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What the Worst Companies to Work for in America Have in Common

 

Guest articles > What the Worst Companies to Work for in America Have in Common

 

by: Lisa Earle McLeod

 

It’s an ugly list: The 11 worst companies to work for in the U.S.

To identify America's worst companies to work for, 24/7 Wall St. examined employee reviews posted at job website Glassdoor. To be considered, companies had to have at least 300 reviews. That means at least 300 employees saw fit to reveal what really happens inside their organizations.

The 11 worst ranked companies are, in ascending order of terribleness:

11. Bank of New York Mellon
10. Gamestop
9. Rite Aid
8. Hewlett Packard
7. Robert Half International
6. Sears Holding (Sears/Kmart)
5. Office Max
4. Hertz
3. Radio Shack
2. Dillards
1. Dish Network

As you look at the list, what strikes you? If you said terrible customer service you’d be right. The worst companies to work for also score very low on customer service ratings.

This is not a big surprise.

Engaged employees go the extra mile for customers. Disgruntled employees keep you waiting for 15 minutes while they complain to their sister on their cell phones.

As anyone who has ever stood in line at Kmart or tried to ask a question at Rite Aid can attest, it doesn't matter what incentives or measurements senior leadership puts in place, if employees aren’t happy, the customers won't be happy either.

I have yet to see an organization with passionate customers that do not also have passionate employees. But it’s not a chicken and egg thing. Employee passion comes first.

Here are two big things the 11 worst companies to work for have in common and how they could fix it:

1. Low trust in the CEO

With the exception of HP, where Meg Whitman scored an 82% approval rating, the other 10 CEOs all had low approval ratings. Radio Shack CEO James F. Gooch had a 32% approval rating and William Dillard II, of Dillard’s at scored a pitiful 22% approval rating.

The big mistake that many senior leaders make is trying to improve external service, without addressing internal service. To put it more bluntly, leaders often believe that they can browbeat employees into providing better service for customers.

This never works, and I mean never.

Recommended action: Pay the CEO on their approval rating. When CEOs are paid on stock price alone, they’re tempted to engage in short-term cuts and policies that hurt employees, and ultimately customers. When you reward CEOs for treating their team right, the team begins to treat the customer right.

2. Incentive programs for quick sales vs. long-term customer satisfaction

Many employees of retailers on the list regularly pointed to their company’s unattractive sales incentives. For example, Dillard employees were paid on number of sales made per hour instead of commission. Sales per hour sounds good, but it leads salespeople to compete with each other, and try to close customers fast instead of spending time helping them.

Note - Dillard family members do not appear to be paid by hourly sales. The CEO and two other Dillard family members made a combined $51 million between 2009 and 2011.

Reframing success – Provide managers with incentives for increasing employee skill and knowledge. Apple Care’s telephone support staff gets rave reviews because they’re paid to help you, not hurry you. Senior leaders can demonstrate that they care about employees and the customers by training their team to put the customer first.

Running a big organization isn’t easy; I truly empathize with the leaders that made the awful list. But as my grandmother used to say, if you want to fix a problem, the best place to start is with yourself.


Lisa Earle McLeod is a sales leadership consultant. Companies like Apple, Kimberly-Clark and Pfizer hire her to help them create passionate, purpose-driven sales forces. She the author of several books including Selling with Noble Purpose: How to Drive Revenue and Do Work That Makes You Proud, a Wiley publication, released Nov. 15, 2012. She has appeared on The Today Show, and has been featured in Forbes, Fortune and The Wall Street Journal. She provides executive coaching sessions, strategy workshops, and keynote speeches.

More info: www.LisaEarleMcLeod.com 

Lisa's Blog -How Smart People Can Get Better At Everything

Copyright 2013 Lisa Earle McLeod. All rights reserved.


Contributor: Lisa Earle McLeod

Published here on: 04-Aug-13

Classification: Development

Website: www.LisaEarleMcLeod.com

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Site Menu

| Home | Top | Quick Links | Settings |

Main sections: | Disciplines | Techniques | Principles | Explanations | Theories |

Other sections: | Blog! | Quotes | Guest articles | Analysis | Books | Help |

More pages: | Contact | Caveat | About | Students | Webmasters | Awards | Guestbook | Feedback | Sitemap | Changes |

Settings: | Computer layout | Mobile layout | Small font | Medium font | Large font | Translate |

 

 

Please help and share:

 

Quick links

Disciplines

* Argument
* Brand management
* Change Management
* Coaching
* Communication
* Counseling
* Game Design
* Human Resources
* Job-finding
* Leadership
* Marketing
* Politics
* Propaganda
* Rhetoric
* Negotiation
* Psychoanalysis
* Sales
* Sociology
* Storytelling
* Teaching
* Warfare
* Workplace design

Techniques

* Assertiveness
* Body language
* Change techniques
* Closing techniques
* Conversation
* Confidence tricks
* Conversion
* Creative techniques
* General techniques
* Happiness
* Hypnotism
* Interrogation
* Language
* Listening
* Negotiation tactics
* Objection handling
* Propaganda
* Problem-solving
* Public speaking
* Questioning
* Using repetition
* Resisting persuasion
* Self-development
* Sequential requests
* Storytelling
* Stress Management
* Tipping
* Using humor
* Willpower

Principles

+ Principles

Explanations

* Behaviors
* Beliefs
* Brain stuff
* Conditioning
* Coping Mechanisms
* Critical Theory
* Culture
* Decisions
* Emotions
* Evolution
* Gender
* Games
* Groups
* Habit
* Identity
* Learning
* Meaning
* Memory
* Motivation
* Models
* Needs
* Personality
* Power
* Preferences
* Research
* Relationships
* SIFT Model
* Social Research
* Stress
* Trust
* Values

Theories

* Alphabetic list
* Theory types

And

About
Guest Articles
Blog!
Books
Changes
Contact
Guestbook
Quotes
Students
Webmasters

 

| Home | Top | Menu | Quick Links |

© Changing Works 2002-
Massive Content — Maximum Speed