| Newsletter #96 August 20, 2021 |
| | Message from our Director,
GEA has decided to delay the start of the Leadership Series to September 15, 2021. A number of our members have reported a significant increase in COVID cases. As a result, our desire is always to protect the safety of our attendees and I decided to delay the start of the in-person series until September 15th. |
| | New dates!!
2021 Leadership Training Series
(In-person event) A Six Part Series for Lead Personnel, Team Leaders,
Supervisors and Future Front-Runners
Dates and Time
All workshops will be held from 9:30 am – 4:30 pm.
Printed materials will be provided the day of class. We are meeting only in-person.
New Dates:
09/15/2021 Leadership I 10/06/2021 Leadership II 10/27/2021 Leadership III 11/17/2021 Leadership IV 12/01/2021 Leadership V TBD Leadership VI
Location
Fickling Building
577 Mulberry Street, Macon, GA 31201
16th Floor Cherry Blossom Suite
Visit Website for Overview and Pricing
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| | Pete Tosh's Corner - Article 6 |
| Why & How to Avoid Customer Churn
Successful businesses appreciate the numerous competitive advantages resulting from understanding then enhancing their customers' experiences. Customer dissatisfaction with any interaction can result in lost sales, higher customer churn, increased operating costs & negative comments easily spread via social media.
In Gartner's Customer Experience in Marketing Survey two-thirds of the respondents said their companies compete on the quality of customer experience & 81% said that in two years' they will be competing primarily or completely on the basis of customer experience. Other research predicts that in 2021 customer experience will overtake price & product as an organization's primary differentiator.
Relying only on customer complaints to gauge customer satisfaction is a slippery slope since research shows that for every customer who complains to an organization there are, on average, 26 others who don't bother & are at risk of 'talking with their feet.' You can't manage & improve what you don't measure is very applicable to customer experience management. Without a process for monitoring its relationship with its customers, it's easy for a business to miss signs that customers are 'shopping' the competition.
Customer Experience data also benefits all levels of an organization:
- The C-suite view customer satisfaction trends & gain insights for strategic decisions
- Operational managers see what is not working & can better allocate resources
- Front-line employees become more aware of the impact of their words & actions on customers
- Three frequently utilized Customer Experience Survey methods are:
- Net Promoter Score
- Customer Satisfaction
- Five Star Reviews
#1 Net Promoter Score Surveys [NPS] - Only ask one question: "How likely are you to recommend our company to a friend or colleague" - on a 0-10 scale, with 10 being "Very Likely" & 0 being "Very Unlikely." Customers responding with 0-6 are Detractors, those in the 7 or 8 categories are Passives & those providing a 9 or 10 are Promoters. Your NPS score is calculated by subtracting your percentage of Detractors from your percentage of Promoters. Valuable insight can be gained by also asking "Why did you select that score?"
Net Promoter Score Surveys:
- Tell you with whom you need to focus your efforts
- Provide insight into your customers' willingness to continue being your customer & their likelihood of recommending you
- Give you an opportunity to reach out to customers with whom you haven't interacted in a while
- Obtain a higher response rate due to the one question format
The key is not your score but how your organization reacts to the feedback & creates better customer experiences.
#2 Customer Satisfaction Surveys [CSAT] - Measure how products & services meet customers' expectations by asking for their degree of satisfaction with a particular service, product and/or interaction with your organization. And they utilize multiple open-ended & closed-ended questions. However, we want to be careful to not make the survey too long because as we add questions, fewer customers respond.
Four commonly utilized forms of CSAT are:
- Electronic: Provide real time feedback, are inexpensive with low marginal costs & have worldwide coverage
- Face to face interviews: Dialogue is developed, complex questions can be explored & in-depth responses are obtained
- Focus Groups: Stimulate creative thinking & allow customers to build on the comments of others
- Customer Advisory Councils: Often the best source of feedback from customer executives generating feedback regarding strategy, industry trends & potential new product or service offerings
#3 5 Star Surveys - Measure Customer Experience in terms of quality & are currently being utilized by Amazon, Uber, eBay, etc. Customers understand 5 Star ratings & the response rate is high because there are just five blank stars for the customer to fill in. And you can ask about any interaction customers have had with your organization.
However, 5 stars is now seen by many customers as just acceptable - not outstanding. And this survey format is not the most helpful in building relationships with customers.
