Keith Ayers - Trust Inside

Can Temporary Employees be Passionate About their Work?

The global economic crisis caused unemployement in the United States to spike. As the economy continues to recover, firms have started to hire again. But statistics are telling us that companies are hiring in a different way than before, preferring temporary workers to permanent ones. Obviously, this is not an ideal situation for many workers. But what kind of impact might it have on organizations' levels of employee engagement?

In this article I wrote for the American Management Institute, I explain how leaders can ensure that temporary workers become passionate about their work, and avoid a negative impact on organization-wide engagement levels.

Getting the “Right” People on the Bus

In his bestseller, Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap and Others Don't, Jim Collins uses the analogy of being “on the bus” to illustrate the appropriate place of vision in organizational alignment. “… first get the right people on the bus (and the wrong people off the bus) before you figure out where to drive it.”

The bus is the organization and what it stands for – its purpose and values. The right people get on board because they believe in this “bus” and the value it creates, and because they share the values of the other people on the bus. In tough times, such as a recession, natural disaster, or international conflict, the bus may need to be diverted to a different destination, or the vision revised.

But with the right people on board, aligned behind the organization's purpose and values, the organization is able to adapt rapidly to the new circumstances, create a new vision, and agree on a new destination that takes these new conditions into account.

To attract the “right” people therefore it is essential to build that “right fit” into your selection process to identify people who are passionate about your organization and the value it creates, and whose personal values are in alignment with your organization’s values.

Trust in Senior Leaders

In their 2008 report on the State of Employee Engagement, consulting group Blessing White state that only about half (53 percent) of respondents trust executives at the top compared to 75 percent who trust their immediate manager or supervisor.

It is more difficult to demonstrate trustworthiness without a one-on-one relationship. The same is also a challenge with people you don’t see very often, if at all. But I think there is more to it than that.

Senior executives’ expectations of what being trustworthy means for them is quite different to what employees expect from them. It is quite easy to understand when we look at the four Elements of Trust described in a previous post: Congruence, Openness, Acceptance, and Reliability.

Senior executives see themselves as trustworthy by being Congruent (honest and ethical), and Reliable (producing results). And in reality, these are the elements that the board and shareholders are primarily focused on as well.

But employees see things differently. Yes of course they expect their senior leaders to be honest and ethical and run a profitable business, but for them personally, acceptance and openness are more important. They want to know that their senior executives value and respect them and the contribution they make, and they want a higher degree of openness between senior executives and themselves.
This involves not just communicating more openly with employees, but also listening to them. How would employees in your organization answer the questions:

•    Does our senior executive team know what is on employees’ minds?
•    Does our senior executive team care about what is on employees’ minds?

If half of the employees in your organization don’t trust your senior team, that is likely to be the same half who are not engaged or passionate about what they do.

Building trust requires all four elements of trust. It is worth the effort for senior executives to get out of their offices and meet with employees. They have things on their mind that could grow your business.

What are you doing in your organization to increase trust with employees? I’d like to hear about it – just post me a comment in the “comments” section below this post.

The Link Between Trust and Passion

I was recently interviewed by Jennifer Kruger for the Imaging Executive Podcast to discuss some of the ideas from my book Engagement is Not Enough. We discussed the link between trust and passion – employees are unlikely to be passionate about their work if they are not trusted to use their creativity and initiative – and the four leadership obsessions that destroy trust and passion.

I thought you might like to listen in and I would love to hear your thoughts on the subject.

Good Old-Fashioned Service

Do you remember the days when flying in economy class was enjoyable, because you got looked after well? I’m talking about times when you got a hot meal if you flew at meal time and did not have to pay for it, or for the can of Diet Coke you had with the meal.

Welcome to Australia for a nostalgic trip to the past! I’m at the airport in Sydney on my way back to Philadelphia as I write this, and last Sunday night on a 6.30pm Qantas flight from Brisbane to Sydney I was served Chicken Teriyaki for dinner by a crew of very cheerful flight attendants. And yes, I was in economy class.

Now on Tuesday afternoon after a quick trip to Melbourne, I’m again heading back to Sydney but my flight is delayed by 50 minutes. That is an unusual occurrence in Australia, but then we only have 22 million people. Soon after take-off the captain announces that since the flight was delayed, all passengers were entitled to a free glass of beer or wine instead of the usual $5 charge.

The interesting thing about this story is that the flight delay was not caused by Qantas or weather. The flight to Melbourne had been diverted back to Sydney soon after take-off for a medical emergency. But Qantas was still apologizing and making up for the delay, because they are proud of their on-time record.

What’s my point? Deliver value! When we show our customers that we do care when they are inconvenienced, or if they are traveling during meal times, we build trust, and trust builds loyalty. I know I’m going to stick with Qantas when traveling in Australia.

Why Am I So Loyal?

I had an unusual experience in my local Starbucks store the other day. In addition to ordering my usual coffee for the morning, I asked for a couple of boxes of their coffee pods I use in a small espresso machine we have at home.

As I was paying for my order, the lady in the line behind me said to me, in more than a stage whisper, “You know you can get coffee pods at Bed, Bath and Beyond for two dollars less than Starbucks.” I smiled and thanked her, and proceeded to wait for my Americano to be made, where she joined my and continued with “It’s not bad coffee either.”

What this lady did not know was that my wife and I have been buying our coffee in this Starbucks store almost daily since it opened about 6 years ago. Yes we like the coffee, but it is the people there and the relationships I have established that have generated my trust and loyalty.

The staff know us by name and know our coffee preferences without having to ask. We are always met with a friendly greeting, and unless they are really busy, a short conversation as well. The value-add of that personalized, friendly service is worth a lot more to me than two dollars on a box of coffee pods.

What kind of relationships are your frontline employees building with your customers? Are they building loyalty by showing they care about the customer, or is the customer leaving with a flat experience?

I know that Starbucks train their associates to remember people’s names and what their drink orders are… what other companies do you know that make the effort to earn your trust? Let me know, I’d love to hear your stories.