Bad News on the Employee Satisfaction Front

A new study by the Conference Board found that employee job satisfaction in the U.S. has hit a new low, down to about 45%. While this is not totally surprising since the poor job market means that more people are stuck in jobs they might otherwise have left, but the trend started way before the current economic turmoil and its does not bode well for brands and corporate reputation.

The most important stakeholder for any company is its employees. Employees carry the reputation of the company with them every day. Research has found that a growing percentage of people judge a company's reputation by how they view the company's workplace culture. Most of this is interpreted through hear-say, either from employees or others, or on-line. Also, research has found that the connection between employee and customer satisfaction is extremely strong (about an r=.80). Customer service is a critical part of brand and reputation.

How can we get customers and other stakeholders to see our brands and companies positively if they are dealing with employees who hate where they work? This is a major problem for all companies. Peter Drucker said that the only two areas that add value to a company are innovation and marketing. How do we generate value when those responsible for innovation and marketing are disgruntled?

The real tragedy is that most companies do not understand the connection between their employees and their brands. Somehow they still think that brand is about marketing communications and do not see the connection between brand preference and customer satisfaction. Too many companies still see employees as an after thought in their planning. Employee engagement often gets even worse when the economy gets bad. Think about how much good customer service means in your assessment of brands and reputation. Think about how important it is that the employee you are dealing with seems to want to solve your problem or make your life easier or reduce your concerns, etc. This takes two things from employees--willingness and ability. Many employees are willing to focus on enhancing customer satisfaction but are not trained or given the support or technology to do so properly. That is a problem for the company. Other employees are not able to provide the type of service we expect. That is a different problem that requires change management or changing employees. We need to have employees both willing and able to support the company if we are to be successful.

How do we engage employees? Do we have a culture that threatens them to make them understand that customer service is important. "Smile more and be more friendly", we bark at employees. Do we have a culture that allows people to be loyal to certain managers or divisions but not to the overall company? Or, do we have a culture in which we inspire employees to see the outcomes of the company as their outcomes and make them want to be part of everything we do because they have been included in our discussions and decisions?

Bruce Pillard, a French marketing manager, who I have had the pleasure of communicating with in recent weeks, has a concept of making customers feel like employees, bringing them into co-creation as if they worked with the company. That is a great concept. But, before we make customers partners, perhaps we should make our own employees feel like partners rather than conduits.