PIHRA Scope - Fall 2008 - (Page 9) 3 4 5 Pitfall #3: You do not understand your company’s products, services and the current business and competitive environment. Too many HR professionals keep themselves isolated from the front line and the core business. If you want to be viewed as a business partner, you need to know the business. Solution: Arrange to go on sales and service calls or listen in to typical customer calls. Get a sense of the issues facing your customers and employees. Figure out how you can help the revenue generators do their business better. Read industry magazines, product literature and view your company Web site frequently. Pitfall #4: Support departments are disconnected from the customer experience. Departments such as accounting, IT or human resources are often so removed from the external customer experience that their sense of urgency in responding to their internal customers’ requests is low. Solution: Have employees in your support departments or a non-revenue generating role visit with their internal customers or fellow workers. Get them to go on client calls with your sales representatives or listen into incoming customer calls. In addition, invite your customers to speak at both support and front-line staff meetings or conferences. Involving your staff can do wonders to revitalize those that feel isolated or complacent. Pitfall #5: Lack of staff recognition or reward systems that don’t work. Too often support staff, call center employees and those in less visible positions feel underappreciated and uninvolved. We may also be incenting people for the wrong behaviors. Our well-intentioned programs and dollars may be ineffective and wasteful. Once that happens, apathy and disengagement begins setting in. Solution: Give your customers and other departments the opportunity to recognize your staff for excellent service. Include praising coupons—cards your customers or managers can use to acknowledge good service or work— in your customer newsletter or when mailing statements and invoices. In addition, create a Recognition Tool Kit™ filled with items you, your managers and internal departments can use to recognize top performance. Find ways to create an experience for your employees—something that creates a memory for them. As an HR professional, you can make a significant difference in the performance and culture of your firm. It’s up to you to take charge, demonstrate value and enjoy the journey! I’ll see you in Long Beach on Oct 8th! ■ Barbara Sanfilippo is an award-winning business and inspirational keynote speaker, consultant, coach and author of Dream Big! What’s The Best That Can Happen? She is the Wednesday keynote speaker at the 51st Annual PIHRA Conference & Exhibition. Romano & Sanfilippo partners with organizations to bring their name brand alive, turn customers and staff into advocates and teach people how to Dream Big! To sign up for her e-tips or learn more, visit www.Barbara-Sanfilippo.com. You should call us! because we know more people than you do. 818.817.7717 or, at least, check out our new website www.DirectHireAssociates.com 386882_DirectHireAssociates.indd 1 Fall 2008 PIHRAScope 9 6/19/08 4:54:00 PM http://www.Barbara-Sanlippo.com http://www.directhireassociates.com
For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.