Sunday, September 14, 1997

Business book review

1001 WAYS TO ENERGIZE EMPLOYEES, by Bob Nelson; Workman Publishing (206 pages, $10.95)

By Jacqueline Fitzgerald / Chicago Tribune

Bob Nelson's "1001 Ways to Energize Employees" may strike readers as a fluffy title. Self-evident. Naive.

But, at too many places, employees aren't recognized and treated as an organization's most prized resource.

As Mitchell Thall, president of Epicure Market Inc., says in the book: "People today are looking for much more than a paycheck. They want to be treated like human beings. That may sound obvious, but a lot of employers still don't get it."

So, as long as that's true, there will be a demand for books on corporate survival tactics -- employees read them to try to keep an edge; management reads them possibly for enlightenment but probably for tips on getting more work out of fewer people.

Divided into three sections -- energizing individuals, teams and organizations -- the book is really a list of practical examples of staff motivation.

Roy Moody, president of Roy Moody & Associates, offers this feel-good advice: "The most motivating thing one person can do for another is to listen."

In the area of building morale, there are apparently plenty of firms making headway. Nelson tells about employees at the Gap's Canadian distribution center in Brampton, Ontario, who placed pushpins on the countries of their birth on a world map to recognize diversity through heritage.

And there's a London-based graphic-design agency that uses what it calls the James Brown Principle -- a policy of doing things to make employees "feel good." Benefits include an open account at a local pub, fruit and vitamin deliveries to the office and company-paid visits from a spiritual healer.

To reduce employees' stress, the Los Angeles office of the Chiat Day advertising agency hangs punching bags with pictures of executives painted on them in the break room.

Making employees feel that they have a voice in how things are run can redound to a company's credit. Nelson says, "According to a Gallup survey of 1,200 U.S. workers, 66 percent of respondents say their managers have asked them to get involved in decision making, but only 14 percent feel they have been empowered to make those decisions."

Throughout the book, the author emphasizes the need for improving communication, flattening organization structures, allowing workers to make mistakes, trusting staff to make decisions. Several organizations have banned such executive perks as dining rooms and parking places and have changed or eliminated job titles to make them less hierarchical.

Or, as the Washington Post's Bob Woodward sums up the concept: "All good work is done in defiance of management."

Nelson highlights a system of "planned insubordination" at Mirage/Treasure Island hotels in Las Vegas: "... All supervisors must explain to their employees not only what to do but why they should do it. If the explanation is not satisfactory, the employee can refuse to do the task. The hotels have a turnover rate that, at 12 percent, is less than half of the industry average."

At Boston-based Beth Israel Hospital, doctors occasionally dress as maintenance staff to learn how it feels to be treated as support staff. That's a nice gesture, but for real motivation the hospital started a plan that allows employees to share in the savings that accrue as a result of team suggestions. In the first year of the program, Nelson says, employees split $1 million -- half of the $2 million the hospital saved as a result of their suggestions.

Examples of companies that benefit from sharing power include Ritz-Carlton Hotel Co., which lets employees have the authority to do anything needed and spend up to $2,000 to resolve a guest's complaint on the spot. Along similar lines, AT&T Corp. eliminated most of its company travel policies in favor of a new corporate travel statement: "Use your good judgment, always keeping the shareholder in mind."

Flexibility also helps employers as well as employees. Nelson writes, "Today approximately 42 percent of employers do offer some form of flexible scheduling, such as job-sharing or a compressed work week, to their employees. And these companies are discovering that far from negatively impacting the bottom line, these policies are increasing profits as well as employee satisfaction."

The book also offers advice on employee training, development and ownership plans. According to Nelson, "on average, the growth rate of companies that have employee stock ownership plans and engage in participative management programs is three to four times greater than that of those that don't."

He points out that the immensely successful Starbucks coffee chain was the first private company to offer stock options to full- and part-time employees.

Additionally, there's some applause for firms that encourage community involvement. Most places encourage it, but staffers at the Little Hampton, England-based The Body Shop are required to spend one hour per week of company time on a public-service project.

Pie in the sky? Maybe. But when the firms run by dinosaurs eventually crumble, they won't be able to say nobody warned them.