Is Engagement Enough?

By Mark Heymann

About a year ago, we made a decision to rethink our Employee Attitudinal Surveys and refocus the questions on engagement. We evaluated the market in light of the downturn and realized that while turnover continues to be important, uncontrolled turnover would be reduced in any case because there was less demand in the market. And that has been the case. In a market where employment demand is down, that generally means increased competition as there is also less demand for product. Therefore, for the customers who want to buy your product, you need to be even more vigilant about ensuring that service(s) exceeds expectations. To accomplish this, you need a fully engaged staff, not just individuals reporting to work for a paycheck because there is no other job they can transfer to in the market. This is especially so in the hotel industry, where service delivery is such a critical component of the product experience.

But as I continued to think about these issues, I further reflected upon an initiative we began about two years ago in our company, namely having our team members become customer advocates. Customer Advocacy is a cultural shift we began that was designed to further improve our service and products. It is another step in the evolution of quality management.

Most of us are familiar with TQM and Customer Satisfaction. Many organizations are using or in the process of developing CRM systems. But advocacy is an even more heightened promotion of what the customer is looking for from an organization. And what we have found is that in these last two years our internal metrics regarding our relationship with customers have measurably improved. Yes we have surely made other changes in the business, but clearly the larger cultural shift is working, both in terms of direct customer satisfaction as well as in more recommendations. And an employee who is an advocate is surely more engaged than one just working on relationship management.

So what’s my point? Well, I have recently come to the conclusion that even advocacy is not enough. No doubt that our team is more engaged since we first introduced this hierarchy of advocacy or the pyramid as we call it, but I have continued to believe that we can still be better. To continue to raise the bar, we recently introduced the concept of ownership, as we came to the conclusion that you can be an advocate, but still not own the issue(s).

We started by assessing the employees which were getting the most recognition for their efforts as being customer advocates. We then studied how this group consistently achieved a higher level of acknowledgement and what was the difference that these employees brought to the “party”? The answer was ownership. They owned the issues. It was theirs, and until they were 100% satisfied with the outcome, they didn’t let go. They fully embraced their role as advocate, but took it to an even higher level. We had many other members of our team who had adopted advocacy but the results were not nearly as positive as the group that demonstrated ownership.

In this edition of FocusED, we focus on engagement, and as I noted earlier, we believe this to be more valuable in today’s economic environment than turnover. But what our own internal studies have shown is that not even engagement is enough. It is ownership that really matters. Owning the guest experience, whatever one’s role and/or responsibility may be, is critical.

Today I was at a hotel and asked for directions to a meeting I was having with some executives. The first employee I encountered was polite and gave me directions. The delivery was fine, but the end result was that I ended up in the wrong office! So again I asked for directions and this time I was escorted to a point where there was no doubt I would meet my party.

The first employee was engaged, or at least appeared to be. The second one, though, took ownership of my experience and made sure the brief encounter I had with her was excellent. Ownership made, and will always make, the difference in any organization. It is not sufficient to just do your job. Ultimately one should measure performance based on the demonstration of ownership of the experience, task or job.

It doesn’t matter what position an employee holds in the organization. Whether front or back of the house, ownership can be exhibited anywhere. From making sure that the silverware is clean so that the banquet staff doesn’t have to wipe each piece, to the bellman anticipating that question on the guest’s face, to the laundry attendant who makes sure the bed sheet is not ripped. Every task can be owned and that ownership will result in superior performance.

If you sit back for a moment and think of the best performers in your organization, I am confident that you will find that the employee(s) or team that “owns” the end product, whether it’s a direct service or a clean room, are all in this group. And it’s not only in your business. It’s everywhere: from the person you bought a car from, to the exceptional performer on the field. An attitude of ownership makes the difference and creates winning experiences. The challenge for us all is to ensure ownership permeates our culture and organizations.

Until next time,
Mark Heymann
UniFocus Chairman & CEO