Who cares what they think, they will only use the opportunity to moan. You can’t imagine a group of senior managers saying this about customers but they say it about their own staff. And if they say it about staff do they think it about customers. Is this why customer care and employee engagement whilst given plenty of lip service never seem to deliver the promised transformation? Customer care and employee engagement are both promoted as the way to turn a failing organisation into a successful organisation, an ordinary organisation into a world class organisation the thing that the best organisation have in common. Both good customer care and effective employee engagement seem to be common sense and both are backed up by extensive research. Yet they are the exception not the norm. Why? Could it be that the energy, commitment and skill to make it a reality just isn’t there? When it comes down to it do the senior managers who set the tone and the priorities really think it’s worth the effort and the hassle? Do they want to expose themselves to negative feedback? Who can blame them. In the current financial climate with service reductions and redundancies there is no good news and no friendly audiences. Who wants to stand at the front of a packed hall defending library closures, who wants the thankless task of telling angry relatives that we can’t afford to keep this day centre open, who wants to be the focus of public hostility? And it is no less uncomfortable addressing staff who face redundancy, redeployment and a pay freeze. User satisfaction surveys and staff satisfaction surveys were intended to provide evidence that for the majority of people we were getting it right and that where we weren’t we had a good story to tell. The difference between organisations now is how they give the bad news to customers and staff. Are the consultation meetings with service users fronted by councillors or officers? A local authority committed to customer care can’t leave it to front line managers to defend the council’s decisions .If leaders within the organisation talk about standing on a burning platform to convey the need for urgent dramatic action therefore no time to waste on debate. If they claim their decision is a no brainer meaning we have no choice whoever unpopular or unpalatable and if they talk of” turkeys not voting for Christmas” meaning people will never agree so no point in asking them. If the chief executive is of the view there is no point in discussing this with staff because we already know what there response will be then the message is clear we are not listening and we don’t care what you think.www.blairmcpherson,co.uk author of Equipping managers for an uncertain future and People management in a harsh financial climate both published by Russell House.
