You may already know high powerful increased levels of employee engagement can be to your bottom line. Also, you may have heard that one of the best ways to improve engagement levels is by adding various team-building events and other similar activities. While team building is a good tactic to use as part of an overall employee engagement plan, strategically it is much more important to raise engagement levels when they matter most – while employees are working. These tips are simple to implement, don’t cost a dime, and take place on the front-line.

1. Add Flexibility. No two desks at your company are arranged the same – everyone has a unique personality. Just as employees arrange their desks differently, some employees will prefer to perform tasks in an order that they select. Allowing employees to rearrange their tasks, without intense oversight, lets them feel more in control of their work and priorities. Productivity and outcomes are more important than processes. If employees must follow a set process, one that isn’t necessarily more productive, their engagement levels will suffer.

2. Add Accountability. If every employee reports to several layers of management, they may feel that they don’t have personal accountability since their work passes through so many hands. Removing managers may not be the solution, but managers can find ways to raise their subordinate’s accountability and make themselves and their employees more productive. By removing something as minor as one round of reviews, employees will feel that their excellent work has been recognized.

3. Remove Obstacles. You hired smart employees for a reason. Don’t limit how they can help the company. If an employee finds a new tool or method to improve productivity, thoroughly evaluate the idea. Nobody knows their tasks and responsibilities better than front-line employees. An employee who is frustrated with obstacles is not engaged. Give them the resources they need to accomplish their tasks quickly and efficiently.

4. Increase communication. Companies of any size can have lapses in communication. Every employee wants to know what’s going on around the company. Don’t let the information flow get backed up in the C-Suite. Be as transparent as you can, and don’t be afraid to share good and bad news. Negative information always has a way of leaking to the water cooler. And, those ill-informed rumors can cause engagement to plummet without positive reinforcement and accurate information from management.

5. Increase Feedback. If you’re lucky, every employee in your company is working at full capacity. But, don’t let busy schedules diminish the amount of feedback management delivers. If an employee goes above and beyond on a task, and they’re only given a simple ‘Thanks’, they may not be as likely to give 110% the next time. There are many great ways that cost absolutely nothing to recognize employees that will improve engagement and make everyone proud to be a member of the company.

Read the original article from Ken West with the National Business Research Institute here

McDonald’s Corp., battling back from recent earnings disappointments, is putting unusual emphasis on a longtime challenge: getting its far-flung workforce to provide service with a smile.

The fast-food giant, whose restaurant sales in the U.S. began to slip last year, is pushing franchisees to improve staffing and service amid mounting complaints about rude employees.

McDonald’s is battling back from recent earnings disappointments, is putting unusual emphasis on a longtime challenge: getting its far-flung workforce to provide service with a smile. Joe Barrett reports. Photo: Getty Images.

In a webcast McDonald’s executives held with franchise owners last month, the company said 1 in 5 customer complaints are related to friendliness issues “and it’s increasing,” according to a slide from the presentation reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. The webcast identified the top complaint as “rude or unprofessional employees.”

One slide said that complaints about speed of service “have increased significantly over the past six months.” Another mentioned that customers find service “chaotic.”

“Service is broken,” said a slide from part of the webcast delivered by Steve Levigne, vice president of business research for McDonald’s USA.

Brand reputations are among the most prized assets major corporations have but brands can fall as fast and as hard as they have climbed. MarketWatch‘s Rex Crum discusses U.S. companies that had to learn that the hard way. (Photo: Getty Images)

One franchisee said McDonald’s has renewed emphasis on customer service since Chief Executive Don Thompson installed Jeff Stratton, the chain’s global chief restaurant officer, as president of McDonald’s USA in November, after two consecutive quarters in which the company missed Wall Street’s earnings expectations.

“The new leadership has decided to focus on customer satisfaction as a real driver for us to build the brand and build sales,” this franchisee said, adding that the company had been gaining market share for years. “So for us to maximize the potential that’s out there, we’ve got to be the leader in guest satisfaction,” the franchisee said.

