One great employee is all it takes

PLOTs may be found in unexpected places; here is one recent and true tale from the world of Memphis business:

Never discount the power of one great employee.

Within most organizations change flows from on high. The Commanding General/President/CEO/Chairman makes a decision, dictates that decision to those under him or her, and then expects their subordinates to enact changes according to the plan.

Those wanting to do business with such organizations (for products that would concern every member or employee) would naturally want to start at the top, in the C-Suite if possible, with someone who is empowered to make a decision. In other words, if you are selling maintenance supplies then see the Maintenance Manager, if you are a consultant, see the boss.

In the real world this does not always happen. C-level executives are perpetually busy and their time is exceedingly valuable, which means it is also very tightly managed. The consultant who is unable to deal directly with the decision maker has to depend on someone lower in the organization to not only understand their message and believe in it, and to be able to explain it, but also to carry it upward, and to continue pushing upward even if there is resistance from above.

That's asking a lot. If the boss says 'no', how many subordinates are willing to retort: "please reconsider, I think you are wrong?"

Yet one great employee might see and understand the vision of how a given product or initiative can help their organization, and is willing to risk negative feedback from above to help the organization, even if their superiors do not understand their position. One recent example from the field illustrates this perfectly.

A consultant began negotiations with a well-known name brand company that maintains franchises within regions all across the globe, including the Memphis area. The contact was the Human Resources Director, who provided the information that allowed the consultant to identify PLOTs within the company, in particular by increasing engagement and by attracting and retaining talent. The organization had recently lost a long-term employee that, by the HR Director's estimation, cost them at least 400% of their annual salary of approx. $60,000 (including benefits). The company had sent the lost employee to multiple trainings at a cost of hundreds of thousands of dollars, and the employee's worth to the organization was easily $240,000, if not much more. Their loss left a void that was hard to fill.

The long-term effect was that the company had spent hundreds of thousands preparing this employee to work for someone else; that lost money was a PLOT. Had they retained the employee the money would have stayed in the company; to compensate they had to generate $240,000 in additional profit just to break even.

The consultant suggested a program deployment based on the most revolutionary and innovative benefit in the entire industry, one that study after study indicates employees want but which was brand new to the Memphis market. The HR Director immediately saw the innovative idea as a way to increase engagement, retain valuable human capital and recruit new talent. The HR Director then took the program to their superior and asked that it be given to each employee as a new benefit, at a cost so low that as a percentage of their loaded compensation plan it was what accountants call "a rounding error." The answer was 'no.'

The HR Director then asked if the employees could pay for it themselves. This time the answer was a reluctant 'yes', although the bosses did not think anyone would choose to enroll in the benefit. To the question of allowing payroll deduction the answer reverted to another 'no.' So a major meeting was scheduled for this consultant's innovative product, which would also include vendors of more traditional benefits. At the last moment the whole shebang was called off. Needless to say, everyone involved was disappointed.

In the months that followed the consultant and HR Director kept in touch. Without the consultant's knowing it, however, the HR Director kept plugging away. They knew how beneficial the meeting could be for employees and were hoping to see it eventually get re-scheduled. And that's what happened; 9 months later the meeting was back on.

This time nothing got in the way and the meeting went off without a hitch. The vendors all had great feedback, but the consultant's product had approximately a 50% enrollment rate, even without payroll deduction. This astounded everyone except the consultant; when multiple studies conclude that employees want your product more than any other, you expect high enrollment rates. The CEO was not in the meeting, but the feedback from the employees as they left the meeting was so overwhelmingly positive that the HR Director received several commendation emails.

Although early in its deployment with the company, this new product has already created tangible and obvious excitement in the ranks of the employees, and excitement at work translates to higher productivity and engagement, which translates into a profit that is no longer left on the table but instead goes into the bank. The consultant personally visited one of the company locations and two members who had signed up were so happy to be reminded of the program they broke into song! That's engagement!

One great employee almost single-handedly drove up engagement and productivity for a large work force, simply by helping a consultant understand their business, taking advice that was given and then putting those recommendations into action.