Commit to employee empowerment; learn to make it work in the '90s - column

Commit to employee empowerment; learn to make it work in the '90s

Although the returns are just beginning to come in, the '90s already are taking shape as the most competitive decade the foodservice industry has yet faced. Predictably, the companies outdistancing the rest of the pack in traffic, sales and profitability are the ones that have made customer satisfaction their hallmark.

Companies that talked about customer service in the '80s will have to provide it in full measure in the '90s or risk losing business to those operators who can.

Examining the companies that have established themselves as front runners in the race to total customer satisfaction, we find a distinctive characteristic: employees who are actively involved in responding to customer needs and concerns.

Empowering employees with sufficient authority not only to resolve complaints without management intervention but also to anticipate problems and act decisively to avoid them will return the primary responsibility for customer satisfaction where it belongs: employees on the front lines.

The benefits of that approach will be realized not only in greater customer satisfaction but also in increased employee job satisfaction and reduced turnover.

The concept of employee empowerment appears sublimely simple, but in truth it is far from simple to effect. It may require allowing employees to make exceptions to policies and procedures; it may require changing them altogether; it may result in changes in the entire culture of an organization.

Here are a few steps companies must take to ensure that employee empowerment doesn't become just the "grand experiment" of the '90s:

(1) Understand what it really takes. Companies should start by appointing a task force to evaluate the concept and its meaning to the organization.

Such a task force will set realistic empowerment objectives, determine how deeply empowerment must permeate the business to accomplish the objectives and develop a plan for implementing the changeover to an empowered work force.

By its very definition, employee empowerment cannot be implemented by edict. Therefore, the task force should include representatives from every area of the business. Indeed, empowerment simply can't be effected without the insights of front-line employees into operational and systems barriers.

(2) Overcome employee resistance. A new policy giving front-line employees a greater share of responsibility for customer satisfaction will naturally find resistance on the part of some. Managers may perceive it as an encroachment on their own power. Employees may not welcome the additional responsibility for customer satisfaction.

Conducting employee satisfaction surveys for all areas of the business will uncover pockets of resistance to change. Survey results can be used to determine the best approach to implementation. Throughout the changeover, the benefit of increased employee job satisfaction should be stressed.

(3) Develop new training systems. The empowerment concept requires employees who are both skilled and knowledgeable. The foodservice industry today is attracting workers who are unskilled and often illiterate. Training will be more critical than ever before, particularly in decision-making skills formerly in decision-making skills formerly required only of supervisory personnel.

Once companies commit themselves to the empowerment concept, they should conduct a training audit or needs analysis to identify new training requirements as well as current training deficiencies. To ensure that the changeover won't bog down, they should be prepared to develop short-term "fixes" to training systems already in place. They should also be considering whether development of a revised or entirely new training system is warranted.

(4) Build flexibility into your empowerment scheme. Your procedures require that your signature sandwich always be served with three pickle slices and a toasted bun. A customer doesn't want either but wants his sandwich with lettuce and tomato. How is your empowered employee to deal with that situation?

Companies making the commitment to employee empowerment must have the courage to create an environment in which some "bending of the rules" - when the aim is a satisfied customer - is not only permissible but also laudable.

(5) Allow for some mistakes; encourage employees to learn from them. Empowered employees will sometimes arrive at solutions for satisfying the customer who cost the business money when an alternative solution could have resulted in a satisfied customer and a profit. In the early stages of the changeover to the empowered-employee environment, both managers and employees will be looking for evidence that company management means what it says.

News that mistakes result in punishment will quickly spread through the system. Empowerment will succeed only if mistakes are seen as opportunities for learning, not punishment.

(6) Reward performance that meets your empowerment objectives. In many operations recognition and reward come from close adherence to a rigidly defined checklist. If employees and managers know they're going to be "marked down" for not following the rules, they won't act in an empowered manner. On the other hand, when "everybody" is responsible for customer service, sometimes no one takes responsibility for it.

Evaluate the systems you have in place to ensure that they reward behaviors you seek from empowered employees. Communicate expectations clearly and base rewards - incentives, promotions, raises or recognition - on meeting those expectations. In most cases employee performance appraisal should be modified.

(7) Continually evaluate progress. By its very nature, the empowered employee culture requires constant re-evaluation and fine-tuning. Empowered employee organizations must constantly ask themselves "How are we doing?" Without opinions from every perspective, customers, employees and management, organizations won't know if employee empowerment is working or how to make it work better.

Every decade generates its share of business buzzwords. Thus the '90s have thrown the concept of employee empowerment into the spotlight. As I hope I have shown, the concept has abundant potential for improving our work lives.

However, we must be careful, not to underestimate the commitment required to realize the concept; otherwise, it might go the way of other discarded "visionary" concepts.

John C. Doyle is managing director of professional services at Universal Training, Northbrook, Ill.

COPYRIGHT 1991 Reproduced with permission of the copyright holder. Further reproduction or distribution is prohibited without permission.
COPYRIGHT 2004 Gale Group