You Can`t Kiss A JPEG

UK Bank Holidays wouldn’t be bank holidays without a trip to the DIY centre at the local retail park.  So this weekend I thought I’d go and see what all the fuss was about. Secretly, I was on a reconnaissance mission to see the most highly engaged workforce in the UK* in action and to try and find out what drives them. (Plus my wife thought this would be an ideal opportunity to peruse the wallpaper.) 

The operation commenced at the wallpaper section of B&Qs Luton store and – as luck would have it – the wallpaper of choice didn’t have a open roll to take a sample from. Ahah! By a happy accident, here was my chance to find an unsuspecting victim for cross examination.  It took some time to find anyone walking the shop floor. “Perhaps what they meant about being otherwise ‘engaged’,” I thought. “Long lunch breaks …”. But I eventually struck gold (or was it Dayglo Orange?) when I found Michael. I knew his name because it was scribbled on his apron, just like the ones on the TV ads. I suspect that one driver for engagement is probably the fact that real people are used in their adverts.

Michael was a very approachable, affable guy who judging from his greying hair was clearly one of the 25% of 34,000 B&Q employees that are over 50. When I asked him if I could open a roll of wallpaper to take a sample, he insisted that he would need to do it for me so that he could reflect it in stock control. As he attacked the roll with his scissors, I took the opportunity to ask a question: “So, Michael. I noticed in the press recently that B&Q have scored highly in the Gallup Q12 survey again, so what is it that makes it an engaging place to work?”  I don’t think I was ready for the textbook response, paraphrased here… 

Michael came straight back with his main point that B&Q give people his age a chance: Since my retirement I was going mad looking at my four walls. One day my son visited and declared “I’ve found you the perfect job dad” holding up the advert that read “Are you retired, going up the walls, tired of retrieving neighbours’ kids ball from the garden?…” A perfect match! I went for the interview and the rest, as they say, is history.  But it’s not just old employees they value – they give youngsters a chance too, when most employers are too quick to write them off!

Michael then introduced me to a great expression that described accountability:
We operate like stores within a store. I’ve got wallpaper aisle and I know that it is my job to keep it right. If the store manager notices something wrong, he knows who to come to and its a “fair cop” – so I’ll fix it, no blaming others.  We all take personal pride and have a slight level of competitiveness over our individual areas, but not to the point where we won’t help each other. When we have a big job with restocking we will help each other out.

And… he was on a roll… and then there’s the training, not only do you get trained on all the products,  they are really hot on health & safety training, and it doesn’t matter who you are –  you could be senior management and you still go through the same rigorous programme.  And its not only formal training, you also learn a lot from others. We have specialists in each product line so when I get asked a question I don’t know, I just find the specialist and, if I have time, I listen in to the conversation. 

So, are you into DIY?” I asked.

I never used to be but I am now. You learn a lot from customers too, some of then are trade customers and know their trade inside out and are always keen to explain what they’re doing and how they are doing it. We are very customer focussed here. We take a rota to greet customers as they come in the store. We ask them if there is anything we can help them find, and direct them to the right location. Which is far better than them spending ½ hour wandering around the store, not being able to find what they’re looking for. We take customer feedback seriously. When we get feedback, it is brought up at our team meetings where we have a discussion about it and how we can improve.  Sometimes when it is positive feedback, our team manager will give us direct praise. That makes a difference.

Last year I was nominated for the store Customer Focus award and won it. I went on to win the Area and then the National Finals where I won a weekend to Barcelona, all expenses paid in a five star hotel with bus trips thrown in, plus £1000 sending money! Ok its not every day you get a bonus like that, but at the end of every day my manager always says “Thanks for your help today, Michael” The pay isn’t great, but that’s not what counts for me. What’s more important is that I get up every morning and can’t wait to get to work – not like my days with Royal Mail. And every day I get to meet lots of really interesting people!

So, unscripted and unrehearsed, Michael touched on the key drivers of engaging people, which, according to B&Q is “the cornerstone to success in the current economic market”. B&Q are making huge strides to ensure “every employee, no matter where they work, feels valued as a key part of the business” So my plea to other organisations is simple – go on “You can do it too!” To get you started see our thought piece:

Engagement Drivers

*The Gallup Great Workplace Award awarded B&Q the Gallup Workplace Award for the last three years and is the only UK business to be awarded this year

‘Quality, not Quantity’ probably sums up the contributions to this year’s more intimate Marcus Evans conference, held in Amsterdam last week.

The Brand Union co-sponsored the event, so I had the privilege of chairing day 1: eight inspiring speakers across a wide spectrum of sectors from Healthcare to Hospitality and from Food to Finance, with one thing in common; their passion for Employee Engagement. 

So, inspired by the thoughts, views and opinions stimulated by the sessions,  we’ve created a blog called “You can’t Kiss a JPEG” – an expression that’s “borrowed with pride” from HP’s Rupal Purohit Ulrich when she used it effectively to make the case for face-to-face engagement. Because, despite all the powerpoint presentations in the world, social media and Flash wizzardry, you can’t replace the power of face-to-face.Three key takeouts for me were:

1. Daniel Vannier from hospitality service provider Sodexo tapping into his 350,000 (yes that is 4 x zeros!) colleagues across the world to understand cultural differences and validating the often criticised work of Geert Hofstede.

2. Kraft’s Annica Johansson introduced a third dimension to engagement’s Hearts and Minds – Clean Hands; thereby making the strong link between employee brand engagement & employer brand with CSR. 

3. Building on all the compelling reasons that the speakers gave for investment in engagement and employer brand (especially in tough times), Joao Duarte from Italian energy giant Enel presented the highly emotive argument that “Engagement saves lives”. Who said engagement was fluffy stuff?

Our very own Pete Bell argued the case for not downing tools during a down turn, learning lessons from recent case studies. See it here: 

Peter Bell: No Time to Down Tools

Two great days concluded with table discussions on emerging topics – Measurement,  Channels and Engaging line Managers. The richness of these discussions made it apparent that the dialogue needs to continue. So, while you can’t kiss a jpeg, you can post a blog.

So join the debate. We welcome any points, posts and pixels you care to share. To stimulate your thoughts have a look at the following thought pieces:

 1. Measurement              2. Channels                 3. Engaging Line Managers