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Recruiting At Zaxby’s

Recruiting at Zaxby’s

The single greatest challenge facing funeral service is not cremation.  It is our inability to find and recruit and retain good quality funeral directors. Fully 2/3 of the current licensee labor pool is over 55. Our inability to replace this work force has very nasty consequences.  Not only will families be underserved but the pressure on the remaining workers will ultimately exceed the capacity.

What Should we do?

When faced with a dilemma no one is working on it is best to take matters into your own hands. I believe the answer is in our past.

If you know a first – generation funeral director who is in his or her 70’s, chances are they entered the profession through the ambulance service. Younger than that, many of them were engaged in their late teens to do mundane work around the funeral home like mowing lawns and washing cars but the owner bought them a suit and they started helping out on funerals. Many of these recruits grew to love the work and ended up getting licensed. In my opinion, the ones I have met who came in this way represent our best practitioners.

A few weeks ago I was working with a client and we took a break to go down the street and have lunch at Zaxby’s. I am confident that you, dear reader, have eaten in a “fast” food restaurants and the overall experience is…shall we say… underwhelming. This experience was remarkable. The young man who took our order was probably 17 or 18, well groomed and extraordinarily personable. He greeted us by looking us in the eye, he engaged with us, asked what we were doing for the holidays and sincerely thanked us for our order. WOW! He made an unmemorable experience memorable.

When my client and I sat down I asked him what he noticed about the young man and I was surprised to realize he hadn’t really noticed.  Sometimes we have our focus so intent on our own challenges we don’t see what’s around us. When I pointed out my observations he realized what I was talking about. When I told him I would have introduced myself and given him my card and asked him to stop by he got up and did it.

So, what should we do? We should do what our grandfathers did. We should be intentional about looking for solutions wherever we can find them.  We may not be able to solve the profession’s labor shortage but we can solve our own by recruiting locally. Yes, you will have to kiss a few frogs to find your prince or princess but you will be helping yourself along the way.

A Fat Man Dresses For Work

Alan Creedy CPA
Alan Creedy CPA

“My name is Alan and I am overweight!”

Last week I was shocked when someone said to me, “Alan, you are always well dressed and so professional looking.” It really took me aback. I certainly don’t see myself that way.

But I DO see myself as a professional who has a responsibility to myself and employers (when I wasn’t self employed) to present a professional image. Too often I see people with my same problem in funeral service who look absolutely terrible. So here are some lessons I have learned on the way.

Lesson 1: You will have to spend more on your work clothing than thinner people. Joseph Banks isn’t going to work for you. I am just below the upper size limit at Brooks Brothers. It costs more but it makes a difference in how clothes hang on me.

Lesson 2: It may be embarrassing but big men’s stores “get me” and are very helpful.

Lesson 3: We can’t wear pleated pants because they blouse out and look like jodhpurs.

Lesson 4: We can’t wear suspenders because they frame the problem and make us look much much worse.

Lesson 5: When we wear a tie our shirt collars should be the non button straight type that have a normal spread. Button downs on a fat man wearing a tie will blouse out too much.

Lesson 6: When we go business casual it is the opposite. We need to wear button down collars so they won’t spread out and look sloppy.

Lesson 7: If you are over 16 collar size get extra long ties. The end of your tie should come to your belt line even if you can’t see it.

Lesson 8: Wear suit coats that button and keep them buttoned when you stand. The better the quality of the cloth the better it will “hang.” Never go cheap. If you are bigger than a 48 chest go custom made.

Lesson 9: Your shirt collar size should allow your forefinger and middle finger to be inserted between your neck and the shirt. Rule of Thumb: a shirt collar should fit well enough to remain buttoned all day without discomfort but not so large that it looks too big.

Lesson 10: Buy shirts with your specific arm length. Outlet store sizes of 34 / 35 are always 35, for instance, and will show too much cuff when you have your coat on.

Lesson 11: Never wear a shirt that is small enough to pull on the buttons it just exaggerates the problem. A custom made shirt is only about $30 more than a Brooks Brothers shirt and lasts longer.

