“Your crew are your most valuable asset” It’s a cliche but where local store marketing is concerned, it holds a lot of truths. Your crew are the frontline between you and your customer, and one of the most important brand contact points you have. A likable, well trained and attentive crew member can make the difference between a good experience (the one you expect from a paid restaurant experience) and a great experience (the one you tell your friends and family about).
So where do great crew members come from, they don’t grow on trees and they certainly are not born that way, well not everyone anyway. A good training program is a great starting point but it is not the only thing that makes a great crew member. As with most things in life, we are at our best and perform to the best of our abilities when we are happy doing what we do and being where we are.
In an article recently posted on the Harvard Business Review, Tony Schwartz the president and CEO of The Energy Project and the author of Be Excellent at Anything sets out twelve attributes of a truly great place to work. Not everything that Tony recommends in this article needs to be implemented in order to achieve a workplace nirvana but any number of these recommendations is a great way to kick start a better workplace, happier crew members and your local store marketing strategy.
From The Article:
More than 100 studies have now found that the most engaged employees — those who report they’re fully invested in their jobs and committed to their employers — are significantly more productive, drive higher customer satisfaction and outperform those who are less engaged.
But only 20 per cent of employees around the world report that they’re fully engaged at work.
It’s a disconnect that serves no one well. So what’s the solution? Where is the win-win for employers and employees?
The answer is that great employers must shift the focus from trying to get more out of people, to investing more in them by addressing their four core needs — physical, emotional, mental and spiritual — so they’re freed, fueled and inspired to bring the best of themselves to work every day.
It’s common sense. Fuel people on a diet that lacks essential nutrients and it’s no surprise that they’ll end up undernourished, disengaged and unable to perform at their best.
Our first need is enough money to live decently, but even at that, we cannot live by bread alone.
Think for a moment about what would make you feel most excited to get to work in the morning, and most loyal to your employer. The sort of company I have in mind would:
- Commit to paying every employee a living wage. To see examples of how much that is, depending on where you live, go to this site. Many companies do not meet that standard for many of their jobs. It’s nothing short of obscene to pay a CEO millions of dollars a year while paying any employee a sum for full time work that falls below the poverty line.
- Give all employees a stake in the company’s success, in the form of profit sharing, or stock options, or bonuses tied to performance. If the company does well, all employees should share in the success, in meaningful ways.