were calculated and how the data will be used to make comparisons to your organization.

 For more information, contact Sharon Parker at sparker@foresightint.com.

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Filed under Benchmarking, Business, Employee Engagement, Employee Motivation, Employee Surveys, High Performance Organization, Leadership

by | July 14, 2009

IS YOUR ORGANIZATION IN SYNC?

Recently, I asked Sharon Parker, Senior Survey Consultant here at Foresight to share some thoughts with me on normative data as well as current trends. Below are her thoughts and insight on the subject… Your organization has administered an employee survey to ascertain levels of employee engagement. The results, overall, look favorable. But how can you determine whether your employees are really engaged, or just moderately engaged? How can you tell if your organization’s results are typical or vastly different than the results of other organizations similar to yours? What do your results really mean? Many companies are using employee survey benchmark comparisons or norms to provide additional interpretation of the results. Benchmarks, whether externally or internally created, provide a barometer for managers to compare their survey results. External norms are usually presented as 50th percentile scores or group-average scores but you can also benchmark to top quartile scores or top performing companies to see how you compare to the “best” companies. When making comparisons to external data, it is important to understand how the data were collected, how often the data are “refreshed”, what companies are included in the benchmark comparison and how many people the comparison represents. You want to make sure benchmark comparisons are relevant and meaningful for your organization. Internal benchmarks can be just as important and relevant as external norms. Historic trends, regional comparisons and best-in-class benchmarks offer additional ways organizations can use survey data to understand their results. Here are some trends in external normative data that we have seen over the past five years that have a significant impact on employee engagement: Overall satisfaction with benefits has been declining over the years as organizations have been making significant changes to benefits programs and policies. Employees are not only less satisfied with the programs and policies but with the information they are receiving about their benefits. While satisfaction with benefits is not a key driver of employee engagement, a competitive benefits program is necessary to recruit and retain top talent to the organization. Employees are less satisfied with their opportunities to get a better job within the company. While training and development opportunities still exist, promotional opportunities are less available as organizational structures are flattening and layers of management are being eliminated. Mature workers are delaying retirement in response to the economic meltdown thus reducing some of the openings for promotions that may have traditionally occurred in the normal organizational life cycle. Top talent has less opportunity to move up the “corporate ladder”. Having opportunities to grow and develop within the organization is a key driver of employee engagement. Satisfaction with innovation has declined slightly over that past five years as organizations have eliminated R&D dollars due to cost cutting measures. Standardization and processes implemented to improve efficiencies often have the effect of counter balancing innovation. In many industries, innovation is necessary to maintain competitive advantage. Without innovation, the competition takes over. Employees want to feel like they are contributing to the success of the organization; that their skills and abilities are being used; and that they are making a difference. Innovation helps drive this success.

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Filed under Benchmarking, Business, Corporate Mergers, Decision Quality, EFCA, Employee Motivation, Employee Surveys, Employment Law, High Performance Organization, Human resources, Leadership, Management, organizational culture, Organizational Effectiveness, Training and Development, Turnover

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by | July 8, 2009

Elevating HR’s Role…

Check out this complimentary educational webinar…

“Movin on Up, Elevating HR to the Head of the Table in the Executive Suite” is being presented by Mark Ernst, J.D., President of Ernst Enterprises, LLC.  Mark, who earned his J. D. from DePaul University and his BA and MA from Lewis University, has been an esteemed advisor to Senior Management and CEOs alike for over 20 years. His website notes his varied background includes extensive experience in, but not limited to, strategic planning, talent acquisition, development and retention, succession planning, employee relationships and change management. His company, Ernst Enterprises, LLC, a management and business advisory services company, takes great pride in providing in depth resources to business owners helping them achieve their vision while creating a successful working environment.

The webinar is going to focus on these key questions:

  • How can HR increase their value to the executive team?
  • What HR activities have a memorable ROI?
  • How should HR translate their initiatives and expertise into tangible business solutions?

