Tag Archive for: company development

Company Pillarization & Disconnection: Why Change and Adaptation are Vital to Company Growth

As companies grow, they change. It seems obvious, but it’s impossible for any business to stay in that ‘start up’ phase forever. As a company matures, its very nature changes, and often this can cause company pillarization. Originally a cultural and religious concept – based on the Dutch word ‘verzuiling’ – pillarization talks about systematic segregation and alienation of elements of society.

In history, this is best illustrated by the separation between Catholic and Protestant communities in parts of Western Europe after the reformation. Protestant families would only buy from Protestant grocers, while Catholics would only go to Catholic vendors. Society was split across its religious lines in such a way that that was as little interaction as possible between the two elements even though those elements were part of the same, larger community.

We start to see company pillarization in more mature companies. These businesses have developed strategies and policies in their start-up phase, or they have set down strategies and plans afterward. The result is that many of these businesses rely on strategies designed years earlier, based on scenarios and circumstances of that time. One of the problems that can arise from this is company pillarization.

Company Pillarization: The 3 Big Areas of Concern

Communication

One of the first things to break down in a company pillarization scenario. Pillarization creates a disconnect between departments, allowing them to grow distant and focus only on their own tasks. As a result, inter-company, cross-departmental communication is difficult and occasionally non-existent.

Responsibility

A direct result of the breakdowns in communication, keeping track of responsibilities becomes difficult. When company pillarization occurs, departments – and their individual team members – become entrenched in only their own tasks. Even as disconnection begins to occur in communications, a disconnection happens between the tasks and the bigger picture. That leads to a disinterest in taking responsibility or ownership over cross-departmental projects.

Engagement

When a department is disconnected from the company as a whole, the members of that department suffer from the same disassociation. People get drawn in, choosing ‘sides’ with their own department rather than with the company as a whole. This, combined with the breakdown in communications and growing sense of lack of responsibility leads to a downturn in employee engagement. Employees no longer feel connected with anything but their work, or, at best, their department and this impacts the company as a whole.

Overcoming Company Pillarization

Overcoming divisions in any organization can be difficult. Particularly if these divisions have grown subtly over time. The first step is always to recognize that there is a problem. This is something that companies can find difficult to admit; it may be construed as a failure in the eyes of stakeholders, but without this admission there can be no resolution.

In the end what it all comes down to is the disconnection between people, departments and the company as a whole. This can be the result of a number of things such as the company has outgrown its management, the company’s culture isn’t moving with the direction of its employees (in terms of socialisation opportunities), and possibly just the general style of work – perhaps the products that the company is now creating aren’t as interesting as they were before. The disconnection between the company and its individuals is the end result of all these issues.

In order to overcome company pillarization, then, companies have to reconnect with their employees and vice versa. It’s a two-way street.

One of the factors that can help address the issue of communication, for starters, is to take a look at the physical distances between departments. If they are housed on different floors or even different buildings, then face-to-face communication becomes less likely. While not always possible, bringing departments closer together has the potential to help resolve this issue.

Other tried and true ideas is to sit down and take a serious look at current HR Policies: do they reflect the current needs of employees or have things changed? If the company no longer has the best interests of its employees at heart then this is a good place to start looking. Similarly, it’s a good chance to give employees opportunities the chance to express themselves. This will generate information to help bridge the gaps on an individual level and will hopefully improve on issues of engagement and responsibility.

Onwards and Upwards

Many people compare businesses to sharks: when they’re not moving forward they’re sinking. This may not apply to every business on the face of the planet, but it’s often used as a generalization. It applies here too: if a business isn’t addressing issues that are causing breakdowns in responsibility, engagement and communication then what’s the point? It’s fair to say that while not all companies can be compared with sharks, it’s perfectly reasonable to argue any company not addressing its internal issues is heading for the  bottom of the ocean.

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High Employee Turnover: Impacts, Reasons, and Solutions

Many companies, particularly in the retail industry, face a high turnover of staff. In any industry, high employee turnover is a problem, even more so in industries where the majority of employees are on the frontline and deal with customers directly.

High employee turnover comes with a host of issues, reasons, and several solutions. We’ve boiled it down to the basics:

The 2 Big Issues

1. No Consistency for the Customer

Customer service has many facets. One of the elements that help improve customer satisfaction is consistency: people enjoy familiarity. A customer who walks into his or her favourite shoe shop and is greeted by a familiar face – that of a long-time employee – who remembers their preferences and needs is a loyal customer.

In the retail industry, this is tricky; many employees view retail as an entry job – one that will springboard them through some work experience into a ‘real job’. Gone are the days when walking into a small community fashion shop would earn you a personal greeting and a ‘…how did that dress work for your son’s graduation?’. Customers crave that type of personalised interaction – it makes them feel valued – but it is incredibly difficult to give them when high employee turnover is in play; it’s not exactly possible to train new employees in individual customer profiles.

2. Continuous, Inefficient, and often Expensive Training Requirements

With high employee turnover, companies face the issue of having to train newcomers constantly and consistently. As a result, training models are often designed and used without adapting them to changing situations. Why waste time building new models when this batch of employees is just going to leave anyway? In a sense, many businesses give up because they can’t keep up: it becomes more time-efficient to just let new employees use the current, un-personalised training system.

This is where new employees face ancient PowerPoint presentations with outdated information. They see that the company hasn’t invested any time or energy into these training packets and switch off – why should they engage with this material if the company hasn’t? And so the cycle continues.

The 2 Big Reasons behind High Employee Turnover

1. No Engagement and Motivation

We touched on this a little already: if an employee doesn’t feel engaged with a business for whatever reason, they’re going to get bored. Employee loyalty, like customer loyalty, isn’t something that just happens: it has to be earned over time. This means that businesses have to put in the effort to engage and motivate their staff.

