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THE IMPORTANCE OF INVOLVING EMPLOYEES

Why should you have to involve your employees in running your business? After all, it is your business. You've worked hard to reach the position where you make the decisions. You've taken the risk in starting your own business. They haven't. You left a secure job working for somebody else because you wanted to be your own boss. You didn't want to have to do it their way. You wanted to do it your way. What's wrong with that? Just that if you insist on running your business "your way" and only "your way," you may destroy your business. The vast majority of small businesses fail in the first five years. Many of these businesses fail precisely because the owner/manager insisted upon running the business "his way" or "her way." These owners and managers failed to get their people involved. They tried to make all the decisions themselves. They insisted that there was only one right way to do anything - their way. They "demanded" and "ordered."  They wouldn't listen to employee ideas or suggestions. Their approach was "check your mind at the door" and "just do what I tell you to do." And they did exactly what they were told to do, even if it was wrong. The order - "No refunds without a sales receipt" - was carried out precisely. What did they care if the customer, without a sales receipt, was the major customer? So what if he got mad and swore never to do business with the company again? "No sales receipt" meant "no refund." That was the rule.  Period.

Ten Good Reasons for Involving Your Employees
Why involve your employees in running your business? It's very simple. You have to involve your people because it is practically impossible for your business to be successful unless your people are committed to making it successful. And they won't care if your business is successful unless you involve them in how the business is run.

Consider what almost any business needs to be successful today and how important employee involvement is in making success happen.

Quality Demands That People Be Involved
The quality of your product or service is the most important determinant of whether your business survives. There's just no doubt about that. If you don't deliver quality products and services as determined by how your customers view it, they are going to go elsewhere. If you don't believe quality is that important, just try foisting junk on your customers. They'll leave you in droves.

Now what does quality have to do with involving employees?  Everything. You can't inspect or control your way to quality. Quality has to be built in, not tacked on. You have to make the product or provide the service right the first time. The only person who can do that is the employee. And he or she isn't going to do that unless he wants to. Just try making somebody want to do something. You can't. Oh, you might be able to make them do it occasionally. But you can't make them want to do it. And that's the point. Either employees want to produce a quality job or they don't. They decide what they want to do, not you. And they aren't going to want to do anything unless they are involved.

Service Demands That People Be Involved
Second to quality (a close second) in determining whether your business succeeds or fails is customer service. Even if you give 'em great quality, mess up the service and your customers will still leave. So where does service come from? It comes during those thousands of small moments when one employee interacts with one customer.  It comes during all those tiny "moments of truth" when how that customer feels about your company is determined by how that employee behaves.  Just as in the case of quality, you
can't control your way to service. Your employee provides service or doesn't provide service, and you can't control it or make it happen.  You can't be there during all of those thousands of moments to make sure it occurs. Your employee decides to provide service or not. And he won't provide service unless he has a reason to do it. If he isn't involved in the business, he won't have a reason.

Performance Demands That People Be Involved
Anyone who has ever tried to provide real quality and real customer service knows it's damn hard to do. You don't get quality and service from just average or okay performance.  You get it from people trying hard to make it happen. Try forcing people to
try hard. Try making people do their utmost best. You can't. Oh, you may be able to beat them into okay performance, but you're not going to beat them into super performance. People give their best because they want to give their best.

Everything Else Demands That People Be Involved
Beyond quality and service - or as an integral part of them - are innovation, creativity, flexibility, and quick response to changing customer demand.  Now just try to force somebody to be innovative - or creative - or flexible - or to "get on the stick" and get something done real fast. You can't, can you? Again, you want your people to be innovative; you want them to be creative; you want them to be flexible; you want them to really be "quick about it" - well, if they want to they will. And what makes them "want to"? If they are involved, if there is something in it for them, if they are partners - then, maybe then, they'll want to. You can't beat them into it.

