A new season of television brings a new season of Undercover Boss. This month’s article shares insights and key learnings from the premiere episode and as with past articles asks questions that may be relevant to your organization.
This episode featured Steve Joyce the president and CEO of Choice Hotels. For those unfamiliar with this reality shows format, leaders from major companies swap their suits and ties for work clothes, an assumed name and work in the trenches of their own companies. The goal is to better understand the culture, how customers are served and to learn more about their employees as people.
Joyce doubles his undercover experience by not only working in a number of different company hotels but also by staying in a different one each night while undercover. He experiences hard work, getting stuck in an elevator and being forced to pay for “complimentary coffee”. You can get a glimpse of his encounters by watching the following You Tube video:
Three key themes that bubbled up included:
1) employees don’t always get information passed down to them regarding the resources that are available to them;
2) while decision making is encouraged at all levels sometimes decisions made aren’t in the best interest of the client;
3) saving money is always a good thing but lack of basic maintenance will harm your organization in the long run.
Watch the following excerpt from Undercover Boss courtesy of You Tube
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWVLZC_MDHY&feature=channel]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7LzW-Iwa-I&feature=channel]
Key Questions:
When it comes to your organization, what systems do you have in place that assures your employees are aware of all the resources available to them?
How do you know that decisions made by your employees align with the company’s values and at the same time consider the best interests of the customer?
Are you paying attention to the “basic maintenance” of your organization? (this includes not only the physical plant but the cultural one as well).
As Leaders of our employees and stewards of our companies we need to be sure our messages are clearly communicated, that our policies are understood and applied properly, that employees know and take advantage of all the resources that are available to them, and our organizations are properly maintained physically as well as culturally.
Complete episodes of Under Cover Boss can be viewed at CBS.com
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