D'Amico Kitchen at Chambers Hotel

My post dinner enthusiasm with D'Amico Kitchen Restaurant Manager & Brand Ambassador Angie Thyren

Returning home to Minneapolis last night after a speaking engagement on the west coast I decided to head over to the new D’Amico Kitchen at Chambers Hotel and enjoy a beautiful Friday night on the patio.  Long a fan of the D’Amico & Partners restaurants (their D’Amico & Suns Turkey Dried Cherry Salad is the all time best) I was excited to hit their newest addition to downtown Minneapolis.   And they didn’t disappoint. The stunning outdoor space, music and awesome menu were enough to make my Friday night special.   However, the highlight of evening turned out to be the Passion on Purpose service and brand experience delivered by team D’Amico.

Midway through dinner I sent my fork south to the patio floor.  I flagged down a D’Amico staffer eager to remedy the situation with a new utensil.  However, a bit of time passed, no return from said staffer.  No new utensil.  So, we tracked down the silverware on our own and continued with dinner.  Not  a deal breaker in my mind, after all, I was the one that made the mishap to begin with.  The D’Amico staffer returned, apologized for the delay and indicated the message he relayed was misunderstood and our waitress didn’t carry through and deliver the fork in timely fashion.  He offered to buy desert for us to apologize for the delay and make certain we left with a smile on our face.  I was more than impressed and we thanked him for the offer.  Concluding dinner we made mention to our waitress that we’d take a pass on the free desert and just continue enjoying the evening with another libation.  And she promptly returned with the round of cocktails and shared with me that our entire bill would be taken care of.  Now I wasn’t just impressed, I was floored and also indicated that was completely unnecessary.  The food was outstanding, the service spectacular and we had and all around great evening.  She said her Manager insisted.  And I knew I had to meet this Manager.

Our waitress returned with Angie Thyren, the Restaurant Manager at D’Amico Kitchen.  I thanked her for the generosity but also wanted to understand her decision.  Why did she make the call to comp the tab when desert or a round of drinks alone would have been even more than expected for a utensil delay?  Angie didn’t hesitate, “It’s simple, really.  You can leave here feeling ok about us, or you can leave here feeling like we did everything we possibly could to make your Friday night special.  You chose to spend your night with us and we want you to leave here a fan and come back again.”  Mission accomplished Angie.  You get it.  You aspire to deliver more than just good food in a nice atmosphere.  You want to deliver an experience that people never forget.  It’s a great example of Passion on Purpose on display in the workplace.  What a difference an engaged leader, passionate about her brand, delivering a customer experience with purpose can make.  D’Amico & Partners earned my brand loyalty a long time ago.  I’ve been dining at their restaurants for years.  And I can tell you now, when I want a special night out in downtown Minneapolis, I’ll be making my reservations with Angie and team D’Amico.  I  know they will deliver for me every time out!  Branding is all about proactively managing your image, reputation and experience.  Angie delivers and also understands that brand is no longer just what you say about you, it’s what everyone says about you.  I say when you want a special dinner/night out in Minneapolis, head over to D’Amico Kitchen at Chambers Hotel.  They have it nailed!

Posted in Brand, Employee Engagement

Posted in Employee Engagement, Leadership

Attending the Blogwell event at General Mills in Minneapolis this week provided some interesting insights into how big brands are leveraging social media.  While the big brands each had varying degress of entrance into leveraging new tools there were central themes throughout the day.  One of those being the strong desire and interest among each brands community to connect online.  Lee Aase of Mayo Clinic talked about Mayo’s digital footprint and provided insights into their Sharing Mayo Clinic Blog that serves as a destination for the many wonderful stories inside the clinic.  Walmart talked about their MyWalmart Assocaites web page that connects over 430,000 regular users in their employee population (although banning access at work seemed a bit contradictory to their desire to foster these connections – trust?).  McDonalds talked their efforts around motivating and connecting employees to leverage their own social networks as Brand Ambassadors for the Golden Arches through strategies like Station M, where approximately 40,000 crew members engage.   And my favorite presentation of the day, from Ford’s Scott Monty depicted Ford’s Social Media Strategy: “to humanize the company by connecting consumers with Ford employees and with each other when possible, providing value in the process.”  My sense is while his toolkit may change, his strategy won’t and it’s a big part of the reason that Ford is one of the top social brands in the US.  It’s completely clear that brands large and small need a strategy.  With a clearly defined objective, some commitment and the requisite tools to build and measure the effort a value proposition around the investment can be derived.

