Archive for October, 2009
« Previous EntriesCustomer Service Part Two
Thursday, October 29th, 2009I recently told you about how much I admire Amazon.com and I’m glad to say that their superior customer service has paid off for them financially. Their revenue in the third quarter grew by 68%. One analyst – growth was attributed to the trust that customers have in Amazon – they know that the company [...]
Call Me Naive
Thursday, October 29th, 2009Call me naive, but I believe that most private employers want to do the right thing especially with their employees…. which brings up my rant today about how the media picks on business. The latest comes in an article on Yahoo, “Salary Secrets Your Employer Doesn’t Want You To Know” by Maria Hanson. She asserts [...]
HR: Let’s Be Honest
Tuesday, October 27th, 2009Their people have complained about them.
You’ve bought them books and sent them to school.
You’ve coached them.
You’ve talked to their bosses about them.
Let’s be honest…How much have we really influenced them?
My experience has been that there are those who are placed in a management role who have the aptitude and the desire to be good managers and leaders. These [...]
Does HR Need To Disappear?
Monday, October 26th, 2009Does HR really need to disappear? Is the whole idea of a central department to help manage all of an organization’s talent really a relic? Is HR dead? If HR is not dead, but just is on life support, how will it be revived? If you were able to start all over again and redesign [...]
A Surprising Place For Great Customer Service
Thursday, October 22nd, 2009When I was heavily involved in Total Quality Management (or Six Sigma, Continuous Improvement), I learned about extreme customer service and how it usually separated out mediocre companies and even good companies from great companies. I thought that we in this country were on a good trend, but somehow we lost the momentum for supplying [...]
The Hot New Jobs
Wednesday, October 21st, 2009Two of the hottest occupations have risen out of the ashes of the recession – Personal Financial Advisers and Senior Financial Analysts.
When the cow is out of the barn, we close the door. It seems after every crisis, society reacts, and most of the time, over-reacts. The legislature passes new laws afterwards to better control [...]
A Company That Cares
Wednesday, October 21st, 2009I’ve commented on this before – year after year, employee surveys show that the number one thing that employees want is to be cared about.
A company called DaVita is the personification of this. In fact, they call themselves a “village.” Their villages have “mayors.” Their employees who are called “teammates” are also called citizens. The [...]
Reading And Riting And ‘Rithmetic
Monday, October 19th, 2009You may not remember that old song that went something like this… “Reading and writing and ‘rithmetic, dance to the tune of the hickory stick…” It was a tune from a time when reading, writing and math (the three “R’s” = reading, riting, rithmetic) were the mainstays of education and corporal punishment was used in the school [...]
Anyone Up For A Pay-cut?
Sunday, October 18th, 2009Total weekly pay for 80% of the workforce has declined for 9 consecutive months. This is like a record – the last time it was this bad was during the great depression. It seems that many working Americans are taking pay cuts rather than hitting the streets.
Do you want this guy unhappy on the job?
I [...]
Culture War – You Decide
Thursday, October 15th, 2009You are the Culture Guru at the Chase Bank and you are in charge of ensuring that there is not a culture clash in regards to the take over of Washington Mutual. WaMu has a very warm, casual feeling when you walk into their bank. Open work stations are in the middle of a large [...]
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