If you’re keeping up with the world of business news, there’s no doubt you’ve heard about quiet quitting. It’s a new buzz term that strikes fear in the hearts of business owners and managers, but once you take a look at the idea, it’s clear that it’s really about a healthy work/life balance and being able to work at work without feeling a 24/7 connection to the job.

Perhaps the best way to put quiet quitting worries to rest is to create a workplace where staff feels comfortable and valued during their working hours. Incentive plans, trust, and an opportunity for career growth are great ways to help your funeral business staff feel valued.

How to improve workplace relations:

One of the best ways, according to Forbes, to improve workplace relations and take quiet quitting off the table is to lead by example. Honor your own work/life boundaries as well as those of your staff. Show them that work stays at work by abiding by the same ideology yourself. It will improve anxiety and give you and your staff the time they need to rest and be the most productive versions of themselves during work hours.

The article also serves as a reminder that it’s okay to rethink what the workplace should look like from time to time. Just because this is the way it’s always been done, doesn’t mean it needs to stay that way. Speak openly with your staff about their needs and what is important to them at the workplace. This doesn’t mean you need to change everything or accept every bit of information provided but showing an openness to listening and implementing reasonable change goes a long way with people.

Johnson Consulting Group can help with this through business consulting services and leadership and management courses. As experts in the profession, our consultants are aware of the trends and can provide the guidance you need to keep your staff as happy as your families and customers.

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“The Gambler” isn’t actually about gambling but about life and knowing how to best play the hand you’re dealt. The chorus is especially instructive, running through a list of how-to-deal-with-life scenarios. These scenarios certainly apply to business negotiation as well and continue to resonate and influence many around the world. Today we will be reviewing the symbolism of these sayings in relations to selling your business specifically.

Know when to hold ’em

Being able to recognize when you have something good can be just as important as recognizing when you could be doing better. Understanding your advantages and knowing your worth is the first step to a fair negotiation. If your business is in a good place, you may be better off expanding your business as it currently is or transferring it to the next generation of capable hands instead of just letting it go to the highest available bidder.

Stay calm and level-headed even if those around you are pushing for a quick sale by screaming that the grass is greener elsewhere (or even completely brown everywhere). Take the time to look over your hand and its current value and bring in expert advice if need be. Do you have a strong strategic plan in place that will keep your business thriving with or without you? A plan is a powerful tool that is worth quite a bit. Poker hands and businesses are only valuable when that value is recognized, understood, and acted-upon in the right way. Don’t underestimate yourself or your business.

Know when to fold ’em

The flipside of underestimating your value is overestimating it. We can become emotionally attached to the hand we are dealt and, in turn, struggle to properly assess it. When we become overly attached to something, it can be extremely hard to let it go. However, if you don’t have a strategic plan in place or haven’t found a suitable successor, you may, indeed, need to fold. In business negotiations, folding will likely entail selling to the highest bidder while knowing that you’re not actually receiving the maximum value of the business. There can be many reasons for this – timing, market, personal circumstances. This can be a tough reality to accept, but sometimes it just makes sense to turn in your hand as is.

Know when to walk away

Having a good strategic plan together and putting thought into who your successor will be gives you the freedom to get up from the table and walk away at any time. If you have not yet done these things, it is important to do so as soon and as well as possible. Preparation is power when it comes to negotiations. In fact, if you truly have all your ducks in a row, you may not have to negotiate at all.

Know when to run

When you have everything just right, you will likely be able to sell high, take the money, and run. This takes time and patience, but the return will be well worth the effort. Having everything just right means:

1. Recognizing and understanding your value
2. Being able to let go
3. Knowing when it’s time to get up and walk away
4. Having a succession strategy in place and ready, including a solid strategic plan
5. Being prepared to not only sell but to sell high and run

Never count your money when you’re sittin’ at the table

Negotiations aren’t done until the deal is final. Getting overly excited about what may be and counting your money too soon can lead to major disappointment or even disaster if things don’t ultimately work out the way you assumed they would. In short, don’t cash out before you’re done playing. There may be more game to go. As the song says as it ends, “There’ll be time enough for countin’ when the dealin’s done.”

Contact the JCG team today to learn how Johnson Consulting Group can help you plan your future.

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What employees really want

“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” – Maya Angelou

Just as they do in their personal relationships, employees want to feel valued, respected, and supported in their work life. They want to be listened to and have their ideas acted upon. They want to produce meaningful work while having the opportunity to learn and grow. They want their leaders to be engaged in the business without micromanaging. They want to be depended upon to do a good job. Trusted employees pay that trust forward to build a more loyal customer base.

Begin at the beginning

It can be difficult to secure buy-in from current employees when it comes to new company initiatives. Realistically, employees who are already disengaged may not be thrilled with the idea of an employee engagement program. They may have been involved in failed programs at other companies or they may not understand the potential value of such programs. Starting with new employees by creating a solid onboarding program can ease all employees into a new mindset.

Build trust through connection

Closely involving your current employees in the design of a new onboarding program is a great way to open a line of communication about all the positives and negatives of your business. Working together to plan for the future of the company is a great, non-threatening opportunity for your employees to pinpoint trouble spots and suggest improvements.

