{"id":9614,"date":"2019-05-23T13:23:11","date_gmt":"2019-05-23T17:23:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/opsweb.wpengine.com\/?p=9614"},"modified":"2024-01-08T11:26:25","modified_gmt":"2024-01-08T16:26:25","slug":"empower-your-employees-to-question-your-expectations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ourpublicservice.org\/blog\/empower-your-employees-to-question-your-expectations\/","title":{"rendered":"Empower your employees to question your expectations"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

When I was in college, I worked for\na national fast-food chain restaurant making sandwiches. To decrease the time\ncustomers had to wait, the corporate office mandated that all food be made in\nless than three minutes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A corporate representative visited\nour restaurant and installed a machine that logged each customer\u2019s wait time.\nOnce a sandwich was made, we would hit a button that stopped the timer and\nnotified the customer his or her food was ready. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If our average monthly wait time\nexceeded three minutes, the staff was reprimanded. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Employees soon found a workaround.\nBy hitting the button before the food was ready, they could minimize the\n\u201cofficial\u201d wait time. But as a result, customers were annoyed that they still\nhad to wait after being told their food was ready. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The corporate policy led to low\nemployee morale and angry customers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was reflecting on this the other\nday when I visited that chain restaurant and was told to wait after being\nnotified that my food was ready. (Apparently, all these years later the policy\nhasn\u2019t changed.) I began to think about whether the expectations I set for my\nteam might be leading to similar unintended consequences. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I started checking in with employees\nabout their specific responsibilities. I was humbled to find out that because I\nwasn\u2019t asking the right questions, employees were devoting time to unnecessary\nand burdensome tasks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For example, I manage several\nvirtual training offerings that have hundreds of participants each year.\nBecause the programs do not take place in person, our participants frequently\nask lots of questions through email. I established the expectation that our\nassociates respond to these inquiries within 24 hours. While this is a worthy\ngoal, there are times when it can be challenging for the staff to achieve. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

To solve this problem, our team held\na meeting recently in which every employee was encouraged to question all the\nprocesses we have put in place. I wanted to provide an opportunity for them to\nsolve problems rather than work around ones I created.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

To fix our issues with email\ncommunications, we identified quick wins such as requiring participants to copy\nme, so I can respond if junior staff members need extra support. Additionally,\nwe talked about the need to be clearer on some details of the program so\nparticipants have fewer questions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Clearly, we still have work to do,\nbut I am certain I would not have understood the depth of the problem if I had\nnot taken the time to ask employees what was going on and empowered them to\nquestion my expectations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The fact is, if leaders don\u2019t ask\nfor feedback, they probably will not get it. Leaders should not expect direct\nreports to speak up whenever they see a broken process unless they are\nfacilitating conversations that help them feel comfortable doing so. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conversely, if leaders just expect employees\nto churn out sandwiches every three minutes, they are never going to have the\ntime to identify these issues. As a result, they will be disengaged, and the customers\nwill suffer. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the American public is to receive\nessential services, our government needs an engaged and well-functioning\nfederal workforce. The more government leaders inspire their employees to find\nsolutions to key challenges, the more effective their agencies will be at\nsupporting the public\u2019s needs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For more details on the link between engagement and customer service, see our recent research report created with BCG,<\/em> \u201cA Prescription for Better Performance: Engaging Employees at VA Medical Centers<\/a><\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cameron Kober<\/a> is a manager with the Partnership for Public Service, where he designs and delivers trainings that help agencies improve employee satisfaction.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Want to learn more about employee engagement? <\/h5>\n\n\n\n

Subscribe to receive our emails to stay up-to-date with our blog posts, events and research to help you improve your workforce. <\/p>\n\n\n\nSubscribe now<\/span><\/a>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When I was in college, I worked for a national fast-food chain restaurant making sandwiches. To decrease the time customers had to wait, the corporate office mandated that all food be made in less than three minutes. A corporate representative visited our restaurant and installed a machine that logged each customer\u2019s wait time. Once a…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":8738,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"sort-date":"","content-type":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_searchwp_excluded":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7589],"tags":[1044,9169,9048,9066],"class_list":["post-9614","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-employee-engagement","tag-engage-against-the-machine","tag-essential-services","tag-leadership","tag-management"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nEmpower your employees to question your expectations • Partnership for Public Service<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Ideally, employees will solve problems. But too often, they work around them, resulting in more problems, low employee morale and angry customers. 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