Page 145 - Retaining Top Employees

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Recruiting for Retention 133

Think Creatively
Don’t underestimate the power of “allowing” customers to do
certain things for themselves that you’re struggling to do right—
or the effect on employee morale and retention.
For many years,I co-owned and managed the Pizza Hut franchise in
Ireland.An area of customer service that we handled badly was putting
leftovers into “doggie bags” for the customers to take home. It was a
messy,inconvenient,labor-intensive process that interrupted the flow
of the waiters’ and busboys’ other tasks.As a result,we were slow and
unresponsive at a time when customers just wanted to leave the
restaurant.We didn’t do this task well: we knew it and the customers
knew it too. It seriously affected morale on busy shifts.
Eventually,we began providing the customers with an area where
they could bag their leftovers themselves.We simply set out every-
thing they needed and periodically cleaned the area. It was a roaring
success: the customers did the bagging and our employees were free
to do their other tasks.

❏ Review your hiring models. Are you only using the core
employee model?
❏ List the other hiring models that you could use in your
organization. Match each hiring model you will use with a
list of specific jobs or positions for which each would be
appropriate.
❏ How flexible are your hiring processes, particularly with
regard to flexible work and free agents? Do you have con-
tracts and processes to encourage hiring free agents? Are
you frequenting the hiring markets that free agents use
(particularly the Internet)?
❏ Which activities are you currently undertaking that you
should outsource to third parties?
❏ What activities can you outsource to your customers?
Could you assign a task force to look at which aspects of
your activities can be pushed down to customers?