Dec/091
United Airlines and Employee Empowerment
A great amount of ink (of a digital variety?) has been spilled over United Airlines, so I won’t go into the negative experiences we’ve all no doubt encountered at one time or another. (I’ll just link to them.) But two items recently caused me to think about United’s corporate set up: 1) My recent flight on United from Boston to Dulles, and 2) An event my parents read about that we discussed over the Thanksgiving holiday.
My experience on a recent flight from Logan to Dulles began with United flight attendants instructing me to move my bag from one overhead compartment to another. No biggie, but I was surprised at their comments while I was moving the bag. The one that particularly stuck out was, “We’d help you, but if we get hurt United doesn’t help us.” Now, I know flight attendants are there primarily for safety, with all other duties falling in line behind. But wow, United, way to instruct employees on customer interaction and satisfaction. Luckily, assistance is not required with my carry-on, but I’d hope they’d help out those that do require aid and not worry about if United will back them should something go wrong. Now, I’m not at all envious of the position in which both the airlines and their employees have been placed over the last few years, and you can make a number of fair arguments as to why this has happened. But, from my years of business experience, I can tell you in my sleep that attitudes and interactions at the top get filtered down to the bottom (“corporate culture”). This means that the way the United executives interact with each other and with senior management gets passed on to how senior management interacts with middle management, and so on down the line. In a very customer facing company like United Airlines, this also means front-line employees will treat customers the way they are treated by their direct management. We’ll get to this more in just a minute.
The second item of note that brought me down this path was this story. Go ahead and read the article if so desired, but here’s a key quote:
Clearly, an employee cannot evade difficult situations by uttering, “That’s not my job.” Job descriptions become irrelevant when guest satisfaction is at risk.
Job descriptions become irrelevant when guest satisfaction is at risk. A company exists because of its customers. Satisfied customers are also a company’s best marketers. Satisfied employees create satisfied customers. And satisfied employees come from a management team that is not scared to empower them to make the necessary decisions to satisfy customers, regardless of their role, and knowing that the company will back them up. In short, customers like dealing with friendly employees, and friendly employees stem from a positive environment that does not micromanage them, but rather empowers them. With this implemented, front-line workers do not worry about whether they have to take a break within a confined time, and will be much more willing to help a customer. Flight attendants will not be grumpy, as they know that, beyond safety, people judge an airline based on their interactions with front-line workers; so empowered flight attendants can readily assist as needed and know they company will approve their decision, not question it. I know United is a behemoth of an organization, but this whole process starts with small, easy-to-make, cost-free cultural changes. These changes will run rampant through the organization when employees realize the company is set on them, and work their way quickly down to front-line employees. And customers will have a better experience, recommend the company more, be more understanding of changes, and enjoy flying again (well, save for the TSA) if United empowers its employees.
