How good employers perform well

What makes a good employer? Can a company become a good employer as long as it is caring and considerate to its employees and gives employees good remuneration and benefits? What is the link between a good employer and performance? This is something the management community has been thinking about.

An interesting finding from Hewitt, a well-known HR consultancy, is that "Best Employers" have better business performance than other companies. At the same time, their other finding is also very intriguing: simply being "good" to employees is not enough, it does not guarantee good business performance.

The relationship between how a company treats its employees and its business performance is best explained by FedEx's PSP philosophy: if a company cares about its employees, employees can provide customers with good service (Service). , and finally the enterprise can obtain sufficient profit (Profit). But the formation of a virtuous circle is not so simple - when Jim Barksdale, the legendary FedEx manager, once narrated the idea to district managers, one manager raised his hand and said: It is difficult to achieve three goals at the same time. , how to rank these three goals? To let everyone know which is the most important. Jim's response: "All three are equally important, and if I only need one of them, anyone can do the job. But I want all three, so I need you."

Don't know Mach (Eric -YvesMahe) know the story, but when he left SUN Systems 14 months ago to become vice president of North Asia for CA, the challenges he faced were similar to those faced by FedEx managers, and they were daunting.

Founded in 1976 and headquartered in New York State, CA is one of the world's largest IT management software companies. It has always had a good reputation in treating employees and has been selected as "the best company in the IT industry for many times." ” and “Most Favored Companies for Working Mothers.” As small as free breakfast for employees, to a variety of benefits, including free health insurance and dental care for employees and their family members, a medical allowance system for employees and their families, and further education for employees. Financial support and tuition reimbursement system all reflect CA's "care".

CA's "care" for its employees has indeed led to good performance for a long time, but as the times change, the previous connection between the two seems to be broken. In the years before Maher took office, CA suffered from declining performance globally. Soon after Mach took office, he found that some employees did not take work "as a serious matter". He was surprised: Why is the company so lenient with these people? Let them stay here for so many years? Another figure also shocked him: the brain drain rate of 50%. Companies known for "caring for their people" can't keep people.

Now, Mach can breathe a sigh of relief. For three quarters, CA China's performance has grown continuously, and the employee turnover rate has dropped to 6%. How does he do it?

Reshaping the work environment and atmosphere

After you first arrived at CA, what measures did you take to make employees pay attention to their performance?

The first thing you need to do is to create a good working environment and atmosphere. Only under this premise can you ask employees to work hard. At the same time, it is necessary to reward employees for their achievements, so as to improve their performance. To form such a virtuous circle requires the whole management to have good management ability.

The first meeting I held since I came to the company was to stress the importance of employees with management. I said that no matter how well the strategy is set, in order to be successful, there must be competent people to carry it out.

Starting from the idea of attaching importance to "people", then we must first create a good working environment and atmosphere. I think we should start with communication - there is a lack of communication in the company, there is neither formal communication mechanism nor informal communication. communication mechanism.

What do you do to communicate with employees?

The first is to hold regular bi-weekly meetings with the management team, where we not only discuss specific business issues, but also other issues, such as "Are you having fun here?" . In addition, I will occasionally invite some employees to dinner, chat with them, and let them know what is going on in the company. Outside of work hours, I probably spend more than an hour with the staff, and I take part in their activities, such as playing badminton or even karaoke.

This form of communication has been regularly practiced to this day as well. For example, I had lunch with some managers in China two weeks ago. During the meeting, they talked a lot, not only some new ideas in business, but also some questions they had doubts. Everyone had a great time talking. Through these, I can feel the "pulse" of the company.

Secondly, when it comes to feeling the "pulse" of the company, we also have a very important activity - a questionnaire is distributed to employees every quarter, and employees answer anonymously. Through such a survey, we know whether employees are satisfied with the current situation, including whether they are satisfied with their compensation, whether they are satisfied with their career development, and what they think about some of the management's practices.

In addition, we have set up a suggestion box where employees can put any comments they have. Many employees express their opinions through this channel, ranging from whether they are happy to work here or as small as bathroom decoration. We give feedback every time we see their comments.

Third, we must communicate clearly to employees what the company is doing and where it is going. For example, we put all the media reports on us in one place, so that everyone can see how the outside world sees us. The marketing department also posted the activities they have done, what they have done and what they will do, in another place, so that everyone can know what work each department has done.