A McDonald’s spokeswoman wouldn’t comment on the webcast or on what the company is doing to address complaints, and declined to make executives available for interviews, citing a quiet period ahead of the company’s earnings on April 19.

The chain is rolling out a new ordering system in the U.S. But she said the company continually evaluates its performance “through restaurant inspections [and] customer and employee feedback,” and that “McDonald’s USA and our franchisees are absolutely committed to doing even more to consistently deliver a great restaurant experience for every customer at every visit.”

McDonald’s, which has more than 14,000 U.S. restaurants, performed well throughout most of the economic downturn by sticking to its strategy of remodeling and tidying up restaurants and rolling out a steady stream of new menu items at a range of prices—from inexpensive snack wraps to more costly fruit smoothies—intended to appeal to more consumers.

But achieving speed and friendliness of service across the chain has been a particularly elusive goal, at least in part because about 90% of McDonald’s restaurants in the U.S. are owned by independent operators.

In QSR Magazine’s annual Drive-Thru Study, the only comprehensive industry comparison of customer service at fast-food chains, other restaurants have consistently outperformed McDonald’s in those areas. In last year’s study, the average service time at the McDonald’s drive-through studied was 188.83 seconds, compared with 129.75 for industry leader Wendy’s Co. Chick-fil-A had the top friendliness ratings. Out of the seven major chains in the study, McDonald’s was second to last in the “very friendly” ranking, just above Burger King . “I think it’s an ongoing problem, and it always will be,” another McDonald’s franchisee said.

After McDonald’s posted its first monthly same-store sales decline in nine years last October, company executives told investors that they underestimated the importance of “value” offerings for cash-strapped customers. The company has since added more items to its Dollar Menu and promoted those items in its ads.

That formula has started to help. In January, the company reported fourth-quarter earnings that beat analysts expectations, but Mr. Thompson cautioned that economic uncertainty still is expected to affect the company.

McDonald’s shares have also rebounded since they took a hit last fall. In 4 p.m. trading Wednesday, they were up 43 cents at $101.49, near their record of $102.22 in January 2012. Some analysts say McDonald’s is continuing to lose customers.

During its webcast, McDonald’s told franchisees that customers rate good service almost as highly as dollar value, pointing to a National Restaurant Association survey.

The reason behind the rise in customer complaints is unclear, but some franchisees say it could be partly because customers now have more ways to supply feedback. In recent years, the company has added an email address to its food packaging where customers can direct complaints, and restaurants in some regions of the country have recently started asking customers to fill out an online survey, using information on their receipts.

High employee turnover also could be a contributor. While McDonald’s declined to comment on its turnover, fast-food restaurants have an average annual turnover rate of 60%, according to a 2010 report from the National Restaurant Association.

Monica George, a McDonald’s employee in Brooklyn, N.Y., said she can understand why customers complain, and that there are frustrations on both sides of the counter. “Let’s say I’m in front at the register and the grill’s not pushing out food quickly enough. So you have to wait on food, and the customer is getting aggravated at you because you’re not giving them the food quick enough, and the grill gets aggravated with the cashier because we’re asking where the food is,” she said.

Ms. George, who says she earns $7.25 an hour, said one problem behind slow service and inaccurate orders is that employees are trained to do specific tasks and don’t always understand what other employees are doing. Franchisees say the company is doing several things to improve service, from boosting staffing at peak hours to rolling out a new system for taking orders.

Under a new “dual point” ordering system that is being rolled out nationwide, the customer places an order at one end of the counter and is given a receipt with a number. When the order number appears on a screen, the customer picks up his food at the other end of the counter. The new position of “runner” has been created to do things like hand out cups and sauce packets, and fetch juice boxes for Happy Meals, freeing up the order taker to focus on the customer. The employee who delivers the food at the other end of the counter is supposed to thank customers and ask them to come again, according to franchisees.

