Pixar Knows Employee Loyalty

As a follow-up to one of my recent posts, I thought I’d give a good example of how a company is keeping its employees loyal.  We all know that you’re never going to have 100% employee satisfied, happy and loyal, but you can come close.

 

A few weeks ago my brother-in-law invited me up to Pixar. He has been working there for about two years (he’s still considered the new kid) and has always spoken highly of the company.  And, to reinforce what a cool company it is, my nieces are very very very proud to tell their friends and anyone who listens that their daddy works for Pixar.

 

Let me back up for a minute.  If you don’t know what/who Pixar is, think Steve Jobs, Toy Story, Cars, Ratatouille, Finding Nemo, Monsters Inc., The Incredibles…you get the picture (literally!) Okay, so now you’re with me.

 

My brother-in-law started his career at Pixar in the on campus theater. He was told to sit in the 6^th row because that’s where all the directors sit.  He was told that he was a film maker (he’s in IT) along with everyone else at the company.  That’s everyone from the producer to the cafeteria person to the janitor to the graphics person. Everyone at the company is a film maker.  If that didn’t get him pumped up enough about his first day, Janeane Garofalo (the voice of Colette in Rataouille) was at the office. 

 

Sure, almost everyone likes their first day at the office, but Pixar has been able to keep employees happy and loyal for a lot longer than their first day.  As my brother-in-law was showing me around the office, I was surprised at the “un-office” feeling the company has.  Employees were zipping around on scooters, there were statues of characters from multiple films throughout the hallways, pictures of employees in the company dance, music, screen writing, fly fishing (yes, fly fishing) and art classes adorned one corner of the building.

 

In one section of the building I felt like I was back in college because some of the offices had a very dorm room feeling to them with two people per brightly painted, couch furnished room with the required lava lamp.

 

Three of my favorite aspects of Pixar are:

1) The conference rooms are almost like fish bowls with glass on at least two walls.  When you walk in the main door, look up and you’ll see conference rooms with the glass wall looking down to the “town hall” like square where people meet up and eat. This allows employees to literally see who they are making films for – talking about voice of the customer!

 

2) Being a movie production company, Pixar has access to lots of movies.  Their in house theater previews movies for employees and not always Pixar movies.  The day I visited, I was able to watch one of the movies up for an Oscar.  On a Friday night at 6pm, the theater was crowded!

 

3) Probably my favorite thing about Pixar is that children born during the production of a movie are listed at the end of the movie credits under “Production Babies”.  How cool is that? My youngest niece will be listed at the end of the next Pixar movie. 

 

There are so many different ways to make employees happy and loyal and Pixar seems to have captured it all.  From calling all employees film makers, to recognizing new babies born during production to offering free classes from movie writing to soccer to providing free cereal and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, Pixar has captured the market on happiness. My brother-in-law being there two years is still one of the new kids.  That alone says a lot!

 

You can find Pixar jobs here but if you think you’ll have one interview and be hired, think again.  They carefully select only the top notch candidates to join their creative, talented, fun and energetic team.

The Importance of Employee Loyalty

Do you think that there’s a relationship between happy employees and customer loyalty?  I think yes and I’m not alone.  When I asked this question via Twitter I got some great answers back.  Here are some of them:

 

@joerawlinson “Employee loyalty usually means a happier staff. When they are happy, they serve customers better. That grows customer loyalty”

 

@wwcasey: “If you want to know why customers view the company the way they do, look at how the company views employees.”

 

@jasontryfon: ”It’s a proven fact employee sat has direct correlation on customer sat. Upset staff, upset customers : )”

 

@efrainm: “Fastest way to loose loyal customers is having them deal with an angry detracting employees.”

 

@michaelfieldcom: “For organisations, the first customer is the employee, the actual customer will be treated the way the employees are treated.”

 

Think about it for a second.  One place I hate going to is the DMV. Why?  Because I generally (sorry to the good DMV employees) get the cranky man/woman sitting behind the counter.  They don’t look up and definitely don’t give me the time of day.  After waiting in line forever, I finally get to the counter where the person only knows their job and can’t answer questions that don’t deal with “Line 4”.  What does all of this make me?  It makes me dread going to the DMV because I know that the cranky employees I have had to deal with are going to put a damper on my day.  If there was a choice to go to a non-DMV, I would but unfortunately you can’t renew your license at Starbucks.

 

So what would happen if all DMV employees loved their job?  They’d smile more and probably really want to help me.  Remember the days when companies would hand out mirrors to employees and tell the employees to smile and look at themselves in the mirror when they’re talking on the phone?  The smile goes through the phone. 

 

You might not agree with my example, but I think you get the point. Your employees are generally the first line to your customers so make sure that you’re treating your employees right.  Their attitudes will be reflected onto the customers.

 

Dr. Gary Rhoads wrote in his recent blog “Employee Engagement: An Essential Ingredient for Business Success”

 

“… found that one out of every 10 customers was hurt by disengaged employees. We also found that the work environment combined with employee attitudes has a significant impact on a customer’s perception of quality. For this reason, it’s important that companies lead with their strengths, emphasize the positives, and remove the barriers that lead employees to be disengaged with their jobs, their organization and customers.”

 

If you want to read an interesting case study on employee loyalty having a direct impact on revenue, read this case study “Top 11 Ways to Increase Your Employee Loyalty” provided by Allegiance.  One bullet in the report that struck me was:

 

“According to Target Training International, more than 60% of all customers stop dealing with a company because of perceived indifference on the part of an employee.”

 

Sometimes the answers to your problems are closer than you think.  Look inside your organization as well as outside when you realize that customers aren’t happy.