CA has a kick-off at the beginning of each year. In the past, only sales people participated in such activities. After I came, I changed the format - not only sales people, but all people participated in this event, so For the first time, more than 300 employees from the mainland, Hong Kong and Taiwan of CA North Asia came to Guilin to hold this meeting. One is to cultivate team spirit, and the other is to make employees more aware of the company's strategy. One part of this meeting is training, and the other part is that everyone is divided into different groups, discussing different topics, and then expressing them on the stage. The names of our groups are also very interesting. They are called "Wudang", "Shaolin" and so on. When each group takes the stage, they shout slogans. They shouted together.

“Work is a serious business”

How to improve the performance of employees under the premise of creating a good environment and atmosphere?

The first thing I need to do after I come here is to create a good environment and atmosphere, let people work hard, whoever works hard can stay, otherwise, we need to take some decisive measures. For example, let him go.

Different people measure their performance differently. For sales staff, it is easier to see how many things they sell, how many customers they visit, and what plans they have in the future; for marketers, it depends on whether they have engaged in some marketing activities. While establishing a good working environment and atmosphere, it is very important to make the management process very rigorous. We conduct weekly reviews of our employees' performance and attitudes, so it's easy to see who's doing well and who's not doing well.

How do you deal with employees who are not doing well?

At the beginning of September last year, we made a major adjustment to the company's personnel arrangement. More than 20% of the total number of employees were asked to leave because of their poor work attitude. Two weeks later, we immediately did an employee opinion survey - to hear what the remaining employees said. Interestingly, employee participation in this survey increased by 40%, their participation in company activities increased by 17%, and their satisfaction with the company increased by 26%. From these figures, we can see that people feel more at ease working in the company, have more confidence in the company's future, and approve of our actions. They know that those people left because they didn't work hard.

Was it a difficult decision to let these people go?

It is very difficult, but you have to realize that you are running a business, there are business requirements, to compete with other businesses, we also have to be accountable to other employees, partners and customers. Letting those people go is actually responsible for those who stay. At the same time, people are people after all, so there is still a "human touch" for employees who leave.

What methods do you use to motivate employees who continue to work for CA?

A little over two months ago we started a "star employee" program to create an atmosphere within the team that rewards good employees. We have Diamond, Gold, Silver and Bronze awards. The managers of each department report the top performers in the department to management every quarter, and 18 employees received the award for the first time. Our bonus is not high, it is mainly an honor. But the award-winning employees cherish this honor. In addition, we also have some other incentives. For example, someone in a department takes a long vacation, and other people in the office continue his work silently. We also reward such people.

Retain good traditions

It seems that your arrival has caused great changes in CA China. There are some good practices for treating employees here, so how to bring some new practices while retaining the original good practices how to do it?

CA has always had a good tradition in charitable activities and treatment of women and children, and has always been enthusiastic in various forms of charitable public welfare activities, including donating to "Smile Train" to help children with cleft lip and palate restore their smiles, planting giant panda- The Sand Spruce Ecological Park donated money and actively participated in voluntary tree planting activities, donating to the Red Cross Society of China and so on.

After I came, on the one hand, we have maintained the image of CA as a good corporate citizen and encouraged employees to actively participate in public welfare activities; on the other hand, we are still thinking about how to further carry forward these traditions.

For example, CA has been rated as the "Most Favored Company by Working Mothers" many times. Then on the "June 1st" last year, we invited the children of more than 20 employees to the company to let them know what their mothers really do. What kind of job. The office was full of children that day, like a community, it was lively. We managers also followed behind the children, playing with them, handing out candy, cutting cakes, releasing balloons, and playing games with them.

You recruit a lot of people from outside the company, how do you integrate them into CA?

We let more than 20% of the total number of employees leave, and at the same time we added more than 10% of the employees to come in. The key is not how many people we recruit, but whether these people are elite soldiers.

Finding people from outside has two effects: one is that they can bring some fresh ideas and a new atmosphere to the company, which are all positive things; on the other hand, many of these people we recruited It is to hold important management positions, as managers how they cooperate with existing employees, which is easy to cause problems. The solution is to communicate more.

First of all, I have to set an example for myself. I tell new managers: people are your most valuable asset, so spend more time with your employees.

A metaphor: Talent is like a flower. Move them from one place to another, carefully consolidating the nurturing soil so that the flowers bloom well. Introducing new employees to the company's culture gives them a process of adaptation, not a hard-line approach. On the other hand, newcomers, especially managers, should be involved in various activities as employees, not as leaders.

Richard Li writes and editor for CEConline Magazine.