“Dual point provides personalized one-on-one service which directly improves order accuracy,” according to a memo the company has sent to some franchisees, and which was reviewed by the Journal. “To the customer, we appear friendlier and better organized.”

At a downtown Chicago McDonald’s that doesn’t yet have the screens to display order numbers, but is starting to implement dual-point ordering by calling out the number on the receipts, service was fast and friendly on a recent day. Karen O’Mara, a legal assistant who has been a customer there for the past seven years, said she has noticed a change since the restaurant began using the new system last year. “It’s gotten faster,” she said.

“The service varies so much depending on which McDonald’s you visit. It can vary from very friendly to very rude,” said Jane Fiedler, an office manager who occasionally visits the same downtown Chicago location.

McDonald’s also began using new software recently that helps restaurant owners decide the optimal number of employees to have on hand at a given time. And a new management structure, in which each manager is held accountable for a specific area of the operation, such as the kitchen or service, is expected to improve the customer experience, according to franchisees.

Write to Julie Jargon at julie.jargon@wsj.com

Related articles

• McDonald’s gives employees a “manners makeover” (kvue.com)
• Your McDonald’s Ordering Ritual Is About to Change (blogs.wsj.com)

With dismal Surface sales, and the Surface Pro getting a pounding from reviewers, there hasn’t been much good tablet news for Microsoft. But there may well be hope: A Forrester report says that 200 million information workers would prefer a Windows tablet over any competitor’s for their next work tablet.

First the bad news: Windows tablet and Microsoft Surface sales are dismal. A new Canalys report finds that “only 3% of pads shipped in Q4 2012 used a Microsoft operating system.” The report found:

“The software giant’s entry into the PC hardware market was something of a non-event. High pricing, poor channel strategy and a lack of clarity regarding its RT operating system led to shipments of just over 720,000 units.”
Tim Coulling, Canalys Senior Analyst said:

“The outlook for Windows RT appears bleak. Hardware OEMs are ignoring it due, in part, to a pricing strategy that does not align with the economics of the pad market. We expect Microsoft to rethink its pricing strategy for RT in the coming weeks. Dropping the price by 60% should get OEMs back onside.”
The new Forrester report titled “2013 Mobile Workforce Adoption Trends” holds out hope for Microsoft, though. It found that when it comes to what type of tablet information workers want for their next tablet at work, Microsoft is at the top of the heap. Some 32% want a Windows tablet, compared to 26% for an Apple tablet, and 12% for Android. In all, the report says, some 200 million information workers worldwide would opt for a Windows tablet as their next work tablet.

Given the sometimes brutal reviews given to the just-released Surface Pro, it’s not clear whether that number will hold. Still, it shows that for now, Microsoft leads in capturing the hearts and minds of information workers looking for their next tablet. And that’s a rare bright spot for Microsoft in the tablet market.

This article comes courtesy of Preston Gralla.  Mr Gralla is a contributing editor for Computerworld and author of more than 40 books, including “Windows 8 Hacks” and “How the Internet Works”. You can follow him on Twitter or Google+.

Jim Thomas is Vice President of Sales focused on the Hospitality industry for the Phoenix-based software company, Actionable Data Solutions.  Jim helps companies improve productivity, reduce loss and improve the customer experience through enterprise software solutions from ADS.

Related articles

• Forrester: 32% Of Users Want Windows As Their Next Work Tablet (wmpoweruser.com)
• Meet the Microsoft Surface tablet with Windows RT (bestbuymobile.com)

I ran across this article by Scott L. Hebner, Vice President, IBM Cloud & Business Infrastructure Management and thought it was great to share with my followers from the Hospitality industry.  Social, mobile and cloud are more than just three of the most hyped buzz words in technology, they are three facets of the same movement and an everyday reality for consumers and businesses alike.

Whether you’re a college student streaming music on a smartphone curated to your tastes, a CMO gauging customer sentiment ahead of Black Friday, or a price conscious traveler leveraging social networks for a deal on airfare – SoMoClo is driving our behavior and decision-making.