Get to know your employees

Although there are some basic connecting threads that run through most employees, each employee is human and, therefore, has unique qualities. Take the time to recognize these qualities and get to know each employee as an individual. Some ways to accomplish this are:

• Engage in team-building. Contrary to popular belief, this doesn’t have to be a big production. Team-building can be done Informally and even frequently with the focus on fun and just putting work aside for a bit.
• No, really, stay casual. Making team-building exercises too formal or too obvious can result in that teenaged forced-family-fun feeling.
• Take a survey. Anonymous surveys make employees feel more confident to offer criticism, but this may not be possible for smaller organizations. Regardless of your size or the type of survey, don’t be afraid to ask your employees what they really think.
• Allow your employees to know you. Employer-employee boundaries are important, but they don’t mean you can’t know one another on a human level. Honest human interaction among peers and with leadership creates an environment in which employee engagement can more easily thrive.
• Don’t overthink it. Make small talk. Listen to stories about family, friends, and pets. Be genuinely interested in and concerned about your employees’ everyday lives.

Regularly recognize good work

Knowing your employees as people will go a long way when it comes to rewarding them for good work. Differences in personality mean differences in how we like to be rewarded. Some employees like verbal compliments, some like thank you notes, some like public recognition, and some like good ol’ cash and prizes. Trying to encourage greater engagement through the wrong kind of reward is fruitless and may actually work against you.

Get on the same page

Quite literally get on the same page as your employees by creating an employee guide. Even if you already have one, an update may be in order. In the guide, you will want to include:

• A mission statement
• Company values
• Clear expectations
• Standard operating procedures
• Employee incentives

Make your employee guide positive. Make it down-to-earth. Make it reasonable. An employee guide should not be a stuffy list of rules and consequences, but rather a source of unifying goals and principles. The tone of the funeral services business is changing, and it is essential to include employee guidelines in this change.

Get help if need be

You may need an outside expert who understands what works and what doesn’t when it comes to employee engagement. The perks of employee engagement — productivity, profitability, retention — can quickly make up for the cost of professional employee engagement services. Don’t be afraid to ask for help; it’s worth it.

Employees are an extension of you and your business. Putting in the effort to take your employees from working for a paycheck to working for fulfillment and the good of the company can give your business a huge edge and a much brighter future.

Contact the JCG team today to learn how Johnson Consulting Group can help you plan your future.

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Out of sight, out of mind

It is hard to resist the magnetic draw of a good or service that is purportedly improved and, therefore, superior, especially when those selling know us almost better than we know ourselves. Due to the random timing of needed services, clients may go long stretches between connecting with the funeral business. Families may only need your services a few times each decade, yet their allegiances are being tested and redirected on a daily basis through online and other advertising. In a rapidly-changing, technology-driven culture, long-term loyalty is difficult to establish, even more difficult to maintain, and may not be tied to customer satisfaction.

Working hard for the wow

The funeral services business has a longstanding reputation for being attentive and trustworthy, so good service is assumed. Although this seems like a positive at first glance, it can actually make it much more challenging for businesses to stand out. When good service is the lowest common denominator, you have to work even harder for that wow factor by going above and beyond other service providers. Although technology can assist in this process by more easily finding and targeting a certain audience, every business has access to this same advantage. You can’t just wow a little; you really have to work to stay ahead of the wow curve.

UX (User eXperience) reigns

Funerals were once fairly timeless, but even death has not remained untouched by the age of technology. Life is now more efficient and more fleeting, leading to psychological changes in our society. These new emotional values are being reflected in both the way we live and the way we manage the end of life. Cremation over burial, simplicity over extravagance, celebration over sorrow. Our culture is now much more about the experience of living, and even dying, than about the material objects involved. Even when the “user” is deceased, as a culture we are mostly concerned with the production quality of their send-off than the adornment of their casket. In a TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook world, user experience is key in life and even the afterlife.

Beyond customer satisfaction

How do you succeed when you know customer satisfaction isn’t enough? There is no perfect formula, but there are guidelines.

1. Accept the current state of business affairs. Knowing and accepting that customer satisfaction isn’t enough is the first step in working beyond that limitation.
2. Stay close to your client base and potential client base locally. It is harder to ignore or forget a business that is an active, contributing member of the community.
3. Stay close to your client base and potential client base online. In addition to contributing in person, contribute on social media. Be present and be known so that yours is the name that comes to mind when funeral services are needed.
4. Be innovative. If simple celebration is the norm, embrace it. Make your options and pricing straightforward and accessible. Don’t be afraid to answer cultural changes with new, interesting business offerings.
5. Understand the value of creative services. The meaning once found in picking out the right flowers and casket is now found in picking out the right photos, music, messaging, and celebration medium. Be a single-source provider of the creative elements necessary to produce just the right modern-day celebration of life.

People’s needs and wants are not what they used to be, so funeral services can’t be what they used to be. It is not enough to have a satisfied family, because the world is moving fast and the next time they need your business their needs and wants will be different. Keep moving, keep adapting, and keep providing the right funeral services in the right way.

