January, 2012

Customer Service / Payroll / System Improvement — 5 Comments
27
Jan 12

A security incident and our response

By IBEX staff

An incident occurred at our office on Thursday January 26th that was the subject of a Global News story on Friday January 27th.

Confidential information for one particular customer was inadvertently routed to a fax machine at Global News in error. We notified both the customer and Global of the error and Global indicated they were going to keep the information secure for us to retrieve  – which we did. Global then chose to treat the circumstance as a news story and interviewed us, our customer and one of their employees.

IBEX personnel feel awful about this incident, and have apologized to the affected customer. The privacy and security of customer information is our highest priority, and we take the responsibility for safeguarding that information very seriously. In light of this event, we have adopted a policy to never fax T4 information to customers. That information will now only be able to be retrieved from our secure website.

If you have any concerns related to this issue, please contact us.

Customer Service / Herd Philosophy — No Comments
25
Jan 12

How to dramatically appreciate a customer

By Darryl Stewart, Head of the Herd

We recently converted a large customer from our old web payroll, scheduling and time tracking system to our new completely integrated Everest platform.

This was one of the first customers to use all aspects of our new system, well beyond just payroll.  There were some rough spots and one of the things we did to get over the issues was spend time with our customer, at their office.  This allowed us to see first hand what we needed to improve and also allowed us to figure out together how they should best use the new system.

It the midst of all this we came to realize that our main contact at this organization could really use a bigger monitor.  This was a chance for us to plant one of our world famous IBEXseeds.

Yesterday morning Peregrin, our Head of Herd Geeks, dropped off IBEXseed #10.   It was an organizer basket with some cheerful flowers, a card, a bottle of “Everest strength” pain relief (Skittles) and a brand new 21″ monitor.  The seed was put together by Peregrin and Susan, our Herd Culture Queen.

Thanks for everything Toni!

Gift from IBEX to a customer

IBEXseed #10 - Also Included a 21" Monitor

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Employee Engagement / Herd Philosophy — No Comments
20
Jan 12

How to deal with your problem employee

By Darryl Stewart, Head of the Herd

Gallop asked this question to eighty thousand managers: “You have a talented employee who consistently shows up late for work.  What would you say to this employee?”

Common answers were:

  • I would lock them out
  • I don’t care as long as they stay and get their work done
  • I would fire them, we don’t tolerate lateness
  • I would give them a verbal, then a written and then fire them.

These are defensible answers, but the statistically great managers answered something along the lines of:

  • I would ask them why

Herein lies the secret to dealing with your problem employee.

  1. Define the outcome you have agreed on with them (100% on time for the next 60 days).
  2. Hold them accountable for their results (you were 10 minutes late Tuesday and 15 minutes late Friday).
  3. Ask them why they have fallen short and listen, really listen, to the why.  You may have to ask more questions and keep your tone and posture neutral to get them talking – use every ounce of self control you have not to be judgmental during this time.

To summarize… define the outcome together, constantly hold up a mirror (and make them look at it) and then ask the why.

If you can get to why you can usually figure out how you can help, either help them reach the outcome, agree to change the outcome or help them leave your organization.