Since the advent of social networks and ‘social’ businesses, online file sharing and app stores, since we started accessing our work email on personal devices (coined BYOD), and discovered that the GPS-enabled social app on our phone could give us restaurant recommendations in a new city and find a taxi to take us there – we’ve been living in a SoMoClo world. It’s time that businesses recognized the reality and got their governance strategy in order, before their employees do it for them.

In fact, employees are already tapping SoMoClo at the office – opting to buy their own smartphone over the company issued one, accessing Facebook and Twitter at the office to keep up with the industry and competitors, using online storage for corporate documents needed from home without the hassle of VPN – these are inevitabilities of today’s social and mobile workforce.

But now, with the explosion of Big Data flowing in (more than 2.4 quintillion new bytes per day), organizations need to convert these one-off consumer behaviors into a consistent and systematic SoMoClo strategy across their business and IT governance. Like many consumer tech trends, SoMoClo needs to evolve for the enterprise. This represents the next chapter of the Internet transformation (and corresponding standardization), enabling more flexible delivery of services and expanding reach and collaboration for new levels of productivity.

This means that businesses need to start looking at these trends as one: cloud is the delivery, social is a shareable service, and mobile is the ubiquitous access. In essence, these are three legs of a tripod, but should be seen as one entity. For example, Lo (location) is incorporated inside Clo (cloud), because cloud gives location its context. What’s driving SoMoClo is the power of the consolidated framework, with cloud as the critical element allowing this to scale and be manageable enterprise-wide.

Further, SoMoClo is improving businesses’ bottom line by increasing productivity, responsiveness and efficiency. SoMoClo is truly a global convergence of digital and physical infrastructure with a low cost of entry, leveling the playing field so that a start-up can have the same global reach as a multinational.

When adopting a SoMoClo strategy, it’s important to keep in mind:

1. Guidelines work better than restrictions. While many companies block sites like Facebook within the corporate network, it’s often more effective to allow access but set clear social networking guidelines, understanding that these sites, while often visited for personal use, can also be effective marketing and communication tools for your business. Forbidding certain sites or applications may only drive employees to spend more time working around the firewall.

2. Security is key as BYOD proliferates. Instead of setting up roadblocks at every turn, intelligent security tools like data analytics can recognize and flag potentially unwelcome activity, such as correspondence to/from a country you don’t do business in, an employee in one division downloading data from another, etc. As more and more companies move to BYOD strategies, enabling security intelligence becomes key.

3. Keep employee morale and productivity in mind. More and more companies, many of which have been recognized as ‘Best Places to Work,’ understand the value of a mobile workforce – particularly for improving morale and work/life balance. For better or worse, working hours and home vs. office is no longer black and white. With a global employee base across several time zones, employers must recognize that working unusual hours, from home, the office and the road is the new normal – and mobility and flexibility is key.

4. Draw the line before compromising customer data. While personal freedom and flexibility is important to employees, employers must understand that maintaining the integrity of confidential data is a corporate concern and responsibility. Organizations must ensure a social/mobile governance strategy is in place, as part of which corporate IT should assess social, mobile and cloud-based tools. Those that can’t ensure the safety of proprietary data should be regulated.

5. Leverage SoMoClo to maximize your marketing and IT potential. Whether it’s leveraging SoMoClo to enhance your current business through social media marketing and analysis or the development of a cloud and location-based mobile app, or whether it’s the launch of new business or the transformation of your current one born into SoMoClo era, see through the risks of SoMoClo to recognize and harness the opportunity.

By keeping these tips in mind and adopting a corporate-wide strategy to leverage the trends of social, mobile and cloud, your firm will be better able to drive new innovations and collaboration, safely and securely. Recognizing the enterprise opportunity and enacting the necessary IT governance, businesses will evolve to embrace the convergence of three of the most important technology trends — a 3-for-1 punch of power where the sum is truly greater than its parts.