Lesson 12: Wear comfortable shoes with laces that will take a shine. Women especially notice how a man takes care of his shoes and will immediately correlate run down, unshined shoes with poor hygiene and slovenliness.

Lesson 13: Tuck your undershirt into your underpants it will give you a smoother look to your shirt.

Lesson 14: If you wear non – iron shirts iron them anyway.

Lesson 15: Bow – Ties. I love them but they are a no – no unless your first name is Ronald and your last starts with M and you like french fries

Lesson 16: Don’t wear loud clothing that draws attention to your body…see lesson 15

Lesson 17: If you wear eyeglasses find frames that reduce the size of your face instead of accentuate it.

 

 

Esse Quam Videri

I have to admit I tense up whenever someone begins using the Ritz Carlton as an example Funeral Service should use to fashion its own customer service profile.  Not that we can’t learn some things from the Ritz.  We most certainly can!  But it is a dangerous recommendation when we fail to “Go Deep” on the pain and effort it took for the Ritz to get to that level of service.  Another example of mistaking form for substance.

I have now lived in North Carolina for almost 28 years.  Within a year or so of arriving I noticed that the state motto is “Esse Quam Videri” which is latin for:

“To Be Rather Than To Seem”

I can’t find anyone who knows the genesis of that motto but I like it and have adopted it for my own.  It’s a good standard and it’s good to have a standard.  Especially when you fail to meet it. And that is really the story of the Ritz Carlton.

All too often we see something that works somewhere and we adopt what we see without really understanding the substance behind it.  For the past 20 years I have witnessed many main line denominational churches send committees out to study the exploding megachurch movement.  All come back with the outer cosmetic trappings. They change the music and often the ambiance but they never get to the deeper essence of what is really causing those churches to grow the way they do.

In the mid 1980’s, on behalf of my clients, I made a case study of the Ritz Carlton.  They were then, as they are now, extremely gracious.  It was entirely open book.  I was introduced to the whole story of blood, sweat and tears or rather the herculean 10 year single-minded effort of Horst Schulz and his merry band of executives as they set about changing the culture of the Ritz.  No small effort.

And that is really my point.  Adopting “country club manners” was only the visible part.  The focus and intentionality of achieving their vision was, by far, the most impressive.  You see, it is not enough at the Ritz Carlton to ACT like a lady or a gentleman.  You must actually BE a lady or a gentleman.  And that is the key to any successful organizational change.

Your DNA must change

My wife and I have become addicts of Masterpiece theater’s “Downton Abbey“.  In the presence of the Lords and Ladies the “help” puts on their best face.  But downstairs in the servant’s work area they are as dysfunctional as any funeral home staff I have ever met.  At the Ritz that would not be tolerated.  The turnover rate at the average hotel (luxury or otherwise) is startling high.  The Ritz turnover is a fraction of the industry average but it is still about 25%.  That is partly because at the Ritz if you can’t BE a lady or gentleman…you simply can’t stay.

Click here for a copy of the Ritz Carlton Values Card

Click here for a copy of the Ritz Carlton Baldridge Award Application

The Emperor Has No Clothes

What employee turnover reveals about your leadership.

Employee turnover can reveal a lot of things.  Surely turnover is normal but both too much and too little are signs of serious management issues.  The pressures of the last ten years have led many in DeathCare to be frustrated with their employees.  An attitude has sprung up that suggests a feeling like: “If somehow I could just fix my employees everything would be alright.”

High turnover rates and no turnover rates are actually two sides of the same coin.  Both indicate an unwillingness to develop people and poor to nonexistent communication skills.  It is the leader’s role to communicate what is expected of people, to follow through and to teach and to develop.  High turnover indicates they have put too much pressure on people to meet expectations without giving them the tools and resources to do the job.  Tools and resources include emotional support and guidance.  Having no turnover is just as bad.  If you are a firm of any size it is impossible that you haven’t got at least one person who doesn’t belong.  Even Jesus made a bad hire although He did it on purpose to fulfill prophesy.  Most often, when someone tells me (usually with some pride) that no one ever leaves I am willing to take a bet that they have several aimless people who couldn’t find work elsewhere who are just showing up for a paycheck.

