Tag: blog

What Does It Take to Thrive Vs. Merely Survive in the Experience Economy?

Automation vs. Autonomy: 4 Ways to Ease Concerns Around AI in Field Service

Are XLAs the Key Metric You’re Missing? Part One

August 26, 2024 | 11 Mins Read

6 Factors to Consider for Your Talent Strategy, Featuring Input from an Ideal Candidate

August 26, 2024 | 11 Mins Read

6 Factors to Consider for Your Talent Strategy, Featuring Input from an Ideal Candidate

My husband and I have a running joke when one is complaining to offer a solution and then say, “or do you just want to complain about it?” The way I roll my eyes at him when he says “yes” makes me think of how I feel about the field service organizations making a very half-hearted effort to address the challenges of today’s talent landscape.

Should we change our job descriptions and recruiting practices? Nah, let’s just complain. Shall we finally accept that we have to work harder than we used to by – gasp – training capable but inexperienced workers rather than expecting they drop from the sky with 10+ years’ experience? Let’s resist (and complain).

All the complaining about what’s changed and the pining for “how it used to be” is wasted energy that would be better put toward adapting to the current circumstances, because they aren’t changing anytime soon. So, yes, you do need to change your approach to attracting and recruiting – and, yes, you do need to put more effort into not only training and enablement, but culture and leadership. But if you do the work, the talent is there – and they’re telling you what they want and need if you’re just willing to listen.

Take, for instance, Teresa Carneiro, Field Service Engineer at STEMCELL Technologies, who recently shared her story on the UNSCRIPTED podcast. Teresa is 24 years old, from Portugal, and after finishing her master's degree in biomedical engineering set a goal to work in Germany. Having landed in a Field Service Engineer role in Munich for Vancouver-based STEMCELL, Teresa had a lot to share about her experience seeking said role.

Having had the opportunity to meet Teresa in person at the Future of Field Service Live event in Cologne this past June, I can attest to her appeal in terms of field service talent (the various job offers she received throughout the day are further proof). Most organizations are seeking greater diversity, including bringing more women into roles, and far more importantly than that she is intelligent, engaging, well-spoken, and passionate about her work. The insights she shared during our podcast are food for thought for organizations across industries looking to break free from the status quo and take action to modernize their talent approach.

#1: The Field Service Branding Problem Persists

I wrote an article a while back about the field service branding problem, and the premise endures. There isn’t ample representation of field service careers and, therefore, it’s a sort of unknown category of career opportunity that varies greatly by industry but overall falls victim to being “under the radar.” Kids in school talk about wanting to be doctors or teachers or athletes or businesspeople, but they aren’t aspiring to lead a global service organization (or a regional service company).

“One thing that I felt that was really lacking throughout my whole university experience was having some real examples of what it is possible to do after you finish your studies,” says Teresa, “And of course, you can do your own research, but having real life examples and people to talk about how their daily life actually looks like gives you a much clearer idea of what your own life can look like if you choose that path.” She came across the opportunity of becoming an FSE because she had a friend working in a similar role and felt it was an opportunity she’d enjoy.

While it’s a long-game approach vs. a real-time fix, it's important to consider how we work to make the world of field service more visible and the career opportunities within that world better known to children and students.

#2: We Don’t Have a Talent Gap, We Have an Experience Gap

Many service organizations have been accustomed to hiring FSEs or technicians with previous experience and are really struggling to accept that hiring based on experience is a practice of the past. We talk about the “talent gap” but in reality, there isn’t a shortage of talented candidates – there’s a shortage of candidates that have already done the job.

Companies that are taking the initiative to revisit requirements, finding ways to offer additional training or certifications or apprenticeships so that they can seek capable and teachable employees rather than those who have been in a similar role are opening up a far broader realm of possibility. “I think it is very curious because ever since I actually joined the industry, I have heard all sorts of companies saying exactly how hard it is to get young talent in their teams,” shares Teresa. “But I must say that having very recently searched for a job, I felt exactly the opposite. I felt that I was always behind because I didn't have any previous experience in this industry. Even when you come across some entry-level jobs, they often ask for years of experience. It can be a bit discouraging. And especially in this type of role, you need a lot of training regardless of your previous experience because of how specific it is. I truly believe that recently graduated students can bring a lot to the table. We are used to learning so many different things in such short timeframe.”

#3: Many Field Service Job Descriptions Are Hindering Efforts

There’s the need to evolve to a point of not requiring previous experience, but that particular issue aside many field service job descriptions are deterring potential candidates. Everything from inaccurate or outdated requirements (such as needing to lift 50 pounds when, in reality, no FSE has lifted more than 15 in history) to highly technical or niche terminology to poorly articulated descriptions of what the work and opportunity looks like are causing massive challenges.

