"And remember, your "customers" may actually be co-workers. But your job as an internal support team is to ensure an excellent working environment. This is your customer. Are they always (or ever) at the forefront of your decisions?"
Yes, your co-workers are also customers - and that's another thing to keep in mind. As someone who makes decisions for the company, you have to step back and look at the big picture. Not only is it important to get the feedback of your customers regarding any initiative, it's also in the company's best interest to ask the employees for feedback as well. There needs to be a balance and compromise between what the customers want and what employees want.
Case in point: A local retail store used to be closed on Sundays, however some customers wanted to come in on Sundays to shop and they asked the owner if that was possible. The owner decided to go ahead and open on Sunday, however, that meant that one employee would have to work the entire day alone because the other two employees couldn't work on Sunday. That idea didn't sit well with
the employee who had to work by herself all day because that meant she wouldn't get a break. She told the owner it wouldn't be fair to have to work all day by herself.
An owner who took into account the needs of the customer and the needs of the employees would find some way to make this situation work. If you were the owner of this store, what would you have done?
Perhaps there's a middle ground with the situation that you list here -- like having the shop open for reduced hours (4 hours or so) on Sunday so that customers can have limited shopping time, while the worker has the opportunity to work a short(er) shift, affording her the opportunity to have a less stressful and long day. Everyone wins, then, because she gets the opportunity to work more hours, the customers get to shop on Sundays, and (hopefully) the employee doesn't feel like a short shift is too much of a burden.
Posted by: Kermitfan | August 1, 2007 4:46 PM | Permalink to Comment