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How many times have you woken up in the morning and your first thought was, “another Monday, I hate Mondays!” Ok, maybe those were two thoughts and maybe you have them on the other four workdays too – but, you get the point. You then begrudgingly roll out of your warm bed, peel your eyes open with a fresh cup of coffee, a hot shower, and proceed with deciding which of the boring outfits you don each day will get the nod before feeding the dog and hustling to get in line behind all the other red lights on the road and on your way to the office.
Now I understand that we all have these days occasionally, but many live in these depressing doldrums daily, and that is not a recipe for service excellence. These are the days that you struggle to be at your best even for a fraction of the workday. But imagine that instead, you wake up without an alarm, maybe 20 minutes before you need to, because you’re excited to spend time tackling the types of challenges that fuel you with people you can trust and have fun with while knowing that what you do matters – to your community and to your future and that of your family.
Many companies talk about service excellence, and some go so far as to claim they put the customer first, or the customer is always right. While I understand this sentiment, it is the people who service the customer who must be put first to create a culture that truly understands and humbly serves the needs of the client. This is no truer than with an organization whose people are the product.
Our team and the service they provide are our product. They need to be developed and fine-tuned with the highest of quality standards like anything else on the assembly line. But unlike a physical product, they’re people first, with unique strengths and weaknesses, needs, desires, and dreams. In order to be at their best, they require more than just training and technical skills. Our team needs to feel valued and enjoy their work and working environment if they are to reach their full potential. Accomplishing these is all about investment into our team through a commitment to company culture and tailored development of leadership and career path plans for each member.
It is with this in mind that we have created a new position within our organization whose focus is engagement, first with the employee and then with the client. The role starts by putting culture first as all of this must start with who we are and hiring those who fit our values. Immediately, this engagement is activated by curating an employee development plan for each team member that identifies and leans into the types of activities that really excite them and where we can count on them to be energized and at their best while delivering support to the projects we lead. We’re regularly in touch with our team members to ensure that the training commitments made to them are being executed and synced up with opportunities to put their new skills to the test.
We’re aggressively looking at ways to remain competitive with our compensation packages while also understanding that the culture and commitment to our team’s career growth, even to the end of leaving us for an opportunity that better fits them, is paramount and earnestly pursued. I’m proud to share that we recently helped a prized, former employee find placement elsewhere as she had aspirations to be in the adjacent field of engineering, an opportunity we just couldn’t provide. While it was sad to see her leave, it was so much more rewarding to know that we were able to help her find a home that afforded a future that excited her. And of course, she is welcome to come home to us anytime should she find it not to be as expected.
With the vision of providing excellent service to our clients, we invest greatly into our team, for the health of our communities.
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