It's important to consider: when is the last time you really updated your job descriptions? When you did so, how critically did you examine not only the criteria but the unconscious bias and the appeal to candidates? Many organizations haven’t updated as recently as they should, and even more haven’t truly reflected on what could help them cast a wider net of applicants to have more potential talent to choose from.

Let’s also remember that evidence shows that women are far less likely to apply for a role if they do not meet all requirements, which is important to consider if you have the goal of increasing diversity. “At first, if I didn’t meet all requirements, I would not apply. Then I started to understand that this simply wouldn’t work; I needed to apply and then prove myself in the interviews. If they meet me, I might change their minds. And that's what happened,” says Teresa.

It's fortunate for Teresa, and her employer, that she was given an interview despite not meeting 100% of the criteria. But this is a lesson for companies to consider the talent they are missing out on by not revisiting how they position the roles they need to fill. “I applied anyway, because I figured, what do I have to lose? And I encourage young people to do the same. Whenever I'm talking with friends that are searching for new jobs, I always say, apply even if you don't fit every requirement. Because it might change their mind when they meet you and talk to you,” Teresa says.

#4: Know Your Audience: What Appeals to Younger Talent about Field Service Roles

Tied in to creating more awareness appeal of field service roles and updated job descriptions to reflect what matters most to today’s talent, you first must understand what it is younger candidates are seeking and will find attractive about the FSE role. For Teresa, the appeal began with the sense of purpose she feels as an FSE. “I have found a job that allows me to keep in touch with the research environment I studied. For me, being able to bridge the gap between industry and research makes me feel really accomplished and that I'm doing something meaningful,” she shares.

Many younger workers are drawn to the opportunity to travel, which is common with field service roles. “I was excited for the opportunity to travel, to be exposed to different environments,” says Teresa. “I do love traveling and having the opportunity to visit not only places in Germany but also other countries in Europe.”

Teresa was also excited for the opportunity to hone her communication and people skills. “I also like to talk to people and establish communication with our customers. I see this job not only as servicing machines, but also listening and understanding our customers, which in my case are researchers,” she says. “I can relate to them and I can understand their urgency.”

Field service holds a lot of potential in offering variety as well as flexibility, if the company embraces doing so. For young talent that hugely values work-life balance, this can be an advantage. “I like that not every day is the same and I appreciate the flexible work hours,” explains Teresa. “In the same week, I can have some days working from home, others traveling, and also some days in the labs. Not always being in the same place for a nine to five job is also one of the reasons this role is so appealing to me. The younger generations are definitely more focused on work-life balance than previous generations.”

#5: Understand that Improving Recruiting is a Small Piece of a Much Bigger Puzzle to Solve

If you really want to create a winning talent strategy, it must reach beyond the recruiting and hiring phases. Companies can get wrapped up in these areas because of the acute need to fill roles, but the reality is if you aren’t creating a working environment that this talent wants to be a part of, retention will be poor and you’ll constantly be trying to catch up.

For companies who are bringing in more diverse candidates, consideration of the employee experience is even more imperative. If your new employees are different in any way from the “typical” employees, think ahead about what work is needed to ensure they are welcomed, treated fairly, and feel comfortable communicating any challenges.

“So far I've not really faced any big challenges. However, all of my visits so far have been joint visits as I'm still in training. And I guess that another thing that might make me feel more comfortable and secure is that I work mainly with research labs where, in contrast with field service, there are a lot of women working. Compared to other industries, I feel this one might be a bit easier to fit in as a woman, even though all of my field service colleagues are men,” Teresa shares.

Teresa not only felt very respected and supported by her manager from as early as the interview process, but she has felt welcomed by her peers. “I feel my company's culture is overall very welcoming. One thing I really appreciate is that everyone is super available to include me and have me join customers visits. They always take extra time to explain and train me properly. They never make me feel like a burden or like I'm delaying their work or making them stay longer or anything,” says Teresa. “The other thing that was also reassuring is that I was never given a time limit to when I need to be ready to start going alone. My company has always reiterated that I will only go alone when I feel comfortable and ready.”

The employee experience begins with onboarding and initial training, both of which demand proper focus. “With all the training [two intensive training weeks in Canada at headquarters and subsequent joint visits], I feel really equipped. As I've said before, the training is so specific that even if I'd had previous experience, it would not help me necessarily with this equipment. I don't think that would make such a difference,” Teresa says.