Read the original article by Mr. Hebner at Cloud Times here:

Related articles

• GraphicMail Triggers SoMoClo into Email Marketing (prweb.com)
• BYOD And Enterprise Mobility Market To Grow By 15% Annually Until 2017 (misco.co.uk)
• 20 Game-Changing Technology Trends That Will Create Both Disruption and Opportunity on a Global Level (bigthink.com)

Software-defined networks, data explosions, hybrid clouds will test IT prowess

ORLANDO — Trying to stay ahead of the curve when it comes to IT issues is not a job for the faint of heart. That point was driven home at Gartner’s IT annual IT Symposium fest here where analyst David Cappuccio outlined what he called “new forces that are not easily controlled by IT are pushing themselves to the forefront of IT spending.”

The forces of cloud computing, social media/networking, mobility and information management are all evolving at a rapid pace. These evolutions are largely happening despite the controls that IT normally places on the use of technologies, Cappuccio stated. “IT was forced to support tablets, and end users forced them to support IM and wireless networks a few years ago. And more such technologies are on the horizon,” he said.

Cappuccio’s presentation listed the following as the “Ten Critical Trends and Technologies Impacting IT During the Next Five Years.” The following is taken from Cappuccio’s report:

1. Disruption: Business users expect the same level of IT performance and support as they experience with consumer-based applications and services. Business-user demand for customer satisfaction is far outstripping the IT support organizations supply. IT organizations must invest in the development of IT service desk analyst skills and attributes, and organize appropriately to increase IT’s perceived value to the rest of the organization. Business-user satisfaction can be a moving target, but enabling higher levels of productivity at the IT service desk level demonstrates that the IT organization cares about the business, and that it’s committed to ensuring that users meet their goals and objectives. While a focus on traditional training, procedures, security access, knowledge management and scripts is warranted, a focus on next-generation support skills will be paramount to meet the needs and expectations of the business more efficiently.

2. Software Defined Networks: SDN is a means to abstract the network just as server virtualization abstracts the server. It transforms the network topology from box/port at a time configuration to flow at a time — linked to application. Abstracts the network like a hypervisor abstracts the server and it gives programmatic control. With SDN the controller has a view of the entire network topology both the virtual and physical components of it including switches, firewalls, ADC, etc. and provides the abstracted view to provisioning and managing the network connections and services that the applications and the operator requires.

OpenFlow is a great example of that generalized network tunneling protocol that provides a generic API that any network operator can use to create his own control and management schemes based on the application requirements of his organization. And there will be other OpenFlow type SDN protocols that are designed ground up from an application level logic than from the traditional network paradigm of protocol, device and link-based thinking.

When used along with encapsulations like OpenFlow SDN can be used to dynamically extend a private cloud into a hybrid model to masking the enterprise specific IP addresses from the cloud provider‘s infrastructure. SDN also promises to allow service providers to offer dynamic provisioned WAN services, potentially across multi-provider/multi-vendor networks. Of course, there is the potential for significant organizational disruption as traditional network skills begin to shift, and alignment with specific vendor products or platforms becomes less rigid.

Read the rest of the article by Michael Cooney at Network World here.

Related articles

• Gartner’s Top 10 tech trends for 2013 (techworld.com.au)
• Gartner symposium highlights the nexus of cloud, big data, social and mobile (liberatemedia.com)
• Gartner: 10 critical IT trends for the next five years (networkworld.com)

“85% of organizations cite improving the customer experience as the top driver for investing in workforce management“

As modern organizations look to gain market share based on a differentiated customer experience, many are realizing they need to invest in solutions and processes that enable them to go beyond simple cost-cutting measures and find ways to better manage and empower their workforce.

Case studies in industries from retail to distribution to manufacturing have proven that extending the productivity of every employee and synchronizing staffing levels with peaks in demand often results in improved customer loyalty and increased revenue, as well as improved margins and profitability.