Drucker’s Orchestra metaphor is the best illustration:

When a new orchestra leader takes over a poorly performing orchestra he does not have the luxury of letting everyone go and replacing them with top performers.  Instead, he must ferret out the worst and work with the remaining average players to help them want to work at peak levels

Great leaders do 4 things extremely well:

  1. Select the right people
  2. Set clear expectations
  3. Motivate people to do their best
  4. Develop people

Interestingly, there are 8 things employees really want from leaders:

  1. Tell me my role, what to do, and give me the rules
    1. Clear direction
    2. Parameters so they can work within broad outlines.
  2. Discipline my coworker who is out of line
    1. Hold people accountable-be fair but hold fast to what is and is not acceptable
  3. Get me excited
    1. About the company
    2. About what we do
    3. About where I fit
  4. Don’t forget to praise me
  5. Don’t scare me
    1. They don’t really need to know about everything you worry about
    2. Don’t lose your temper
    3. Be fair and consistent
  6. Impress me
    1. be bold
    2. or be creative
    3. or be smart
  7. Give me some autonomy
    1. Give me a special project
    2. Trust me with an opportunity
  8. Set me up to win
    1. Indecisive leaders frustrate everyone and make them feel defeated

Do you find it interesting that financial incentives aren’t on this list?  Turns out that money is only a demotivator.  If you aren’t paid fairly it will demotivate you.  Overpaying you will not motivate you or make you more loyal.

 

Are You Too Proud to Succeed?

A problem, certainly not unique to DeathCare but just as certainly profoundly prevalent, is an artificial sense of professionalism.  Born out of defining success by what people might think of us, it blocks our ability to succeed by making us unwilling to “Stoop To Greatness”.

I just received this two page post from Patrick Lencioni’s blog: “Point of View”.  You can subscribe by clicking here. Lencioni is one of the foremost authors of management books in the U.S.  You will recognize “Death By Meeting”; “Silos, Politics and Turf Wars” and, my favorite, “The Five Dysfunctions of A Team.” Virtually all his writing deals with human relations and how to help people be more effective.

His comments should give us all pause to reflect:

Stooping to Greatness

Earlier this year I had the opportunity to spend time with the CEO of one of America’s most successful companies, a legendary organization known for its employee and customer satisfaction, as well as its financial performance. I attended their company’s management conference, listened to various presentations about their culture, and the extraordinary, homey and sometimes slightly wacky practices that distinguish them from their competitors.

Overwhelmed by the organization’s simple and powerful behavioral philosophy, I asked the CEO a semi-rhetorical question. “Why in the world don’t your competitors do any of this?” The CEO thought about it for a moment and said, “You know, I honestly believe they think it’s beneath them.”

And right away, I knew he was right.

After all, every one of those competitors, the vast majority of whom are struggling, knows exactly what this company does, how it works, and how much it has driven its financial success. The company’s cultural approach has been chronicled in more than a few books. And yet, none of them tries to emulate it. In fact, based on numerous interactions I’ve had with employees who work for those competitors, I’d have to say that their attitude is often dismissive, even derisive, toward this company and its enthusiastic employees.

And this dynamic exists in other industries, too. A fast-food company I know has remarkable customer loyalty, as well as unbelievable employee satisfaction and retention, especially compared to the majority of their competitors. The leaders and employees of the company attribute most of their success to the behavioral philosophy and attitude that they’ve cultivated within the organization, and the unconventional yet effective activities that result.

One example of that philosophy is the action of the CEO, who shows up at grand openings of new franchises where he stays up all night with employees, playing instruments and handing out food to excited customers. Few CEOs would be happy, or even willing, to do things like this, but this executive relishes the opportunity. These, and other activities that most MBAs would call corny, are precisely what makes that company unique.

This happens in the world of sports, as well. There is a well-known high school football team where I live that is ranked near the top of national polls every year. They play the best teams in the country, teams with bigger and more highly touted players, and beat them regularly. The secret to their success, more than any game strategy or weight-lifting regimen, comes down to the coach’s philosophy about commitment and teamwork and the buy-in he gets from his players. That philosophy manifests itself in a variety of simple actions which speak to how the players treat one another on and off the field. For example, players pair up every week and exchange 3×5 cards with hand-written commitments around training and personal improvement, and then take responsibility for disciplining one another when those commitments aren’t met.

