What Separates the Best-of-the-Best From the Worst-of-the Worst?

For over 15 years, Peter Barron Stark & Associates has been a leader in conducting annual employee opinion surveys. We have surveyed over 150 organizations, and our PBS Best-of-the-Best benchmarks (those who rank in the top 25 percent in our employee opinion surveys) are based on over 70,000 employees’ opinions. In a recent statistical correlation study, we made some exciting discoveries we are proud to report for the first time. We have identified the specific areas you need to focus on to achieve the same standard of excellence as the Best-of-the-Best organizations—and we have learned the one thing that all organizations in the lowest quartile, the Worst-of-the Worst, have in common—the one area in which your organization must never compromise. Although the Best-of-the-Best companies score better on almost every question of the survey, the following three categories were unique and statistically significant.

COMMUNICATION

The PBS Best-of-the-Best companies have better communication— in both quantity and quality. This increased communication creates a stronger relationship between the management team and employees—who perceive that management is honest with them. Our research shows the top companies are better at communicating in the areas of purpose, strategic direction, expectations and corporate goals. The communication in each of these organizations focuses on ensuring that employees have the information they need to do their jobs, help the company achieve its goals, and understand what the organization has accomplished in relationship to its goals.

COMMITMENT TO QUALITY AND SERVICE

The second category in which the Best-of-the-Best companies excel is their commitment to producing high-quality products and delivering exceptional customer service. Successful companies focus on continuous improvement and are skilled at identifying problems and handling them in the early stages. In these organizations, employees are encouraged to take the initiative to improve the quality of their products and services. Nearly every one of the organizations in the PBS Best-of-the- Best benchmark does some type of ongoing customer satisfaction survey to measure the company’s quality and service from the customers’ perspective. Research actually demonstrates that there is a greater opportunity to build customer loyalty when a customer has a problem that is resolved than if the customer never had a problem to begin with. Service and product problems are not the real issue. How an organization responds to problems is what   makes the great service providers stand out.

PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT

Finally, the Best-of-the-Best organizations separate themselves from the rest by managing performance and holding people accountable. The top companies are better at setting clear expectations for employees. When an employee fails to meet expectations, they are better at coaching that employee; putting a performance management plan in place; providing training if needed; and conducting thorough, accurate, on-time performance reviews. If none of these techniques works, the Best-of-the-Best are quick to share the low-performing employee with a competitor—and allow that employee to actively undermine the competitor’s strategic plan!

Failing to actively manage performance and hold all employees accountable leads to low morale. In our training programs, we love to ask the question, "Can nice leaders have departments with low morale?” The answer is, absolutely! In fact, many “nice” leaders shy away from performance problems because they do not want to be perceived as too harsh. So they do nothing and simply hope that the problem employee’s performance will improve. The reality is that an employee’s performance seldom improves without some type of intervention. When an employee is not doing what he or she is supposed to do and the manager does not quickly deal with the issue, morale plummets and everyone on the team loses respect for the manager.

UNIQUE QUALITY OF THE WORST-OF-THE-WORST: POOR SUPERVISION

The only category that is truly unique to each of the companies in the lowest quartile of the PBS benchmark is low cores for supervisors. If there was ever a reason to train supervisors and hold them accountable for building a solid relationship with employees and achieving corporate results, the desire to stay out of the Worst-of-the-Worst category should be it! If you are a CEO or a human resources leader, you have probably experienced organizational problems caused by a poor manager. One week you are trying to get this manager to complete the department’s performance reviews or document an employee’s poor performance. Another week you find yourself refereeing a dispute between he same manager and a peer in your organization. You regularly get complaints from employees that this person does not communicate respectfully with others. And he or she always has an excuse for failing to meet company goals. The result is a department with low productivity, low morale and high turnover. Remember, employees may join your organization simply because they want a job or you have offered them more money, but they leave your company because they are unhappy with their immediate supervisor. The learning point: It is difficult to be one of the Best-of-the-Best organizations if you don’t have strong supervisors who are accountable for their performance. <>