Contact the JCG team today to learn how Johnson Consulting Group can help you plan your future.

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 The Harsh Reality

“People don’t leave bad companies, they leave bad managers.”  If leaders and those in positions of power can take this quote by Marcus Buckingham to heart, I believe we would see so much more retention amongst our profession.

Here are some harsh realities:

• According to a survey done by Deloitte, 49% will leave their job in two years.
• com says that in 2020 2 out of 3 plan to leave their job.
• Gallup reports that 21% have left their jobs within the last year, which costs the economy $30.5 billion annually.
• Bank Rate states that 69% of millennials have a side hustle.

These are some powerful statistics that mean if we aren’t encouraging a culture of growth, this next generation has no problem going to find it elsewhere.

Employee Engagement

How connected do you think your employees are to your company? If we are being honest with ourselves, there are plenty of areas we can improve in this category.

According to a study done by Gallup in 2017, 230,000 employees were surveyed in 142 countries on their current engagement. Employees fall into one of three categories:

• Engaged
• Not Engaged
• Actively Disengaged

Only 13% of employees they surveyed were truly passionate and motivated by the work they did every day. An astounding 63% were not engaged, and 24% were actively disengaged.

The impact of a disengaged employee can negatively impact your business in the following ways:

• They’ll be cutting corners, which results in poor decision making
• There will be no drive and no focus, which results in less creativity
• They simply don’t care, which results in negative customer reviews
• Less productivity requires more staff, which results in over-hiring with a lower ROI.

Unfortunately, there isn’t much we can do about the actively disengaged. They just need a path out. However, the statistics show that around 63% have the potential to be engaged if we put the effort in to putting meaning behind what they are doing.

What category would you put most of your employees in? Do they fall into the popular category not engaged? Maybe it’s time to rethink how you’re motivating your employees.  Do you share a common purpose that they can buy into with passion? How often do you give praise? Could it be time to put more incentive compensation plans in place? Purpose and incentive are the keys to motivating engagement.

Once we have worked to get our employees into the “engaged” category, the positive benefits have an astounding impact. Statistics show that 50% will post messages on social media and 24% are more likely to help boost sales than disengaged employees. Find ways to bring meaning back so that your employees live in the engaged category, and your firm is guaranteed to reap the benefits.

Create Your Plan

Hire the Right People. Obviously, all this talk about having engaged employees is only possible if we hire the right people from the get-go that are naturally motivated. Service attitude is a big thing we look for at JCG. Recognize if they have the natural ability to go above and beyond to exceed a customer’s expectations. Are they good listeners, do they care, are they genuinely interested in other people and have a desire to always be learning? You can teach service aptitude (the ability recognize service opportunities), but you can’t teach attitude (the desire to serve).

Onboarding and Training: Develop a welcome program that makes them remember their first day. Decorate their desk with a welcome sign, write an internal spotlight, or take them to lunch with your team. Remember, their first day of work is one way to set the tone for their engagement. Spend a lot of effort on helping them to understand WHY you do what you do and how they bring value to that purpose. The first few weeks are critical to employee engagement. The more they buy in early, the more likely they are to want to stick around.

Initial training an on-going training is essential to employee engagement. You must teach them skills to be successful. Have a minimum standard for customer service expectations in writing and don’t train just once. Reinforce the expectations as often as weekly. This includes modeling, observing, and measuring behavior.

Retention and Relationships: Employees are more engaged when they are recognized, so communicate! Provide for feedback, and even ask for feedback yourself. Peer recognition is another way to keep employees engaged. Set up a quarterly award that gets everyone involved to recognize their peers. Feedback is the key, as this next generation craves it.

So where should we start? A good place to assess where your engagement is at is to survey your staff about their happiness at work. Ask about if they feel valued, and if they appreciate the kind of feedback they get.

It might be a rude awakening, but we all have to start somewhere. Getting the data is the only way you can grow from today into reaping the benefits of having engaged employees long into.

Lori Salberg
Director of Technology

Lori joined Johnson Consulting Group in 2017, bringing experience in cemetery, funeral home, and pre-need sales management. Along with sales and operations management, Lori directed the development of two propriety cemetery and funeral home enterprise software systems. Lori began her career in 2001 as a Family Service Counselor for the Catholic Cemeteries in San Jose. She quickly moved into management and rose to Associate Director of three cemetery locations. In 2010, Lori furthered her career as General Manager of Holy Sepulchre Cemetery and Holy Angels Funeral and Cremation Center in Hayward, CA, where she also joined the Catholic Management Services leadership team. As Director of Administration and IT, Lori brought management expertise and software solutions to cemetery and funeral home clients. In 2015, Lori joined PlotBox as VP of Sales. Lori contributed to the development of a SaaS cemetery software program, and was principally responsible for introducing it to the US market. She is a frequent speaker at many state and regional industry events and an article contributor to many industry magazines. She is also a member of the ICCFA Sales and Marketing Committee, which plans and oversees the Annual World Wide Sales Conference each January. Lori balances her passion for helping clients prepare for the future with raising her three children, Catalina, JJ, and Lyla. She spends a lot of weekends at dance competitions and little league baseball tournaments.

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