And yet, whenever I explain this and similar practices of the team to other coaches who are curious about their success, I encounter that same sense of dismissiveness. They get a look on their face that seems to say, “listen, I’m not going to do that. It’s silly. Just tell me something technical that I can use.” As a result, few teams actually try to copy them.

Some skeptics might say, “come on, those companies/teams are successful because they’re good at what they do.” And they’d be right. Those organizations are undoubtedly and extremely competent in their given fields, and they have to be in order to succeed. But plenty of other organizations are just as competent and don’t achieve great levels of success, and I honestly believe it’s because they’re unwilling to stoop down and do the simple, emotional, home-spun things that all human beings — employees, customers, players — really crave.

What’s at the heart of this unwillingness? I think it’s pride. Though plenty of people in the world say they want to be successful, not that many are willing to humble themselves and do the simple things that might seem unsophisticated. Essentially, they come to define success by what people think of them, rather than by what they accomplish, which is ironic because they often end up losing the admiration of their employees and customers/fans.

The good news in all of this is that for those organizations that want to succeed more than they want to maintain some artificial sense of professionalism (whatever that means), there is great opportunity for competitive advantage and success. They can create a culture of performance and service and employee engagement, the kind that ensures long term success like no strategy ever could. But only if they’re willing to stoop down and be human, to treat their customers and one another in ways that others might find corny.

Best,

Patrick Lencioni

The Tyranny of the Ten Call Man

A Management lesson from the bible

One of the most common and pervasive staffing problems in funeral service is the man or woman who undermines almost every current and future issue management tries to address.  They are the “Mayor of the Prep Room”.  No matter what initiative you attempt, they quietly work behind the scenes to undo it.  Sometimes they employ a subtle mechanism I call being “cooperatively uncooperative”.  This means giving the appearance of being on board but quietly “forgetting” to do what they have promised.  Worse they are absolute geniuses in providing what seem reasonable excuses why exceptions must be made.   As “Mayor of the Prep Room” every attempt to communicate to staff is answered by a meeting after the meeting where they hold forth on “what we are really going to do.”  The worst of them are blatant about simply ignoring expectations and just doing things the way they want rather than the way the are asked to do them.  Effectively daring management to “Make Me.”

An example is worthwhile.  Recently the more progressive funeral homes have implemented monthly, weekly and even daily staff meetings.  Attendance is mandatory.  Yet every owner that has been successful in establishing regular meetings has shared with me that it meant they had to chase down and face down at least one staff member repeatedly to make them attend.  Many owners and managers simply gave up trying and either exempted them or stopped having meetings.  This obviously caused other employees to lose heart and wonder (sometimes openly) who was really running the business.   Formal power said the owner –but informal power didn’t agree.

Why do owners and managers allow this behavior?  They say that it’s because they believe the person is too valuable to lose.   They have convinced themselves that they would lose 10, 20 or 30 calls.  And maybe they would.  But over time the lack of progress in responding to the many challenges we face and the loss of employee morale (not to mention the loss of owner morale) cost much much more than the loss of those calls.  I call these trouble makers “ten call men” because the owners live in daily fear they control that many calls.

I don’t like “ten call men” because they arrogantly wield informal power and prevent opportunity without assuming any risk.  They play owners and managers like puppets.

Jim Collins, in his “must-read” book, “Good To Great” makes this observation about them:

“We have a wrong person on the bus and we know it. Yet we wait, we delay, we try alternatives, we give a third and fourth chance…we build little systems to compensate for shortcomings…We find our energy diverted…that one person siphons energy away from developing and working with the right people.

Letting the wrong people hang around is unfair to the right people…

The reason we wait too long often has less to do with concern for that person than our own convenience…Meanwhile all the other people are still wondering: ‘when are you going to do something about this?'”

It is not unusual in my consulting practice to find inspiration in The Bible.  On more than one occasion a verse from Proverbs has enabled clients to take long delayed but desperately needed action:

“Cast out the scorner and contention will go out; yea strife and reproach shall cease”                  Proverbs 22:10