Asking for & then responding to your customers' feedback is vital because:
- Businesses grow & make profit through customer loyalty. And we can't truly know how satisfied our customers are unless we ask
- It costs five times more to acquire a new customer than it does to keep a current one
- Customers are willing to pay more for quality products & service
And we want to be sure to ask before they churn.
The GEA assists organizations in: - Designing surveys and obtaining customer feedback
- Analyzing customers' responses
- Implementing customer-priority initiatives that will bring the highest return
Contact:
Pete Tosh
The Focus Group
Office: 478-746-6891
Cell: 478-960-0076
pete.tosh@thefocusgroup.biz
www.thefocusgroup.biz
Co-Author: "Leading Your Business to the Next Level"
and/or
Buddy McGehee or Chris Murphy Georgia Employers' Association
Buddy: 478-722-8282 or Chris: 678-378-6889
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| | HRDive.com Article:
Mailbag: How do I write a vaccination policy?
Show purpose, be specific and think carefully about setting expectations, attorneys told HR Dive.
Published Aug. 17, 2021
Ryan Golden
In HR Dive's Mailbag series, we answer HR professionals' questions about all things work. Have a question? Send it to hr.dive.editors@industrydive.com.
Q: How do I write a vaccination policy?
A: Before writing anything at all, an employer that decides to require that workers receive a COVID-19 vaccination should carefully consider the state of its current workforce, said A. Kevin Troutman, partner at Fisher Phillips.
For example, if 50% of employees are already fully vaccinated, that may put the employer in a different situation from a readiness standpoint compared to a workforce where only a small portion of workers are vaccinated.
When it comes to putting pen to paper, Troutman said it's important for employers to explain the rationale behind the their decisions. "What you're doing ought to be driven by the goal of maintaining a workplace that's safe for everybody," he said, and that "everyone" could include customers, visitors and employees as well as their families.
Spell everything out
The policy should be written in a language, or languages, accessible to the employer's workforce, Troutman added, and should identify the specific groups that need to be vaccinated and by which time.
Employers may need to keep in mind the differences between the different vaccines when setting deadlines. Some shots require two doses, for example. People are considered fully vaccinated two weeks after their second shot in a two-dose series or two weeks after a single-shot vaccine, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
"Make sure employees understand what's expected of them," Troutman said.
Don't forget accommodations
Any vaccination policy will need to include details outlining the process by which employees can request an accommodation from the policy, particularly if the employee is declining to get vaccinated due to a health condition or due to a sincerely held religious belief, according to Brett Coburn, partner at Alston & Bird. Both scenarios are addressed under the technical assistance published in May by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
There are different ways to approach this step, Coburn noted. For example, an employer could require employees to be vaccinated in order to enter the workplace, but allow those who are unable to do so to work remotely. This approach may require some caution in the event that those who are not granted remote work question why their co-workers are treated differently, he said. On one hand, employees do not want to be perceived as treating employees unfairly, but they also need to be mindful of potential confidentiality issues that may arise when discussing individual employee cases.
Another move — one taken by the federal government — would be to implement a policy requiring unvaccinated employees to submit to regular testing in order to enter the workplace. But the logistics of this approach are "extremely difficult," Coburn said, opening up questions not only about compensation for testing, but also about where and how often it will take place. The costs of testing for an extended period of time also may be prohibitively expensive for most employers, he added.
What does your jurisdiction require?
In some states, cities and other local areas, employers that mandate COVID-19 vaccination are required to compensate employees for the time it takes to get vaccinated, Troutman said, and they can include this information in their policies.
California, for example, requires employers to do so. The state's Department of Industrial Relations explained that time taken for testing or vaccination, including time traveling and waiting for the test or vaccination to be performed, constitutes "hours worked."
But employers can also set up parameters on that front, Troutman said, such as stating in their policies that they will pay for up to one or two hours of time or allowing employees to inform the employer if vaccination takes longer.
Employers that continue to provide paid leave voluntarily under the extended provisions of the Families First Coronavirus Response Act should note that the provisions cover leave taken to receive a vaccination or recover from side effects, Coburn noted.
The discipline question
Language matters when it comes to setting expectations, and the manner in which employers lay out disciplinary procedures for those who choose not to get vaccinated will depend on the specific circumstances in a given workplace, Troutman said. Yet, as with expectations that employees arrive to work on time, a policy that says the employer "expects" or "requires" vaccination for in-person work may be clear enough.
"If you say that, it certainly implies that we're going to enforce this policy," Troutman said. "If you put in the language that you suggest it's mandatory, I think there's a pretty strong inference there's going to be discipline if you don't follow the policy."