The other great lesson of the day was the importance of listening, learning and participating as an active voice with your community.  Scott described it as “setting his content free” and each presenter seemed to recognize the relinquishing of control in the new communications landscape.  Conference host Andy Sernovitz (author of Word of Mouth Marketing) commented in his session on ethics that the biggest risk for a big brand in social media is the failure to train your team.  It’s important to understand how to use the tools and that knowledge can certainly minimize risk and enhance reward. Coincidentally one of the large health care brands in my hometown now has a Twitter account devoted to Careers.  The brand is a follower of mine (and I follow back).  Recently the brand sent a tweet and link to a requisition of a key management opening in their organization.  I responded back with a DM offering to connect them with someone in my network who met all the requirements and would have been an ideal fit for the position.  I never heard back.  And my point for this brand is…what is the point?  They miss the voice.  The human element.  The participation.  The opportunity.  And are falling well short of the new communication expectations on the social web.  As Scott Monty included in his presentation:  90% of social media is just showing up.  It’s the other half that’s hard.

Posted in Brand, Communications, Employee Engagement

Tags: Brand, Social Media

I have a number of friends and professional acquaintances doubling up on their smart phones.  Typically the corporate issue Blackberry and the personal i-phone.  i-Life junkies?  Not really.  The common  dilemma for the double down is to stay connected to one’s network (yes that would be facebook, twitter etc.) at work.  Someone, somewhere didn’t quite grasp the benefit of a connected workforce and decided the potential for lost productivity was too great a risk.  So the ‘Social Ban’ is on.  And the lost opportunity to harness all of the good that comes from these connections and lack of trust the organization is demonstrating is in full effect. Professional speaker and thought leader Tim Sanders offers up some terrific commentary in his The Digital Benefit Post.  His thought:  “offer the digital benefit or lose the upcoming war for talent.” On the money (and if you ever get a chance to see Tim speak live, don’t pass it up).  I had an opportunity to talk with Todd Raphael and Raghav Singh for an ERE Podcast on Social Media and recruiting and expressed my opinion that the ‘Social Ban’ is short sighted and simply isn’t in the best interest of the organization.  The foundation of any good relationship is trust.  The employment relationship is no different.  It is the very core of employee engagement.

Posted in Communications, Employee Engagement

Tags: Social Media

It’s been a tough ride recently for many Managers and Leaders.  Stalled initiatives,  shrinking budgets, program cuts and layoffs.  Short term remedies, perhaps necessary, that result in making the challenge of rallying the troops toward a common purpose, capturing the very best effort and output of your human capital and cultivating confidence in the future a burdensome task.  That is why it isn’t a surprise that the Employer Branding Global Research Study conducted by Employer Brand International cited “building a leadership development program to equip leaders with the capabilities  to better manage the employment experience” as the most effective employer branding initiative.  It’s increasingly clear that leader/manager competency is a necessary area of focus and investment for organizations that hope to navigate through this turbulent economy prepared to compete and capitalize in the future.  And while employees have understanding and appreciation for circumstances that necessitate difficult short term business decisions, it’s often the absence of consistent and transparent communication that erodes confidence, disintegrates trust and derails employee engagement.  The combined effect of an effective internal communications strategy and quality leadership are what’s required and unfortunately, all too often overlooked.  Based on years of research/experience our partners at Modern Survey have identified 5 essential elements to create and sustain high levels of employee engagement.  Their thoughtful white paper is available for download here.

Posted in Employee Engagement, Leadership

Tags: Employment Branding, Leadership

Reading with interest that a recent survey from Adecco Group North America indicated 54% of employees plan to look for a new job when the economy turns around. This data point along with the realization that dissatisfaction is even higher among the Gen Y crowd (71% of 18-29 yr. olds plan to make a move when the economy turns) was offered in the eloquent Running of the Bulls American Style post on the Fast Company blog.  A startling consideration and clearly the kind of stuff that keeps business leaders up at night.  With talent perceived to be in plentiful supply its evident that many companies have struggled to navigate the delicate balancing act between maintaining  employee engagement and managing reductions, cost containment and a host of other short term stop gaps deemed necessary for business to survive the current economic climate.  And it would be appear to be heavy on the mind in the C suite.

The recent PwC CEO Survey indicated that ‘access to and retention of key talent’ is the #1 source of competitive advantage for sustaining long term growth.  And while many organizations remain in survival mode, its becoming increasingly clear that talent (or rather getting and keeping the right talent) is the mission critical, long term strategic business imperative.  This presents a unique challenge/opportunity for today’s HR organization but it would appear the business case for strategic planning, focus, development and eventually investment specific to talent management initiatives is clear and supported top down.

Recent global research from Employer Brand International found that only 16% of companies surveyed had a clearly defined Employer Brand Strategy.  It seems like the right time for companies to begin considering how a clearly defined value proposition, communication strategy and manager/leader competency impact the work experience and corporate culture.

Employee engagement is a leading indicator of financial performance and smart companies are investing now, so they don’t pay later.  People first, Profits follow.

Posted in Employee Engagement

Tags: Human Resources