Page 144 - Retaining Top Employees

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132 Retaining Top Employees

tomer service, installation, and support? If so, one solution is to
“outsource” the activity directly to the customer.
Many organizations have concluded that it’s just not possible
for them to find, train, motivate, and retain employees to do a
good job on some of the tasks involved in customer interaction.
So, they’ve “outsourced” the job directly to the customer. Exam-
ples surround us: drive-up ATMs, self-assembly furniture, “bag-
your-own” groceries, downloadable books on the Web (which the
customers print using their printer and their paper and ink).
This hiring model works best with:

• Low-value transactions. If you’re in the automotive busi-
ness, some customers may be happy to install their own
mufflers, but if you’re selling Bentleys, customers don’t
want to put the wheels on themselves.
• Low-tech, uncomplicated activities. If you sell furniture,
your customers may accept (maybe even enjoy) a degree
of self-assembly, but when the assembly manual gets to
15 pages and there are 278 screws, bolts, and washers
involved, you’ll lose business, except from the most die-
hard DIY fans.
• Non-critical activities. A canny stock investor might
undertake some investment research, maybe even con-
duct trades online, but when it comes to estate planning,
the stakes are typically too high for most investors to do
this themselves.
Manager’s Checklist for Chapter 7

❏ Review your recruiting activities. To which employment
contract are you hiring—the old or the new?
❏ If you’re still hiring to the old contract, list the changes you
need to make to the employment literature and other
materials you make available to prospective employees,
your Web site, your job specifications, and your interview-
ing techniques to shift to the new employment contract.