I often have a good giggle with audiences, when I'm presenting, about what it was like working ‘last century’. The funny thing is that in just a decade, many of the practices seem completely archaic.. how did we cope? We had telephones that you would dial, and then wait after each number you dialled for the rotary piece to return to base. The sound was distinctive.. dddd, dddd, dddd (very hard to replicate in writing). No speed dial, voice recognition, click to dial, automatic dial or any of the other things that now means that we are connected instantaneously. What patience we had (but it was all we had, we knew no difference, that was the pace of business then.)
When I commenced working for Ansett Airlines, I requested a PC, my boss was curious to know why I needed such a thing (I had worked for IBM in New York – so thought that a PC was a standard business tool of the time). I wanted a PC so I could be self-sufficient typing up the ‘fabulous’ marketing plans, I was going to write. My manager advised me that Ansett had a word processing department – all I had to do, was pick up the phone dial a certain extension, dictate what I wanted, I would then have the typed document returned to my desk in the next day or two, I would make corrections, it would then go back and forth for a few days before it was finally finished and you could send it. It took about 4-5 days to produce a piece of correspondence (even an internal memo). Younger audience members laugh thinking, they can answer an email in seconds, any where anytime on hand held devices.
So it does beg the question what will the world look like in just another 10 years. And how do we ensure we have the right talents and skills to go along with it. I have teenage children and I know that the jobs they are likely to have, have not been invented yet.
Back last century when I was in the final term of my university degree… my father said that he would like me to do a secretarial course… 'just in case things don’t work out in my marketing career. You could always get a job as a secretary’ he said. So I dutifuly went off in the term break from Uni to learn to touch type.
Whether my father's reasoning was sound (something to fall back on) or not, learning to touch type at 90 words a minute has been one of my greatest productivity tools over the last 25 years. (so thanks Dad)
So really the more exposure we have to more things, the better equipped we will be to exploit new technologies and ideas. (Can you believe in the year 2000 I said to myself I was too old to learn about the internet… ) we need to keep our minds wide open, and learn as much as we can along the way. The new technologies that we are embracing are not the destination, but are part of the journey... and I for one don't want to miss out on any of the ride.
Teaching an Old Dog new tricks.
This week I was presenting at the Marcus Evans HR Summit on the Gold Coast – and I shared some of what I believe has created an engaged team at RedBalloon. I was very quick to let the audience know that I am not an HR professional, but a marketer passionate about a brand… who knows that people and relationships make a brand. So engagement is an obvious priority for me.
I also said that ‘we tried a lot of stuff at RedBalloon, we got lot’s wrong, but other things worked’ so really what I was sharing was the theory of what we did, after we did it. We did not start with a white board and design and engagement program, it just evolved over time, knowing that if we always think of employees as customers something will happen.
I got a great question after my presentation.. ‘well that is alright for you – with your 50+ employees but what about massive organizations?’ Of course I mentioned the Zappo’s, Apple and Google examples of strong vision and leadership. The question remains where are the case in an Australian large businesses? (Dimension Data & Express Data were fellow Hewitt Best Employers for 2009.)
The other observation is that we built RedBalloon from the ground up always believing in our people – so it is just 'the way we do things around here', we didn’t try to change. We are also a professional, mostly young, un-unionised workforce.
Dexter 'old dog' on duty at RedBalloon - Mic's mate
So let me digress for a moment. At Redballoon we have used TNT as our courier company for many years, every day at the same time, the same courier Mic, cheerfully arrives at our office and picks up the parcels, having a little hello to everyone, patting Dexter the dog. And off he goes with a skip in his step. Quite the jolly fellow. I have never really thought about this, but he represents TNT so well. I just thought we had a ‘good one.’ And he has been with us for years.
So back to the Marcus Evans event. The speaker after me was Susan Davies, Director – HR, Administration & Customer Service, TNT Express. Unlike all the other presentation’s, which are full of power point and lots of theory, Susan let her people tell the story of engagement. She had taken video of people out in the field, in the depots, and asked them about what engagement meant to them.
This is a very impressive story, because when she arrived to the role, the company had just announced a loss of $79million. She (and the other leaders) believed that only through employees could they turn this number around. She said 'we simply got out of our offices, went to the depots around the country and got to know our people. We listened to what was important to them… we learned that instead of providing them with fruit boxes as part of a well being program, what they really wanted was pies and coke. It was all about being in their world.'
TNT employs 1000s of people in Australia and has a 87% employee engagement score. Not only that, in just one year they turned the business around to a $10million profit. She said ‘We are all in this together.’ Proving that employee engagement is a profitable pursuit.
The TNT story is not an internet start up on a crusade or an IT business, it is an old established business, with a ‘blue collar’ unionised workforce, which reinforces the idea that ‘as the leadership team goes – so goes the rest of the organization.’
Congratulations to Susan and her team… it was refreshing and a delight to hear the story. And I know from first hand experience – knowing Mic – that it was absolutely authentic.