As today’s customer experience universe continues to swerve, businesses are expected to be populated with employees who remain poised and unflappable, whilst resolving the unique needs of demanding customers. The competency expectation here, is for these employees to possess the capacity to function at high cognitive, emotional and psychological levels, during these interactions that are arguably, taxing on any normal nervous system.
While many employees put up a gallant fight in light of some pretty ugly encounters with customers, in the long run, sustaining this gallantry, can and does take a toll on the battleground of the mind. The need is for businesses to ensure that they do everything possible, to sustain healthy environments, that optimize the well-being of their employees.
Employee health either adds to or subtracts from the capacity of a business to deliver on its promise of value to customers, so preserving the health of its employees, just makes as good business sense, as it makes for effective human resource management.
The need is for businesses to ensure that they do everything possible, to sustain healthy environments, that optimize the well-being of their employees.
When a business is invested intentionally, in the good health of its employees, this is often a clear sign that it understands how an individual’s well-being is linked to his or her ability to broker effective social relationships and at the service delivery level, to generate healthy and profitable customer relationships.
My bottom-line argument, is that businesses need to pay close attention, not just lip service, to employee well-being. Many businesses tout the much-repeated phrase, “our human resource is our greatest asset,” without green lighting the associated capital investment required to develop this resource.
A healthy work environment creates the platform for customer relationships to flourish. An unhealthy environment, does not. Unfortunately, I encounter many managers and supervisors who are ill-equipped to curate healthy climates in their departments, creating missed opportunities for achieving team harmony, authentic communication and generation of customer experience solutions. Ultimately, this stack of dysfunctional outcomes means that many departments are unable to meet their service delivery mandates at either internal or external levels.
Employee health either adds to or subtracts from the capacity of a business to deliver on its promise of value to customers, so preserving the health of its employees, just makes as good business sense, as it makes for effective human resource management.
At the heart of the lack of focus on employee health, is the fact that many businesses are “sales driven,” entities, where technical endeavour is prioritized over optimizing people enablement. The plaintive cry is that labour is expensive and the add-on costs associated with people development can be very prohibitive.
Budgets therefore, are prioritized according to the areas that directly impact revenue and the line items ascribed as “softer” people development areas, continue to be pushed into obscurity. That is, until a human resource issue flares up and then, there’s the mad scramble to initiate a fix that is quick, usually superficial and predictably, unsustainable.
Conversely, there’s that business that takes a more organic approach to curating a healthy workforce, with healthy employees.
Businesses need to pay close attention, not just lip service, to employee well-being.
This business is proactive about removing all barriers to employee success, starting with a focus on positive employee mental health and well-being. In addition to the structural services that will include an employee assistance program and personal improvement plans, an array of day to day templates for sustaining good health, become standardized in all business units. I am not referring here, to the usual employee engagement initiatives that include opinion surveys, engagement programs and the ubiquitous team retreats.
I am talking about daily check-ins that are taken seriously by team leaders. When utilized effectively, these check-ins provide a window into the mental map that exists in any business unit, on any given day and provide an opportunity to course correct team health imbalances, in real time.
Outreach circles that allow employees to network with like-minded peers who share similar challenges, are invaluable platforms for pre-empting feelings of isolation and allowing internal services to provide targeted support.
A healthy work environment creates the platform for customer relationships to flourish.
Team leaders who are trained as performance coaches and behaviour interventionists, tend to create teams that are well-adjusted and stable. These teams become grounded in a belief system that promotes fair practices, elevates trust, fosters a sense of belonging and generates wholesome communication.
When employees enjoy a positive level of well-being, they are less apt to crumble under the pressures of working in today’s fast paced business environments. They become so psychologically fortified, that they navigate even the most challenging customer encounters skillfully, whilst building solid customer relationships.
The deep-seated desire of many businesses, is to be known as brands that go “above and beyond” for their customers. Creating an employee workforce that is not distracted by unhealthy beliefs and behaviours, will provide a business with an outsized chance of achieving this brand accolade.
The road to this desirable state is not impassible. It starts simply, by clearing the existing psychological debris, so that employees can travel unencumbered.