Your customers can make choices. They can choose what businesses they do business with. This leads companies to make all kinds of accommodations and provide perks and amenities to entice their loyalty. 

Additionally, customers have a voice. They can announce to the world how well they are treated. They can be a business’ best friend or worst enemy by virtue of their bully pulpit. 

What’s interesting is that your employees have the same abilities. They have a choice for who they work with. They don’t have to work for Company A, they can work for A’s most feared rival, Company B. They can even start their own company to be a new rival. 

And, just like customers, employees have a voice. They can use social media, word of mouth, YouTube, or whatever other stage available to sing their employer’s praises or to trash them by telling the world that their work environment is a coal pit. 

Yet, business leaders treat those two stakeholders very differently. Customers get coddled (or, at minimum, some façade of coddling) and their words get monitored in order to stave off negative press. Employees, on the other hand, get carrot-and-sticked into submission and held to infantile rules about where, when, and how to work while their voices get dismissed, ignored, or, at best, given a polite nod of recognition—while I know there are organizations who do better, far too many do treat employees this way.

Here’s something to consider. What would happen if businesses treated customers like employees? (You can shudder. No one is looking.)

Better question. What would happen if businesses treated employees like customers?

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