Communicating Values

I found a little news tidbit on the Boston Globe website about a Burger King employee who had been fired for taking a bath in a sink. How was he discovered? Of course, the rocket scientist posted the video on his MySpace page.

I have to believe that with the proliferation of information in today’s society, that people know that doing things, like taking a bath in a restaurant sink, is a terminable offense. Yet things like this happen all the time.

It’s pretty clear that it wasn’t a case of a destitute, low-wage employee trying to wash up – he had someone videotape it for him. Rather, this is someone who got more from the entertainment value of the gag than from his employment. Worse, his co-workers – one of whom was a shift manager – valued the entertainment more than their employment as well.

For sure, this speaks to a whole host of issues - for instance, how well does the franchisee train employees and prepare supervisors – but it speaks loudly about the importance of creating an environment where employees will value their employment and to the recruiting, hiring and retaining those employees, particularly in – but certainly by no means exclusively in - a highly price-competitive service sector where the majority of positions are highly routinized and are low-wage.

Most people aren’t going to bathe in the employer’s sink, but enough think it’s okay to give away product or to otherwise act against their employer to make this a huge concern. Think about it: this individual restaurant has now received such negative publicity on news reports, health department investigations, et cetera that one has to believe there has been a substantial cost.

Think it doesn’t matter to your company? To your workplace? The same way this guy was discovered – on his MySpace page – is the way information hunters and hackers will gather information about people and armed with scant information can gain access past corporate security. If your security people are as disengaged from their jobs as our sink-bather is/was, your company has deep problems.

Reference checks, past employment verification, and drug screening won’t eliminate these behaviors. These are behaviors related to values. Skilled behavioral interviewers may screen some of these out – but what of the people who slowly begin to devalue their employment?

Communication with employees is key. I wonder if our sink bather knew the actual dollar cost of his health insurance to the company – the first time he needs a prescription filled, he’ll place some value on that bath. In the meantime, the job is to align employment policies and values with the goals and values of the organization, to communicate those goals and values, and implement them consistently. It does no good to the organization to offer benefits of which no one knows the value and it does actual harm when employees find more value in taking advantage of their employer than in working to their employer’s benefit.

This was the failure of this one employee and his cadre of co-conspirators – no question – and ultimate responsibility rests with them. However, I wonder how well this franchisee company actually tried to keep their message to their employees on their corporate values and tried to keep their employees engaged.