Employers need to take a step back and ask whether they are willing to fire those who refuse, Coburn said. Outside of healthcare employers, he noted that the position of organizations had largely been against doing so. But a "sea change" represented by policies from well-known employers has moved the needle.
"If you're going to say to employees that you must be vaccinated to work here … you better be prepared to terminate these people," Coburn said.
That does not mean employers need to spell out word-for-word that those who choose not to get vaccinated will be fired. "This can be so volatile for some individuals that you want to try to make it collaborative," Troutman said. "You don't want to get into an adversarial posture with some of your employees."
Use trusted sources
Employers can include informational links to federal, state and local public health sites, including that of the CDC, as part of their policies. Troutman recommended that employers consider rolling out the policy in an in-person or virtual meeting, or series of meetings, potentially with a doctor or medical professional who can explain the importance of vaccination. They also can encourage employees to speak to their doctors first.
The primary audience of such policies will be unvaccinated workers, however, and the group is unlikely to be swayed by information from CDC or public health departments, Coburn said, though citing these sources may show the employer's thought more fully.
"An important part of this is just to listen," Troutman said. If employers are hearing common concerns about vaccinations being repeated, they may be able to further refine their policies to focus on those concerns.
Follow Ryan Golden on Twitter
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| | Constangy.com News & Analysis:
Well, do vaccinated employees have to wear masks again?
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration announced today that it is “recommending” that “fully vaccinated workers in areas of substantial or high community transmission wear masks in order to protected unvaccinated workers.” The latest guidance further “recommends” that “fully vaccinated workers who have close contacts with people with coronavirus wear masks for up to 14 days unless they have a negative coronavirus test at least 2-5 days after such contact.”
The August 13 “Protecting Workers: Guidance on Mitigating and Preventing the Spread of COVID-19 in the Workplace” explains that these “recommendations” are “advisory in nature and informational in content” and are “intended to help employers and workers who are located in areas of substantial or high community transmission who should take appropriate steps to prevent exposure and infection regardless of vaccination status.” OSHA’s August 13 guidance explicitly adopts the recent recommendation of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that even vaccinated people wear masks in public indoor settings.
So is OSHA just “recommending” that employers consider having their vaccinated employees wear masks, or will OSHA enforce mask-wearing under the General Duty Clause? Is OSHA playing it both ways?
In the absence of an Emergency Temporary Standard that applies to employers other than those involved in health care services, OSHA uses the General Duty Clause of the Occupational Safety and Health Act to require employers to protect their employees from the risk of exposure to the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Under the General Duty Clause, once it is established that there is a recognized hazard likely to cause death or serious physical harm, an employer must implement feasible control measures to eliminate or “materially reduce” the hazardous condition.
OSHA’s guidance includes a variety of steps that employers can take to address COVID-19, but masks and physical distancing, along with hygiene, screening, and ventilation, have been the Agency’s primary recommendations. It seems unlikely that the Agency would not consider wearing masks as a feasible control measure needed to “materially reduce” the risk of exposure, given the present CDC guidance. So, although OSHA’s new guidance suggests that these are only “recommendations” and “advisory in nature,” as a practical matter we would expect OSHA to consider masks as “required” in areas of “substantial or high community transmission.” While not every community fits that description, having to adjust your policy based on the ever-changing transmission rate map may be more trouble than it is worth.
So, masks are back again, until they’re not, again.
Left unaddressed in OSHA’s latest announcement is how employers would distinguish vaccinated from unvaccinated workers if an employer did not require all of its employees to wear masks. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission says that employers may ask employees whether they have been vaccinated, and even for proof of vaccination. However, many employees will object to the question, incorrectly asserting their constitutional rights or that the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act prevents such inquiries. But even if your employees revealed their vaccination status, how would you be able to identify which employees are in each group? Would the vaccinated wear some distinctive marking on their work clothes or on a hard hat? Such an approach, at a minimum, seems fraught with employee relations problems.
Ultimately, it seems that an employer’s best approach during the resurgence in COVID cases is to do everything it can to encourage the unvaccinated to get vaccinated and to require everyone to wear masks, both to stay out of trouble with OSHA and as an incentive to encourage vaccinations.
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| | | We have a company looking for a person to lead an HR team of 5 - 6 employees for an international company with 600+ employees located in the South Atlanta area. Competitive salary and excellent benefits.
Please send your resume to Buddy McGehee, Executive Director, director@georgiaemployers.org.
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Georgia Employers' Association |
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