Empowering Employee Success
Customer expectations are growing exponentially. With smartphones and mobile Internet access, customers expect employees to know more than what can be read online. They also want an in-store experience that exceeds what they may get online. Price Waterhouse Coopers reported that customers are willing to pay up to 16% in price premium when they have a great experience.
Providing training, mentorship, and the tools necessary to meet these expectations will increase employee morale, performance and engagement. This translates to more productivity and growth.
Employees want to succeed, and our objective at Hughes is to guide and support that desire in order to develop an organized, effective, and efficient workforce that can meet these expectations.
Remember SHaK: Skills, Habits and Knowledge.
Skill development begins with the onboarding process. When new employees arrive on their first day, introduce them to a mentor. The mentor does not have to be a manager or leader. The mentor needs to be someone who has a positive attitude, who likes helping people, and who can demonstrate desired skills to new hires. As they take their place on the team, the mentor will show them how to do things properly and how to follow desired procedures. The mentors should also, and this is very important, explain the Why. He or she explains how activities contribute to achieving the team goals and organizational success. We never want to hear, “That's just how we do it here.”
Along the way, the mentors should encourage new hires to do more and more on their own. A mentor should also monitor or review the new employees at desired intervals. If the mentor can be a teammate our colleague in the same area, she or he can set an example as they continue to work together. As the employee demonstrates proficiency, the mentor should recognize the progress and openly congratulate them on their skill mastery.
Good habits enable people to improve productivity and build efficiency in the way they do things, creating good habits.
