A training must for marketing departments: customers DO talk about your company!

Okay, maybe it's just me. But it seems that there is a blissful ignorance in marketing departments across the country. It goes something like this....

Marketer 1: Do you think customers will notice if we double the prices and start using much cheaper materials in our products?

Marketer 2: Nah. They're all too busy talking on Facebook and Twitter to care.

Why do I think that? And what in the heck does this have to do with company training? Let me tell you.

I just read a rant on a site called "Search Insider: The inside line on Search Marketing"... here's a little taste of what author Gord Hotchkiss had to say:

"...where do hotels get off charging exorbitant rates for WiFi access and then give you a thin dribble of bandwidth that shuts on and off like a bad neon light? Multiply 13 bucks a night by 200 or 300 rooms for an average-sized hotel. That's about $3,000 every day, or a million dollars a year. This isn't rocket science, people. For that money, I should have a data pipe the size of a Volvo plugged into my laptop."

Conversations like this, albeit maybe without Gord's style, are going on, online, every single day!

And yes, they happen on Facebook and LinkedIn and Twitter... (and maybe even on MySpace, although I think most of those are limited to random posts from non-existent Scandanavian models looking for cash, I mean American husbands...) but most marketing departments seem to be blissfully unaware of what's being said.

And the people in the big offices upstairs? Even more unaware.

So here is the training part:

• Make sure everyone in your company knows how to use social media.


• Teach everyone in your company how to monitor social media.


• Get people in the habit of using it by creating company blogs, Facebook pages for employees, in-house Twitter accounts and other social tools. As a plus, not only will you be training people on the how-to's, you'll be increasing employee retention because connection=retention.

Not sure about the online world yourself? Look for webinars on social media, listening to buzz online and social marketing, then share the webinars and your new-found knowledge with the rest of the company.

Putting out the fires for employee burnout

We all know the story. More work, less people, no extra money for raises, costs going up for everything else...put it all together, and what do you get?

Nope, not the hokey-pokey. You get employee burnout. Not your problem, you think? After all, lots of people would be happy to have a job, right?

Wrong.

Employee burnout is very much your problem as an employer or a manager or an HR specialist. Did you know:

• Employees most susceptible to burnout tend to be your best employees. Yes, these are your star performers, your idea-machines, your "nothing is too hard for me" champions. So when they go down....well...you get the picture.



• Burnt out employees tend to self-treat by working harder. Which makes them burn out even faster. And deeper. Sounds counter intuitive, but it's true. They push and work and try to get through their burnout by giving more. And if you're like most employers, you encourage that. Reward it, even. Until they crash or quit or make some dangerous mistake...which brings us to our next point



• Burnt out employees make mistakes.
  Lots of them and bigger ones. and because these tend to be your stars, odds are they have the access and the authority to do a lot of damage when they mess up. And those mistakes can cost you a lot of money.



• Employees suffering from burn out at work usually start messing up other aspects of their life. Now, I'm not saying they're going to go postal or anything, but it is pretty well documented that employee burn out leads to marital and family problems, and is apparently correlated with increased auto accidents, family abuse issues and illness (including serious illness.)

So what can you do?

• First, know the symptoms. Sudden increases in work hours, projects accepted and deadlines set can be a sign. But it's tricky. Another sign can be when a developed employee starts spending hours surfing the web or talking on the phone. Basically, it's a big change in behavior. Work behavior.



• Look for the causes. Has this employee been charged with the work of several? Are expectations rising faster than any one can meet? Has there been a recent or radical restructuring of tasks or roles? Is there a constant threat of job loss?



• Do something. Sure, it's great if you're saving the cost of two employees. But if that means your star employees are going down, the risk isn't worth it.



• Provide training for managers and supervisors to help them avoid overloading staff. Teach them about the symptoms and the risks of employee burnout. Teach them why it matters.



• Offer relaxation options like yoga or meditation or just a quiet room to sit and think.



• Discourage working late and coming in early, as well as taking work home. Insist that vacations days are used, even if it's just for staycations. Make it a company policy, if you need to. Employee burnout is both caused by and symptomatic of an imbalance in work/life time. The few extra hours of work you may "lose" will be more than balanced by keeping your best and brightest employees happy and productive.

Are you seeing burn out at your company? Are you experiencing it? Leave a comment and let me know what you are doing about it, what caused it, or what you wish could be done. Let's share and see if someone has a way that works.

We're back!

For the past several months, changes in priorities and roles have left this blog hanging out there somewhere in the netherworld. But I am happy to say, we are back, and I am excited about bringing you more information about employee training, motivation and performance improvement.

There are a few changes I'll be making. One is that I will be actively seeking guest posters to share their expertise. I will be adding a "Contact us to suggest a guest post" button, but in the meantime (like for the next day or two!) jsut click on the hot link in this post, and drop me an e-mail. Let me know what you'd like to write about, and tell me a bit about your area of expertise.

Looking forward to getting back in the conversation! :-) See y'all soon!