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Welcome to the premiere issue of
The Quest for Workplace Excellence (on-line
edition.) This newsletter is designed for every CEO, manager and
HR professional who wants to build a culture in their
organization where employees love to come to work and customers
love to do business.
Your complimentary issue of The Quest
will be delivered to you monthly. Should you wish to make any
changes to your subscription (cancel, forward to a friend, etc.)
please follow the instructions at the bottom of the newsletter.
During the past fifteen years,
Peter Barron Stark &
Associates has had the pleasure of partnering with with
hundreds of organizations and surveying nearly 75,000
employees around the world. While these organizations
vary greatly in the nature of their business, they have one
thing in common. They all place a high value on their
employees' opinions. In reviewing our survey data, we
find that these organizations are committed to building a
culture where employees love to come to work and customers
love to do business. To learn more about how these
cultures are built, we turned to the experts – our
clients, and asked them what they felt contributed
to their success and high levels of employee satisfaction.
This month we bring you the first two
principles of workplace excellence. We are confident
that you be able to learn from the "Best of the Best"
and help your organization become a fantastic place to work!
Strive for excellence, not perfection,
Peter B. Stark
and Jane S.
Flaherty
Principle #1 — Workplace Excellence
- Accept Nothing Less
Respected leaders in organizations that have a reputation
for workplace excellence start with a compelling vision that
includes a clear mental picture of both their place within
the market and their ideal internal environment. On a daily
basis, they focus on not only the bottom line, but on
creating a great work environment for the people who
ultimately determine the success of the organization. These
leaders know that over time their commitment to workplace
excellence earns them the reputation of being an “employer
of choice,” enabling them to attract and retain the best
employees in the industry.
The La Jolla Beach and Tennis Club had a vision of
becoming a preferred employer and used the results of annual
Employee Opinion Surveys to realize this vision and ensure
employees have a superior work environment and an excellent wage-and-benefit
package. North Island Credit Union’s
vision, says President/CEO Mike Maslak, was built on a core
purpose: "provide people with the means to achieve their
dreams." These organizations, like many other
organizations known for their workplace excellence, started
with the dream of being an employer of choice.
Is workplace excellence part of the vision for your
organization? Several valuable questions to ask yourself
include:
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What does the environment we want to create for the
future look like?
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What do we want employees to say about working for our
company?
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How do we want our employees to act as a result of the
environment we create?
Principle #2 - Workplace Excellence
Requires Strategic Planning- It Doesn’t Just Happen By
Itself
Like all business goals, achieving workplace excellence
requires a strategic plan and lots of hard work. At First
Future Credit Union, employee excellence is one of the
core strategies within the five-year strategic plan. Marla
Shepard, president/CEO, works with employees to ensure First
Future has a strategic plan in place to support this core
strategy. This plan includes actionable goals and
performance measures. The credit union’s incentive pay plan
also rewards employees for carrying out the plan and meeting
established goals.
American First Credit Union uses the results of the
company's Associate Opinion Survey to help generate a
strategic plan. Leaders at American First believe the survey
results ensure that projects remain relevant, which is
especially helpful when deciding where to spend valuable
resources. By creating department, branch and
organization-wide action plans that address areas rated low on
the Associate Opinion Survey, they gain confidence that their
energies are placed on efforts that create the greatest
positive impact.
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Do you have a strategy for achieving workplace
excellence?
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What are your workplace goals?
-
Who will be responsible for accomplishing these goals?
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How will you measure your success?
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How will you reward success?
(Next
month we'll share two more principles of Workplace
Excellence)
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