[2022-03-25] End users motivate employees
When I was a director of client services in Natural Resources Canada's Shared Services Office, I would print every positive email I received from clients and post them up on a wall near my office. Colleagues would stop to read the positive feedback, which provided a much-needed lift in the early days of implementing shared services. The notes of praise were one way for employees in the Shared Services Office to stay in touch with their clients' needs and to find meaning in their work by appreciating the impact of their efforts on those to whom they provided services.
Years later, when I was the assistant deputy minister of communications at Health Canada, I would often convene meetings of clients and my employees so that my team and I could hear directly from our colleagues what they needed from us. The result was that our clients' goals became our goals.
These are two examples of a concept professor and author Adam Grant described in his 2011 Harvard Business Review article How Customers Can Rally Your Troops. He states: "A growing body of research shows that end users—customers, clients, patients, and others who benefit from a company’s products and services—are surprisingly effective in motivating people to work harder, smarter, and more productively." That's because employees are more satisfied and their work is more effective when their efforts have a positive impact on others.
Grant shares many examples of companies and organizations that help their employees see the benefits that end users derive from their work:
- Facebook invites users to explain to the company's engineers how the social media site has enabled them to connect with family and friends.
- Northwestern University introduces patients with Alzheimer's to the university's scientists developing treatments for the disease.
- One branch of investment management company Merrill Lynch begins weekly team meetings with stories about how employees have made a difference in the lives of customers.
- Medical device company Medtronic facilitates face-to-face meetings between employees and patients, such as at its annual holiday party where patients share stories of how the company's medical technologies helped them.
- St. Luke’s Hospital hosts a Night of Heroes event, during which patients reconnect with the trauma teams that saved their lives and hospital staff are celebrated for their contributions.
- Financial services company Wells Fargo shows employees videos of people describing how low interest rates allowed them to get out of severe debt or how a loan enabled them to buy a house.
- Managers at Let's Go Publications share with their employees letters illustrating how the organization's travel books helped users navigate foreign countries and learn about other cultures.
- Manufacturer Deere & Company invites farmers who are buying tractors to visit the factories along with their family members; employees meet the farmers, hand them a key, and watch them start their tractors for the first time.
- The microfinance organization Kiva shows potential donors photos of the social entrepreneurs requesting funding.
- Four Seasons Hotels give its housekeepers and clerks the opportunity to stay overnight in the company's hotels to help them appreciate the customer perspective.
- Zappos, Google, Southwest Airlines, and Linden Lab have programs allowing employees to recognize and reward coworkers who have made outstanding contributions.
Grant states that bringing the end-user perspective to staff "can have a significant, lasting effect on employees’ motivation, performance, and productivity." This happens in three ways, which Grant calls impact, appreciation and empathy. He writes:
- Employees see for themselves how their work benefits others.
- Employees come to feel valued by end users.... Even though employees know intellectually that their contributions make a difference, gratitude from end users is a powerful reminder of the value of continued quality improvements and innovation.
- Employees develop a deeper understanding of end users’ problems and needs and thereby become more committed to helping them.
I went looking for Grant's article today after a discussion with a friend and former colleague about ways to bring the client perspective to managers. I noted how lucky I am to hear regularly from Jenesis readers about the impact my blog has on them. Such testimonials make my work feel incredibly meaningful and the effort absolutely worthwhile.
Managers of employees who are infrequently exposed to the people who benefit from their efforts can help bring greater meaning to their employees' work by facilitating connections between end-users and the providers of products and services they use.