Of course, the quality of leadership and type of management plays a fundamental role in employee satisfaction and retention – this is another area of evolution and significant differentiation for some companies. “So far, I’ve been really lucky with my current manager because there is no micromanagement whatsoever. There’s a sense of ownership that comes from, of course, being given the tools that you need, but also having the freedom to explore the way you're most comfortable doing things and tackling issues in your own way,” says Teresa. “Instead of just being told how I need to approach services, I have been given space and highly encouraged to find the way that is best for me.”

#6: Check Your Bias and Assumptions

As younger workers enter field service and diversity improves in other areas as well, it’s more important than ever for us to be very aware of our biases and assumptions. As companies work to evolve to today’s talent landscape, knowing that you don’t know what you don’t know is imperative. Get curious, ask questions, seek to understand.

This importance was illustrated when I asked Teresa how she feels her draw to field service might evolve as she progresses into other phases of life. “Of course, I have no idea how my life is going to look in a few years. And I don't know if I will enjoy traveling as much as I do now,” says Teresa. “These questions about balancing this type of job with parenthood are often framed as exclusively a woman's problem, such as how do you see yourself managing this lifestyle when you become a mom? And, of course, you did not frame it that way, nor did you assume that I do want to have children, which is also not an assumption that should be made for every woman. But this balance is not just a woman's problem. This might be a concern for anyone who wants to start a family and knows how much time we spend away from home in this type of job. So, companies should tackle this problem and get creative, having everyone in mind and not just women.”

As we work to modernize our approach to talent, we have to understand that there are deeply embedded assumptions, norms, and unconscious bias that must be mined and mediated.

In conclusion, Teresa shares some thoughts on her recent experience seeking, obtaining, and starting a FSE career: “A young person's perspective is that the companies that are investing in creating flexibility and creative environments and that are promoting professional but personal growth as well and that provide a safe space for learning are definitely on the right track. Believing in young people and their skills is crucial as is giving them a chance, even if there are other candidates with more experience. Everyone needs their first opportunity to show their work. And ultimately, the companies that are working hard to attract this new talent hold significant power in including the younger generation.”

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Don’t Miss This Vital Element of a Customer-First Strategy

August 19, 2024 | 5 Mins Read

Don’t Miss This Vital Element of a Customer-First Strategy

In today’s rapidly evolving business landscape, the concept of customer-centricity is not just a buzzword—it's a strategic imperative. But while many organizations focus intensely on customer satisfaction, there's a critical element that often gets overlooked: the employee experience (EX). A customer-first approach is intrinsically linked to the experience of the employees who serve them, and businesses that appreciate and leverage this connection can drive transformative outcomes.

I spoke on this topic at last week’s Field Service East event in Orlando. The day’s theme was around customer centricity and as I reflected on what within that theme I wanted to surface, the need to better respect and reflect the role of EX in driving CX was my immediate thought. Further, because the event was a technology-centric event, I wanted to showcase how companies can expand their view of technology’s role to encompass how it benefits employees and can drive EX.

The Business Case for Prioritizing EX

At the heart of any successful customer-first strategy is a workforce that feels engaged, valued, and empowered. Research from the MIT Center for Information Systems Research (CISR) underscores this point by defining EX as the extent to which employees are enabled or constrained by organizational capabilities and practices. This includes both the digital and physical environments that allow employees to adapt their work to meet changing needs, and the collective work habits that foster knowledge-sharing, collaboration, and empowerment.

Research shows that companies investing in great EX are more innovative and deliver better customer experiences more efficiently. MIT researchers found that organizations in the top quartile of EX not only developed more successful innovations but also doubled their revenue from these innovations compared to companies in the bottom quartile. Additionally, their industry-adjusted Net Promoter Scores (NPS) were twice as high.

Gallup has reported that companies with engaged workforces are 21% more profitable and 17% more productive. McKinsey’s findings echo these sentiments, revealing that more than half of employees who left their jobs in the past six months did so because they didn’t feel valued by their organization or manager, or lacked a sense of belonging.

Technology as an Enabler for Better EX

We recognize technology as a powerful enabler, but most commonly that recognition is tied to how it can help the business, both in optimizing operations and in improving CX. What is far less considered is how technology can serve as an enabler for the EX.

This is an oversight; technology should be seen as an enabler not only for business productivity and customer benefit, but for transforming the employee experience. Instead of asking how technology can be used to get the most out of employees, organizations should consider how it can be used to create the best possible work experience for them.

