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Renegade HR is a simple approach to HR: Recruit great people and help them do amazing things that drive your business.
You’ve got an organization filled with rockstars. Now how do you help them do amazing things that drive your business?
What IS your business?
You can’t help your employees drive your business until you understand what your business is. How does your organization make money?
But more importantly, what sets your business apart. Why should a customer choose you over the hundreds or thousands of other companies who provide the same exact product or service that you do?
Do you offer better customer service, higher quality or a lower price (or some combination of those things)? Are you more convenient? Do you offer a unique experience (like Disney World or Atlantis)?
What sets you apart?
What do people need to do?
Understanding your business isn’t enough. You need to understand what people actually need to do to support it.
Customer service at Southwest Airlines looks a lot different from customer service at Nordstrom (which looks a lot different from customer service at Zappos or Dell).
Southwest is about great customer service, but they’re also about cheap airfare. They’ll go out of their way to please a customer and provide a great experience… as long as it won’t drive up the price.
Nordstrom is about great customer service and high-quality items. Price isn’t a factor. Two different approaches to customer service. Two different ways people need to behave.
Disney World and Plymouth Plantation both offer a unique experience. One is magical and fantastic. The other is historic, pretty accurate, somewhat nostalgic. People at Disney behave a lot differently than people at Plymouth Plantation.
What specific things do you need your people to do to support your business?
What do you reward?
Most management books will tell you that you get the behaviors that you reward. Who gets promoted in your organization? Who gets a bonus? What did they do?
These things are important. They let people know what you value. They help shape your culture.
But it’s not just about who you reward, and what you reward them for. It’s about what you celebrate.
What do you celebrate?
Who gets recognized – publicly celebrated – for what they do? Does your organization have any traditions? Any myths?
Nordstrom tells stories about employees (or Nordies, as they call themselves) who have gone out of their way to provide amazing service:1
- The Nordie who ironed a new shirt for a customer who needed it for a meeting that afternoon.
- The Nordie who cheerfully gift wrapped products a customer bought at Macy’s.
- The Nordie who refunded money for a set of tire chains – even thought Nordstrom doesn’t sell tire chains!
It’s one thing to say you value customer service. It’s another to give people concrete examples of what others have done.
What stories does your organization tell?
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