Front line staff and your PR program

What are the first people prospective customers/clients/patients see doing to increase your organization's public relations?

In one healthcare organization I visited yesterday, the first employee I was directed to see appeared ironically to be very sick. When I asked her why she was at work, she told me that her department had let many employees go, and was very short-staffed. The next person I was sent to had her head down on the desk. When I expressed concern about her health, apparently conscious that everyone in a crowded waiting area could hear her, she self-consciously laughed and said she was mostly bored - despite the place being very busy. If this facility took such poor care of the front line employees, I wondered how they expected the employees to take exceptional care of their patients.

Regardless of your industry, how are you taking care of your front line employees? What are you doing to show them that you care about them? Are you teaching them the critical role they play in getting new customers or patients? Are you doing it with frequent spoken and written compliments, flowers, occasional free meals or gift cards, making sure they take time off when they need to, a career ladder to help them develop skills for other jobs, or some other method? Times are tough in many companies, but often without meaning to, front liners can derail your expensive public relations efforts.

Please let us know your company's efforts to make your front line team feel special!