Want to attend, simply visit – http://www.foresightint.com/ – visit the Resource Center to register for the program.

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Filed under Business, High Performance Organization, Human resources, Leadership, Management, Organizational Effectiveness, Webinar

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by | June 30, 2009

Action Planning – Keys to Meaningful and Lasting Changes from Employee Survey Results

It is crucial in the survey process to implement an action plan upon its completion.  Employees need to know that the survey they’ve just taken the time to complete is meaningful and their thoughts and suggestions have merit.  Typically, an action plan will include who is responsible for what and when it will be accomplished so a company can move forward to achieve strategic goals.  I asked Sharon Parker, Senior Survey Consultant and one of our resident experts here at Foresight to share some insight on the importance of action planning.  Here are her thoughts…

The short-term outcome of sharing the results of a survey but taking no action is the same as doing nothing at all.  Nothing happens.  The long-term effect of sharing the results of a survey but taking no action is that something does happen…usually something negative.  One of the most powerful means leaders have for creating positive and lasting change is to take action from their survey results.

One of the questions we often include in employee surveys is: “I believe actions will be taken based on this survey’s results.”  We use this benchmarking question to measure employee confidence in the action planning process as well as confidence in leadership’s ability to follow through with their commitments.  Over time, we have seen tremendous improvement in the results of this benchmark question as well as improvement in overall survey results as leaders have identified areas for improvement and have implemented changes based on feedback received from the survey. 

We have also seen a lot of good action planning and activities go to waste, so to speak, because of poor communications.  Leaders need to make sure employees understand that actions taken, changes made or improvements implemented have been the result of feedback received from the employee survey.  It is imperative that employees see the connection or link between the survey results and actions taken.  Making those connections will allow employees to feel that their voice is heard and help them feel that their feedback is valued.

 For more information, please contact Sharon Parker, at sparker@foresightint.com.

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Filed under Benchmarking, employee communication, Employee Engagement, Employee Motivation, Employee Surveys, High Performance Organization, Human resources, Labor Relations, Leadership, Management, organizational culture, Organizational Effectiveness, Performance Management

by | June 24, 2009

If You Build It, Will They Come?

It’s no secret that engaged employees are the cornerstone of any successful organization.  An engaged employee is one who is generally performing at an optimum level contributing to the success and growth of your business so when employee satisfaction is a priority for your organization, happy clients and customers are sure to follow.

How then to ensure a successful employee survey when you wish to measure employee engagement?  In a recent workshop titled “Employee Surveys to Measure and Increase Employee Engagement” presented by  Sharon Parker, Senior Survey Consultant with  The Foresight Group, she shares tips to increase employee participation:

1.  Give employees an opportunity to voice their opinions and thoughts.

Allow employees to let you know what’s on their minds by providing a couple of open ended questions within the survey for them to answer.  This allows them an opportunity to share thoughts, ideas and concerns you may not have addressed.

2.       Give employees assurance of confidentiality.

Advise employees that their identity is being protected and explain how the survey results will be utilized.  Share with your employees how the information gathered will be used by senior management and other leaders to implement change.  It is also important for employees to know how their comments will be shared.  Ensuring confidentiality also ensures employee honesty within the survey.

3.       Share with your employees how the survey results will be shared.

Let your employees know how and when the survey results will be distributed.  Let them know what will happen to the results of the survey and create a process for action planning.  Employees want to be involved in the process, take the steps to show you value their input.

4.      Implement changes mentioned in the surveys.

Share with your employees the way the action plans, based on survey results, will be implemented.  There is nothing worse for an employee than to take the time to complete a survey and have issues and concerns brought to light, then its results be ignored.  This is the quickest way to ensure a lack of participation the next time you want to run an employee engagement survey.

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Filed under Employee Engagement, Employee Motivation, Employee Surveys, High Performance Organization, Human resources, Labor Relations, Leadership, Management, organizational culture, Organizational Effectiveness, Performance Management, Training and Development