Responsiveness Demands That People Be Involved
Let's just take one of these things you've got to have to make it in business today - quick response to customer needs, demands, questions, concerns. If you're going to respond quickly, that means somebody has to make a quick decision. You can't wait while level after level of managers mull it over. Well, maybe you can wait, but you can be certain your customer won't wait. So who's going to have to make the decision? The employee - the person closets to the customer - is going to have to make the decision. That means your employees are going to have to be informed, empowered, and trusted to make the decisions that have to be made to keep the customer happy.  And they are going to have to even be allowed to make decisions that occasionally turn out to be wrong. Now people who are controlled, who are subordinate, and who are subservient to other people don't make decisions. They get beat up if they try. We all know that. It's the nature of the relationship.  Equal partners make decisions. Equal partners have the information to make decisions. Equal partners have the authority to make decisions. And equal partners are allowed to be wrong sometimes.

Technology Demands That People Be Involved
One thing that's driving all this partnership and team stuff is technology. Whether you want it or not, you know you've got to have technology. If you don't invest in automation, you know you're going to be beat. But there are several curious things about technology. First, technology does away with the manual, repetitive jobs. It leaves behind the thinking, creative stuff. So when you put in technology, it takes away the stuff people can be made to do and leaves behind the things people have to want to do.  Second, technology usually means that people have to work together to get things done. They have to do all those things like share information, cooperate, work as a team. People have to be involved in making technology work. Third, technology that is well cared for by attentive, responsible, creative, and innovative people is an enormous value. But watch out if you leave the technology alone. That same processor that can do so much good can also eat up tons of raw materials, generate enormous piles of waste, destroy customer relationships, and sink your business. And it can do it so fast. All you need running the stuff is a bunch of yoyos who don't give a damn, and boy, are you in trouble.  Finally, all that expensive technology is just a pile of silicone chips until people do something with it. If you don't believe you better be concerned about the people side of introducing new technology, just go talk to GM.

People Demand That They Be Involved
People demand more from their jobs today. Yes, it's true. We've all gotten a little selfish about what we want and expect from the people who employ us. A job and a pay check just aren't enough.  We all want more than that. Maybe it's because we haven't got a whole lot else. Maybe it's because of what's happened to families and churches and communities. Maybe it's because we've all been exposed to so much through global media coverage that we aren't so parochial in our interest, ideas, and beliefs anymore. I don't know what it is. But we all seem to want a whole lot. And we look to our work to give us a lot of what we want - like belonging, meaning, significance, purpose, and all those things. Now, the trick here is that the people who seem to want the most out of their jobs - who demand the most - are the people who are really in demand. They're in short supply and are going to become in even shorter supply. (Blame your educational system for a lot of that - but we won't go into education and all its problems right here.)  You can be sure the people who can think, be creative, be innovative, solve problems, get results - those are exactly the people who'll tell you to "take your job and shove it" if all you've got to offer them is a job. They can do that. They don't have to have your job.  Your competitor would love to have them. If you don't involve people, provide them with something more than a paycheck, if you don't listen to them, if you don't let them know you care what they think, if you don't make them partners - they're going to leave you flat. You'll be stuck with the leftovers, You know - the people who can't think, reason, solve problems; who - for God's sake - can't even read and write.

You Don't Have Much Choice
Even if you could somehow control your way to survival in the crazy, competitive business world, where are you going to get the controllers? Your employees have to be self-managing and self-controlling. Are you really going to staff up with middle manager "watchers" and "prison guards" (what we call the "burden") that don't do anything but try to beat other people into doing things?  Come on now - who's kidding whom? Do that and your indirect labor costs will go out of  sight and you'll tube the whole thing.

Involvement Is All That's Left for Most of Us
Now, if you're stuck with a flatter organization without those levels to promote people through, then people at the bottom don't have a whole lot of places to go. They 're stuck. Try trapping people in a mindless, dead-end job with no hope of a way out and see how long they stay there. Well, you may not be able to change the dead-end part, but you better do some thing about the mindless part. You better put something into the jobs that are left to make them interesting or challenging. Otherwise, the folks are just going to check out mentally or physically.

It Works!
Finally, you need to involve people and build teams because - you know something? - it works. The fact is, given the chance, people are pretty amazing. It really is true that ordinary people - Tom and Joe and Jane and even old Ralph - who have sat around for years and not done a damn thing get turned on when they are given responsibility and meaning and purpose and accountability and are made to feel they matter and  are worth something. They really aren't that different from you or me or anybody else. But then, why did we ever think they were?

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