Make it cultural
You can engage your employees by builing avenues through which they can communicate and make sure that their input and ideas have a bearing on the decisions that will affect the future of the company. It’s all great in theory and better in practice. But over time, as the economy improves and the business environment becomes more stable, it will become easier to let some slack into the organization philosophy to which you once rigidly adhered.
The only cure for that is to make customer focus and employee empowerment a part of your company’s culture. You make that happen, in large part, by rewarding the behavior you want to see and promoting your best and most experienced employees to more influential positions.
“It all starts with building a culture that employees can appreciate and thrive in,” Polk says. “A big part of that is the importance of having a great leadership team in place. Our senior leadership team includes a variety of experience in all aspects of the automotive business. You have to fit the culture to you business, to where you want to take the business in the future. For that, you need to instill a common values system that is shared by all employees and reinforce those values by ensuring that your people are well compensated and are going to have avenues for career growth within your company.”
Ultimately, employees want a fair salary, but more than that, they want to feel like they’re working with upper management, not working for upper management.
If you build strong relationships within your organization, your team will be better able to build strong relationships with the people you serve. The often-referenced cliché about happy employees leading to happy customers — it’s a cliché for a reason. Because it’s tried-and-true.
“If employees understand your business goals and objectives and what their role is within the organization, they can effectively contribute and provide valuable insights in their areas of expertise,” Polk says. “That is why we host regular communication meetings with our staff and also communicate important business announcements in a timely manner. It helps continually engage our employees in an open, honest dialogue with management, which helps solidify our overall communication structure within the team.”
How to reach: R.L. Polk & Co., www.polk.com or (800) 464-7655
