Job design is mostly about designing tasks so that they match a typical employee's attitude and aptitude. Performance management is about creating incentives to do a job well — and disincentives to do it poorly. These are the carrots and sticks that keep your employees on track, but they can also include controls such as scripts and checklists that make it difficult for employees to stray too far.

UNCOMMON TAKEAWAYS

• The goal of an excellent service organization is to deliver outstanding results with average employees.

• Many companies design service models for employees they don't have — for a payroll filled with superstars when, in fact, there's a healthy range of talent and initiative on the team. Capture this reality in the design of the business model.

• Successful employee management systems have four main components: selection, training, job design, and performance management.These components must be internally consistent and aligned with the rest of the service model. There's no such thing as good or bad selection, for example. The issue is whether it's consistent with the rest of the employee management system and whether the system is consistent with the rest of the service model.

• IT solutions can help or hurt your employees' productivity, often in dramatic ways. IT tools that work are sensitive to the employee experience, including how and when data is entered in the rhythm of a particular job.The best solutions are developed in tandem with the role itself — not piled on after a job design is already in place.

• The average service employee is overwhelmed by the increasing complexity of his or her job. When a company identifies a gap like this between operational complexity and employee sophistication, it has two choices: change the people or change the job. In other words, (1) train and hire differently or (2) redesign the job so that your current team can do it.

Job Design

The alternative to rigorous training, of course, is a job design that is so intuitive that employees can do it on day one. Think of it as the anti-BBBK approach, a route to service excellence that is no less viable. It won't work in every industry, but the logic of it will: simplify the job so that your people can focus on service.

Job design is mostly about designing tasks so that they match a typical employee's attitude and aptitude. Performance management is about creating incentives to do a job well — and disincentives to do it poorly. These are the carrots and sticks that keep your employees on track, but they can also include controls such as scripts and checklists that make it difficult for employees to stray too far.

UNCOMMON TAKEAWAYS

• The goal of an excellent service organization is to deliver outstanding results with average employees.

• Many companies design service models for employees they don't have — for a payroll filled with superstars when, in fact, there's a healthy range of talent and initiative on the team. Capture this reality in the design of the business model.

• Successful employee management systems have four main components: selection, training, job design, and performance management.These components must be internally consistent and aligned with the rest of the service model. There's no such thing as good or bad selection, for example. The issue is whether it's consistent with the rest of the employee management system and whether the system is consistent with the rest of the service model.

• IT solutions can help or hurt your employees' productivity, often in dramatic ways. IT tools that work are sensitive to the employee experience, including how and when data is entered in the rhythm of a particular job.The best solutions are developed in tandem with the role itself — not piled on after a job design is already in place.

• The average service employee is overwhelmed by the increasing complexity of his or her job. When a company identifies a gap like this between operational complexity and employee sophistication, it has two choices: change the people or change the job. In other words, (1) train and hire differently or (2) redesign the job so that your current team can do it.