Two months of the year already gone… Time flies when you’re having gum.  Whoops, that doesn’t sound quite right.

Anyways…  time for some snarkiness.  I’m having that kind of week.

An Oracle at Delphi

Yesterday, a U.S. Bankruptcy Court in New York state was scheduled to hear Michigan-based Delphi Corp.’s motion to eliminate health care and insurance benefits to approximately 15,000 retired workers. More than 1,000 former Delphi workers had joined the Delphi Salaried Retiree Association in Indiana and hired a San Francisco-based law firm to represent them in opposing the move.  The U.S. Bankruptcy Court judge has ruled in favor of Delphi, calling the move a sound business decision. Delphi says it will save $70 million a year.

This is the classic “evil of two lessors”.  These 15,000 workers made a compact with Delphi while they were working for the company, it was part of a binding contract.  They made decisions every day to stay with the organization so they would reap the benefit of this agreement.  But times change, and Delphi has run out of cash, with no real hopes for significant improvement in the future.  The Bankruptcy court could hold Delphi to their contract, hastening it’s ultimate demise.  Either way, these 15,000 retired workers will lose out in the end.

There seems to be no middle ground.  A classic lose-lose situation.

The Employee-Customer-Financial Link

Customer loyalty and retention efforts need to go beyond technology. While there are exceptions, loyalty typically starts not with the brand name or the company, but rather with the employees that customers interact with. So internal programs that focus on employee loyalty and employee morale during a tough economy have a direct impact on the ongoing success of an organization.

I’ve got a couple of clients that are struggling with this simple rule of business.  Now trust me, I understand the need to hold down costs during a time of trouble.  In fact, I had a client that “postponed” the start of an engagement with my company for the foreseeable future. Yea, I love to hear that.

But it’s not personal, it’s business.  However when every customer is critical to the ongoing success of an organization, is now the time to disregard the needs of the two most important stakeholder groups a company has -  employees and customers?

I feel bad when I truly believe that my customers are making bad decisions. But then a company calls to engage me in a project right after a difficult layoff.  Work goes on, client expectations don’t change, and companies rely on their workers to do more with less.

See, some companies do “get it”.

Drizin is Going Where?

Mexico City.  I’ll be there in two weeks giving a couple of speeches to a national Compensation and Benefits Conference.  So far, the only spanish I know is “the girl is on the horse”, the “boy is in the car”, and “the woman is under the table”.  I’m not sure what any of these do to help my incredible lack of spanish, but I hope I see a horse, a car, and a table.  I’ve also been asked to consider additional speeches in Peru, Brazil, Argentina, Columbia, and Bolivia… Oy Veh…  yea, like yiddish will help me.

I will also be giving keynote speeches in Columbus Ohio in late March, Northern Indiana in mid-April, and a bunch more from May-September.  I also just accepted a keynote at the Virginia State SHRM conference in October, and have four to six more in the decision making stage.  Keep your fingers crossed!