Staring at my wife on a Sunday!

Customer is King! What about employees?

Customer is definitely the central piece of any business. It is a very common adage that Customer is King. Even Mahatma Gandhi talked about Customer being the most important visitor on our premises!

Are CEOs driven so much by the customer and the business that they neglect the employees? It is not uncommon to do so. Do we force employees to work extra time and make that extra effort to satisfy the customer? It need not be only sales and marketing employees. Customer Delight comes from multiple sources like product features, quality of the products, customer service, price, distribution and finally the quality of the salesperson at the front end. In that sense all the departments are focused on serving the customer. Ultimately it is the work of all employees that delivers a delightful experience to the customer!

So, the question is: Do we take enough care of the employees or push them unreasonably? Are we sensitive to the needs of the employees to spend time outside the work like family, recreation, travel, etc.?

Businesses have become very competitive. Pressures of business are mounting. If it is a listed company the pressure of delivering quarterly results may bring out strange behaviour by the CEOs. Different CEOs respond differently to pressure and stress. During my long career of 45 years in the corporate world, I have seen CEOs who transmit stress and pressure. People around them can feel it! It can spread to the whole organization leading to dysfunctional relationships at work. I have also seen CEOs who are much more matured and calm even in the face of adverse situations. They create high performance organizations.

This subject has assumed significance in the last few days as the Chairman of a large corporation gave a message to the employees in a way that spending time with family on a Sunday was projected as being not in the interests of the company.

It is important to realize that the employee gets energized by spending some time outside his work now and then. Spending time with family, friends, attending social functions, indulging in hobbies like writing/music/playing/reading, etc over weekends energize people. When employee gets up on a Monday morning he/she should be enthusiastic / excited to go to office/work throughout that week. In the West employees (and even the employers) hardly spend any time on office work during weekends. Why is it that in India we do not encourage that, at least on a Sunday?

Our Prime Ministers, Chief Ministers and other ministers rarely take time off! Do people expect them to work 24x7 all through the year? I remember that there was an uproar when one of our Prime Ministers took a holiday with family a few decades back! Why? Is the PM not a human being? No one can work continuously and be productive. Super human efforts can not be put in continuously. We see western leaders taking holidays. Why not in India?

Coming back to employees, CEOs have to keep in mind the following TEN points.

1. Respect. Every employee has to be respected equally – whether he/she is a shopfloor worker or an Executive Director. Basic respect for another human being is important. This will come through some level of spiritual evolution of the CEO to understand that all human beings are equal.

2. A sense of time. We have to respect the time of the employees. I know cases where the bosses have a habit of sitting late in the office and all his/her subordinates are expected to sit till the boss leaves. This goes to ridiculous extents in some organizations. The whole culture of the organization gets built around this type of behavior and expectations. Bosses should also respect the private time of the employees. Work From Home has made bosses some times disrespectful of the time of the employee, especially in some sectors like service sectors. There is no manufacturing activity in such sectors. They have only employees and computers! This should not lead to a situation where the employees are expected to work like machines!

3. Importance of leave and Breaks from work. Employees are given, usually, three categories of leave – Casual, Sick and Annual. Bosses must encourage employees to utilize their leave. I know bosses who get upset when employee asks for leave. Of course, leave has to be well planned since the boss has to also look at the aspect of the work getting done. The boss has to discuss with his team and create a plan in which all of them can take leave without affecting the work flow in the office.

4. Social functions with families. It is important to get the families to visit offices/factories where the husband/wife works (in a well planned way by the organization) so that they feel connected with the organization. Sending gifts to the spouse and children of the employee at least on an annual basis is a good habit that CEOs must cultivate. These are good investments.

5. Fairness. Employees must see fairness in the CEO and the company’s policies and actions. Expectations, process of evaluating performance of the employee, rewards for good performances, annual increases in compensation, etc., have to be not only transparent and fair but also should look so. Employees get demotivated by unfairness, partiality and favoritism in organizations.

6. Love for people. The bosses should have a genuine love for his/her team members. The CEO should have the same for all the employees of the company. This love should not be fake. Employees can make out easily. You can love all people only when you see the positives in others. As a boss while you must be aware of the shortcomings of individual team members, you should only focus on each person’s strengths and positives. When you see the person only his/her positives should come to your mind. You must feel for the other person from your heart. Only then you can develop genuine liking or love for others. This is not easy. It requires rigorous practice over long periods.

Similarly the employee should have love for his/her work at the company. This is a result of recruiting the right people, fitting the right people in right jobs based on their passion, qualification, experience and above all their aptitude. The company has to make enough effort to provide the right intellectual, emotional and physical environment for the employee to like his/her work.

7. Human Touch. Leaders must spend time with individuals working for them, understand their aspirations, fears, challenges in life and become their well wishers. Some leaders are scared of doing this because they feel that the employee will exploit such relations and hence they tend to maintain a distance from their team members. Their fears are not completely unfounded. However it is very important to maintain this human touch. Employees are not slaves. They need to integrate the company and the boss (for many employees it is the boss who represents the company. Many people leave jobs or stay in jobs because of bosses) into their life as a part of their journey in the world.

8. Employee should feel proud. The culture, the business practices and the ethical standards of the company, the quality of leadership and prospects of having a greatly satisfying journey with the company will make the employee proud of the company he/she is working for. It is the job of the CEO and his leadership team to create such an atmosphere in the company that the employees feel proud of the company. Their stature in their immediate society should go up because of their employment with the company.

9. Teamwork. In India we are experts at individual brilliance. We are not great at team work. Our entire education system and our upbringing focuses on individual performances. Hence we carry the same baggage to work also. Academically brilliant persons are not necessarily assured of success in jobs. Successful careers are built on good human relations at work, understanding and respecting team work, collaboration and not competition at work, helping co-workers to perform well, focusing on team targets in addition to individual targets, etc. While this calls for a lot of effort from team members it is the responsibility of the team leader to inculcate these habits, build capacities among employees to work in teams and reward teams for achieving team goals. Proper Performance Management System that lays out clear goals of teams and of individuals and structures rewards for team work will go a long way. Rigorous training programs to promote working in teams is absolutely essential. This culture has to percolate down from the CEO level and his leadership team.

10. Leadership team. Whatever are the intentions of the CEO, it is the leadership team that handles the day to day matters. If they absorb positive philosophy from the CEO the whole organization will run in that direction. If they absorb the negative philosophy from the CEO then the organization suffers. Remember – there are no bad soldiers, there are bad generals! It is important for the entire leadership team and the CEO to keep undergoing regular skill upgradation at managing people, coaching and management of mind. A well guided spiritual journey of the leadership team will go a long way!

The purpose of any business, without doubt, is to make profits. But it should not be at the cost of employees and their personal lives. A satisfied employee, with full hearted support from his/her family, is the real asset for a company. Profit is a result of employees efforts. This is a simple fact that CEOs end up forgetting!

The above 10 points should not give an impression that the CEO will overlook poor performances. There should be no compromise on performance. Each of the above 10 points will increase the leverage the leader will have on demanding performance from his employees. Ruthless pursuit of performance is independent of looking after employees' welfare. Every year there should be a robust process of evaluation of performances and the non-performers have to be shown the door. The above 10 points will make the employees wanting to stay with the company and will motivate them to perform better on their jobs. They will gladly put in that extra effort when needed. That is how this approach will pay the company back.

A CEO must understand the larger purpose of organizations which goes beyond making profits. They have to take care of the Customers (through high quality products/services), People (both internal and external) and the environment (especially if their business has a potential to damage the environment). They must invest in creating a just society in which we all can live and prosper happily.