I have been intrigued by a television show of all things, for several weeks now –“Undercover Boss” was rolled out to millions right after the SuperBowl. The show ends tonight, so I thought I would add the Lotus HR slant to the deluge of blogs that have been written on the show. Some blogs love it, some not so much – “propaganda” one blogger wrote. As a person who understands and has a passion for HR – I think it is brilliant!
Here is the premise:
(Announcer as the show starts) "Each week, we follow the boss of a major corporation as they go undercover in their own company…Posing as a new recruit and finds out what is really going on inside the company…” Then a CEO that is highlighted says: “Having people that are frustrated is the worst thing a business can have…” Each show starts about the same way. The employees think they are part of a documentary on “entry level job seekers” so they don’t question the cameras…then the saga begins.
The companies profiled are all billion dollar corporations (Waste Management, 7-11, Hooters, Roto-Rooter, to name a few participating companies), with tens of thousands of employees. The company executive (CEO, CFO, COO) meets several “front-line” employees and works with them for a few days. The exec finds out what is really going on in the trenches and reports back to the executive management team what they uncovered and they come up with ideas to improve the lives of the people they met and make improvements to the processes these front-line employees deal with – brilliant.
There have been a few “corny” scenes and scenarios, but for the most part, each episode had good take-aways…it really is about the employee! Every episode ended with management coming to the realization that they were disconnected from the “front-liners” – and they all realized this must change in order for the company to prosper – both financially and culturally. They realize their employees are real people, with real issues, real passion to do a good job – people doing the best with what they have, from where they are, with no clue what “management” expects from them. Most "front-liners" believe “management” resides in the glass building with no clue what is going on in the trenches – very disconnected. Disconnected, in the HR world, is not a good thing.
Don’t get me wrong, EE Surveys are good – they provide feedback on employee satisfaction and level of engagement – but they don’t tell the entire story. What about going “undercover”? Based on the television program – the concept has real value.
Arrange for Lotus HR to go “undercover” for you…although there won’t be any TV cameras following us around, guarantee we will all learn something!
Jack Walsh
Lotus HR
