The WOW! Buzz

Three days ago, I had the opportunity to train and teach three new technicians on the Career Path Program they will enter upon completion of their training.  This program is designed to provide Broadband Technicians with a clear progression of skills, each of which represents a pay increase once the employee demonstrates he or she can perform the work and maintain certain performance metrics.  It also provides technicians with the opportunity to become involved with, and be partly accountable for their progress through the different skill levels.  Finally, it provides technicians the opportunity to earn pay increases in any given month of the year – pay increases that are skill-based and not tied to the annual review/merit increase process.  A Career Path Program for Broadband Technicians seems logical, right?  Since I provide this training almost every month, I was surprised to learn I’ve started taking it for granted.

This month we had an unusually lively group of technicians and they asked a lot of questions.  As a result, I ended up describing the original Career Path program launched in 2003, and the iterations it had gone through over the past seven years to accommodate changes in our market, changes in our product offerings and changes in technology.  As the training came to a close, one of the technicians spoke up and said, ‘You know, I worked for ‘X’ company for over three years. I never had a performance review from them, not even one, and I sure never got any pay increase because of my skills.’ 

I was more than surprised.  No performance review in three years?  No pay increase as the employee was able to perform more complicated work?  I realized once again, that I sometimes take for granted the culture and core values of WOW!.  We do pay for performance – top performers are rewarded in multiple ways at WOW!.  We also pay competitively.  If someone can do A, B, and C jobs, that someone should be making more than a coworker who can only perform A-type jobs.  And we are committed to our annual review process.  Employees deserve to get feedback, find out where they are excelling, where there is room for improvement and what they contribute to their team, their department and the business.

It’s a simple matter of Respect – treating employees the way anyone would like, no, the way anyone would expect to be treated
It’s also a matter of Integrity – doing the right thing and connecting compensation to skills and performance
It’s a simple matter of Accountability – making pay adjustments timely and appropriately
It’s a matter of Servanthood – showing employees that as managers, we know we owe it to them to follow the first three statements above.

There’s those Core Values again.  They’re pervasive as all get-out at WOW!, even where compensation is concerned.   Next month, when I stand up to train new technicians on the Career Path Program they’re about to enter, I will tell them about the real roots of the program – the Core Values that are the foundation  of WOW!.