2. No Support or Management

One of the biggest reasons why high employee turnover occurs is due to management issues. Management, as most of us know, is an artform. A good manager is worth their weight in gold; a bad one much less so. Bad management, or no management, will send employees packing without a backwards glance. Employees want – and need! – to feel like they are being supported; they don’t want to feel undervalued or overworked. It is a manager’s job to dispense advice, constructive criticisms, and compliments in such a way that is most helpful to the employee.

The Solution

There are several ways in which a business can tackle high employee turnover. What it really boils down to is communication.

Understanding employee expectations, requirements, and issues before they come into play is vital to taking control of any employee relationship. This line of communication goes both ways, of course, allowing for a company to relay its expectations, rules, and goals to its employees so that no one operates blindly.

Several months ago, we discussed the importance of an evolving HR policy. A good HR policy will accurately reflect the needs of both the business and the employee – allowing for a dialogue between the two. This is the main, vital thing to help kerb high employee turnover.

The Inevitable

Sometimes, however, it isn’t possible to manage high employee turnover; sometimes, it’s just a fact of life. It is impossible to control everything. A company can go out of its way to increase employee engagement and motivation, and this will certainly help with the issue, but it might not be possible to stop high turnover completely. This can be due to the nature of the work – perhaps it is a high-stress job that people simply can’t handle for too long; or maybe it’s an easy entry-level job that young adults use to break into the workforce.

It’s not always possible to fix high employee turnover, but even in those cases where it remains an issue, it is possible to work with it rather than despite it.

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[Intern Insight] Imagining the Future: How Workplace Fun Transforms Companies.

People love duality. You have ‘black’ and ‘white’, ‘love’ and ‘hate’, ‘good’ and ‘evil’, ‘ying’ and ‘yang’. It makes things easier if you only have to pick from two sides. And naturally, duality must apply for all aspects of our lives. Nowadays, we speak in terms of ‘personal’ and ‘professional’ life; workplace fun seems oxymoronic. They are separate entities, locked in eternal combat, two sides of the same coin…all the romantic terms you can think of. The point is, they are extreme opposites and never mix. Or do they?

How workplace fun has evolved?

It has come to my attention that somehow, somewhere, a curious aspect – definitely shelved in our personal life – has crept into our professional life, and it’s called ‘fun’.

The concept of ‘fun’ is starting to change how we perceive our working space, how fast we learn new skills, how engaged we become in our jobs and how long we remain in our current position.

Fun is shaped by the change in attitude towards gamification. If we make it a game and it is fun, then the learning process is simplified and sustainable over a longer period of time. Even more so if this is incorporated into a digital mobile platform.

And how do retail companies respond to that?

Again, we have two opposite sides.

The general fear is if employees spend time playing on their phones, then they do not dedicate enough time to the customer. While correct, we have to think outside of the box. Shouldn’t we be tapping into this ‘mobile playing’ obsession by adding game elements to learning materials to improve employee engagement? Is the time spent with the customer well used? Just adding the right elements in the right order does not necessarily mean it would work.

How would a mobile application change that?

First of all, more than 74% of companies currently use learning management systems (LMS) and virtual classroom/webcasting/video. From the other perspective, 77% of internet users network via mobile phones daily. It can’t be helped, it’s like a drug! 966 million — or 78% of all 1.2billion gamers worldwide — admit to playing games daily. It’s like a match made in heaven!

 How exactly would a gamified mobile app help?

It would reduce employee turnover and increase employee performance. It’s like a game of dominos, really! Everything is connected! It will also affect customer satisfaction, loyalty, and general sales.

Is it future-oriented or just a passing fad?

As proven by Kurzweils’ Acceleration Law, technological advancement intensifies faster with each year. Therefore, an app that keeps up with all the demand changes, offers personalized training, and makes it so much fun that you would be playing it in your spare time, is definitely a thing of the future! It will still be ‘a la mode’ 100 years from now when employees sell oxygen masks on Mars!

 

This post is brought to you by one of AQ’s Undergraduates, Laura Susnea. As part of our internship programs, undergraduates and classic interns are encouraged to take part in company culture. Laura’s primary project focusses on training programs and eLearning and how best to adapt this to industries under pressure. As a result, she knows a lot about the subject being discussed in this guest post: Workplace Fun.

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Improving Global Customer Service: The Long-term Mission

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At AQ, we’re all about improving global customer service. Our mission statement says it all: “To let people experience great service.” But what do we mean when we say that? Today, I want to break the ice, crack the fourth wall, and tell you a little about that.

When AQ was founded in 2001 by Jan-Willem Smulders and Thomas Kascha, the theme was simple: advance quality service. The goal was to help businesses improve their customers’ experiences by improving the level of service they were experiencing. Over time, AQ focused on mystery shopping. Why? Improving global customer service requires both qualitative and quantitative data. More importantly, however, is that to truly understand what goes on in a business, the human element has to be measured. That’s not something that’s done with other market research tools like surveys or external focus groups for example. By specializing in mystery shopping AQ can pinpoint the cause of a drop in sales with quality accuracy.

Taking this specialization, we partner with our clients to help them develop a better understanding of their own employees and their own systems. Sometimes all it takes to boost sales and engagement is a little bit of insight from a reliable source. AQ strives to be that reliable source. We put an emphasis on quality assurance precisely for that purpose, insights are all well and good but if the foundational data isn’t of the highest quality no one benefits.

Ultimately, our quest is to make sure that every industry around the world has the highest level of customer service possible. The trouble is, of course, that customer expectations keep evolving. Our work will never be done, but it is our hope to keep adapting to these changing concepts and demands and guide our clients along the way. We believe in continuous improvement, doing the right thing by everyone, and, above all, that everyone deserves to experience great service.

 

 

 

 

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