Undercover Boss: Support your Employees

How to hang on to talent

Last week's Undercover Boss featured TaylorMade Golf Company. The President and CEO, Mark King, began his career at TaylorMade as a sales representative and worked his way up the corporate ladder. However, years later when he attempted sales again, he found himself out of touch with improvements in technology and having to repeatedly ask his employess for help. Working undercover in departments such as returns, quality control, and manufacturing, the CEO learned how he could better support his employees.

For example, in the quality control department, the CEO found that the demands of the job far exceeded his expectations. While working with a woman only 21 years of age, Mark King was impressed by the sheer amount of work she managed to accomplish in a single shift. He also learned that often times she worked without supervision. Making decisions without any guidance can be stressful for someone so young and new to the business.

"To see someone like this striving in our company is great; we just need to make sure we hang on to these people and support them." – Mark King, President and CEO of TaylorMade Golf Company in response to hearing a young employee describe the stressors of the job.

Later on in the show Mark tried his hand as a sales rep, confident that this would be a job he could perform easily based on his prior experience. Again, the demands of the job were more than he anticipated. He also learned that his talented sales team would often drive hours to demo events without being adequately compensated. Considering the remarkable job they were doing, he felt it was unfair to expect them to volunteer their own time and vehicles for the benefit of the company.

The show concluded with the CEO requesting the board members of TaylorMade to make a few tweaks to company policy. The Golf Company now provides compenation for both travel time and mileage for sales staff. The company also makes sure that a supervisor is on call at all times, in case a team member needs additional support.

Learn how Great Place to Work can help you to better support your employees.

Tiffany Barber is the Associate Manager of Marketing and Communications and guest blogger for Great Place to Work^®.

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