Why you need to adopt a People-Orientated Business model
The days where money is the focus have gone.
Ever done a job in retail, hospitality, or any industry where you have not felt valued? Have you walked into a store and felt you weren’t wanted? I definitely have and I’m guessing you have too.
Surprisingly this isn't rare in businesses- especially new ones. Often stemming from a culture within the business leadership, the desire for dollars rather than customer satisfaction is what prevents growth within a sector. On one hand, you can’t blame them. Pressure to pay the bills, to keep shareholders happy, to put a roof over their heads.
The facade of having the face of an organisation full of fancy equipment & gadgets yet behind it all you get soulless service you aren’t going to get anywhere. With the evolution of customer awareness, you can’t just serve a good product anymore. People have an interest in the ethics and reasons why you do things both in the public and private eye.
Staff retention and job satisfaction are at an all-time low and with this being a major cost to businesses through recruitment, training, and disturbance to the workplace it is definitely worth considering how to counter the issue.
Another thing to consider is that new jobs and sectors are opening all the time. Covid has also promoted the idea of freelance and remote working. The power that employers have will slowly diminish as the choice of jobs increases. The employees can have more demand over wage, hours and ultimately change the working climate.
Taking this into account, the focus needs to be redirected onto motivation, training and development, and ultimately the customer experience. Money cannot be the focus otherwise the traditional working environments we are used to will be a thing of the past. Here are some helpful ideas to maybe implement in your own business or day-to-day work.
Motivation
This is not a rise in a paycheck. Multiple surveys have been done worldwide to show how there is no correlation between staff satisfaction and money. This can indeed be used to reward good work but people ultimately don’t fall in love with their job because of the wage.
Instead, people are motivated by autonomy, gaining skills, being trusted, seeing progress, being acknowledged in their work. Dependent on your place of work, this can look different, but practically here are 5 core values to go after:
Have fun
Recognise when staff succeed
Reward often
Communicate well
Promote Loyalty
Dialing in on these ideas and listening to staff will build a relational manager-staff bond. In doing so you can trust that staff won’t jump ship to another company for a higher paygrade and have honest chats about the progression of the organisation as a unitive force rather than one person at the head.
Training and development
Kaizen is the Japanese term for "continuous development" and is something often forgotten by major businesses. After the first bit of success, organisations can often stay stuck in their formula rather than trying new ventures and pushing their staff. It is here where scaling up is impossible.
As the last 2 years have demonstrated, we have to be agile in business and the way we work. Constantly innovating and developing both the structures of organisations and the people within them. This is exciting as it allows for staff to constantly be a part of an exciting changing environment, however, unless communicated well, a workforce can feel out of the loop.
Having core training courses to get all workers to know about your business is essential but also providing lots of optional courses to grow staff in areas they enjoy. Promoting their skills, talents, and desires out of a job.
It doesn’t stop there though. Having assessments, constant checkups with staff and career counseling are ways you keep staff with you for the long haul.
Jobs become stale after a while and if money isn’t a motivator, you may wonder what you can actually do? The solution; provide a vision of progress for staff. Something attainable but a good challenge. Giving them a dual role, a new dimension to their job, or showing them progression to management are subtle changes and much more creative than a wage increase and often provide bigger contributions to your organisation.
Customer experience
The holy trinity of good customer experience is a product, procedures, and people.
Product- this is the integrity of your product or service. Ultimately you can’t provide great customer service if you are selling something you know is rubbish. Having a quality product that you can personally back will shine through in the customer experience you and your staff can provide.
Procedures- this is the integrity and automation of your procedures. If you have the best products or services in the world yet you are constantly unavailable, can’t supply stock or people have to work to even purchase from you something is wrong. Making the process and procedures as seamless as possible enables a successful customer experience.
People- the overall quality of the experience. Without having people who are knowledgeable, friendly, and helpful you aren’t going to have good customer service.
A combination of these three and you’ll be well on your way to pleasing your customers. And if not, make sure you create a way for customers to critique you. Respond swiftly and with care. People are your greatest marketers. Please them and they’ll sing your praises to all their friends, disappoint them and their whole Twitter following could know about it.
Final Thoughts
The customers and people you work with have to be your focus. Sometimes this doesn’t directly mean profits and in many instances, it will be costly. However, building a business with integrity will separate you in saturated markets and draw the clients you want as well as the staff you deserve.
Motivate often, have continuous development and training, and always have the customer experience at the forefront of your mind. The money will follow.
I wish you all the best with your ventures.