In addition, where companies once attempted to optimize labor within separate areas of their business, many are now evaluating their ability to influence the workforce at the enterprise level. Boardroom discussions now factor in how staffing and productivity improvements can impact everything — from the way products are sourced and shipped, to the way they are supported after the sale is complete.

New Realities—Balancing Producitivity & Profits

Most businesses have been attempting to walk the tightrope of investing in the customer experience while at the same time looking to better manage labor costs. In order to realize these seemingly opposing goals, leading companies are focusing on driving productivity to improve return on invested labor.

From manufacturing plants to distribution centers to retail sales floors, leading organizations are improving productivity by investing in tools and processes that provide greater visibility and deeper intelligence into customer timelines, preferences, activities and histories and then aligning that visibility and intelligence with new demand signals.

However, transforming an organization to align talent and strategy is often a delicate balancing act. Some of the new realities companies must account for as they look to optimize this critical people component of the Commerce in Motion Framework include:

• Aligning talent and strategy, both from matching staffing to demand, as well as hiring and training for new skill sets;
• Developing agile scheduling systems that allow organizations to address shifts in demand/production and also serve an increasingly empowered workforce who are looking for increased flexibility in their schedules;
• Serving an increasingly global customer base, with an equally dispersed workforce;
• Managing compliance and labor laws on a regional level around the globe;

This article comes cuortesy of  Commerce In Motion.  Read the entire article The 4 P’s of Commerce  at Commerce In Motion.

Related articles

• Why Pay Attention To Your Customer Service? Because It Will Impact Your Revenue (customerthink.com)
• Modeling Project and Technology Investments (workforceexpert.typepad.com)

You may already know high powerful increased levels of employee engagement can be to your bottom line. Also, you may have heard that one of the best ways to improve engagement levels is by adding various team-building events and other similar activities. While team building is a good tactic to use as part of an overall employee engagement plan, strategically it is much more important to raise engagement levels when they matter most – while employees are working. These tips are simple to implement, don’t cost a dime, and take place on the front-line.

1. Add Flexibility
No two desks at your company are arranged the same – everyone has a unique personality. Just as employees arrange their desks differently, some employees will prefer to perform tasks in an order that they select. Allowing employees to rearrange their tasks, without intense oversight, lets them feel more in control of their work and priorities. Productivity and outcomes are more important than processes. If employees must follow a set process, one that isn’t necessarily more productive, their engagement levels will suffer.

2. Add Accountability
If every employee reports to several layers of management, they may feel that they don’t have personal accountability since their work passes through so many hands. Removing managers may not be the solution, but managers can find ways to raise their subordinate’s accountability and make themselves and their employees more productive. By removing something as minor as one round of reviews, employees will feel that their excellent work has been recognized.

3. Remove Obstacles
You hired smart employees for a reason. Don’t limit how they can help the company. If an employee finds a new tool or method to improve productivity, thoroughly evaluate the idea. Nobody knows their tasks and responsibilities better than front-line employees. An employee who is frustrated with obstacles is not engaged. Give them the resources they need to accomplish their tasks quickly and efficiently.

4. Increase communication
Companies of any size can have lapses in communication. Every employee wants to know what’s going on around the company. Don’t let the information flow get backed up in the C-Suite. Be as transparent as you can, and don’t be afraid to share good and bad news. Negative information always has a way of leaking to the water cooler. And, those ill-informed rumors can cause engagement to plummet without positive reinforcement and accurate information from management.

5. Increase Feedback
If you’re lucky, every employee in your company is working at full capacity. But, don’t let busy schedules diminish the amount of feedback management delivers. If an employee goes above and beyond on a task, and they’re only given a simple ‘Thanks’, they may not be as likely to give 110% the next time. There are many great ways that cost absolutely nothing to recognize employees that will improve engagement and make everyone proud to be a member of the company.

Read the original article from the National Business Research Institute  here