I’ve seen some powerful examples of how companies are broadening their view of technology’s impact to include employee benefit. Here are a couple of illustrations:

Using Automation to Create Autonomy: One company is using IFS Planning & Scheduling Optimization, a powerful AI-based tool that will auto-adjust using various criteria, to offer employees the autonomy to select their start and end times each day. Rather than dictating their schedules, the tool will accommodate the technicians controlling their own. Some employees want to drop their kids off at school and start a bit later; others want an early start and an earlier finish. The technology can account for any of this, and this company has put focus on work-life balance and employee wellbeing by sharing in the benefit of the increased productivity by giving its workforce choice.
Sharing the Time Savings of AI. Another company has incorporated AI into its field operations to automate reporting. This saves each technician three hours per week of manual reporting, and rather than take the mentality of “How much more can we squeeze out of that three hours,? they instead opted to share that return by absorbing two of the hours gained into the technicians’ productive time but giving one hour back in the form of an hour shorter work week (for the same pay, of course).
Offering Flexibility with Remote Capabilities. I have a couple of examples of companies that are using Remote Assistance and other remote service capabilities to get creative about how service is delivered in their organizations and introduce far greater flexibility – which we know is important to today’s talent. Some are using remote to offer hybrid schedules, where technicians do remote work from home a few days a week and travel the others. Others are creating new roles where remote is the primary duty and therefore for those whom travel is a barrier have more options. Finally, some companies have been able to keep older, knowledgeable workers around longer to mentor newer talent by allowing them to support in a “hands-on” manner from home.
Using AI to Transform Knowledge Sharing. Many companies are making strides in how they’re using AI to capture, store, and intuitively share knowledge. This equips employees with the insights they need to be successful, easing burdens of the job and making them heroes in the eyes of the customer. It also helps alleviate the magnitude of onboarding and initial training needed when the tools are sophisticated enough to deliver accurate insights as they are needed.

Now I’m not suggesting companies take an entirely altruistic view on this topic (although I do believe treating people well is a worthwhile initiative in and of itself); this perspective isn’t to minimize the reality or importance of driving the familiar business metrics of efficiency, productivity, and the like.

I’m simply saying that when today’s technologies are leveraged well, they can accomplish those business objectives organically without the focus of “wringing the most we possibly can” from our employees being the narrative. In fact, when you broaden your view to consider how technology can benefit the EX, you may find you derive greater business benefit – because the two are inextricably linked.

The organizations that will lead the future of business are those that recognize that both people and technology are critical to success and must work hand in hand. By fostering an environment where employees feel empowered, valued, and engaged, companies can drive better outcomes for both their employees and their customers, paving the way for sustained innovation and success.

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How Much of Our Labor Challenges Could We “Retire?”

The shortage of skilled labor is a problem that has been hanging over the field service sector for years, and only got worse in the aftermath of the pandemic. We’ve talked about this challenge from a variety of standpoints – how technology can help maximize resource utilization and speed the onboarding of new hires, how we need to change recruiting practices, and how we must work harder to collect and democratize the institutional knowledge of retiring techs.

But are we overlooking an opportunity to find better or different ways to work with our older technicians? The Harvard Business Review ran an article earlier this year exploring the ways that companies can keep older workers engaged on some level to help fill in the labor gaps they face.

Through at least 2030, one of the biggest challenges is going to be the retirement of Baby Boomers, all of whom will be at least 60 years old by the end of this year. Each day, 10,000 of them hit retirement age. The article also cites a ManpowerGroup survey that found the share of companies reporting a talent shortage rose from 35% in 2013 to 77% in 2023.

In response, many companies are finding new ways to approach the graying of the workforce, including attempting to keep older workers around past age 65 in full-time, part-time, or hybrid positions to help keep staffing levels up while training and mentoring younger co-workers.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, more than 10 million Americans over the age of 65 are still employed. That figure could rise to 15 million by 2032, and 27% of senior citizens are actively looking for jobs.

Of course, field service work is not the same as, say, being a doctor, a teacher, or a software programmer. Depending on the industry segment, technicians can be expected to do a lot of very physical labor and/or to work in harsh conditions. Some technicians would likely bristle at working past retirement age while others would love to stay involved in some capacity.

There are numerous ways that field service organizations can benefit from working with their older technicians to optimize the timing and degree of their retirements. They could, for example, encourage older technicians to stick around as mentors, supervisors, or support staff. They can help get new hires up to speed and keep projects on track. Some companies may be able to keep older technicians involved on a part-time or contract basis handling basic troubleshooting or light-duty service calls or pitching in during peak demand times. With remote assistance technologies, there are more and more opportunities for older technicians to aid in service resolution from an office or even home, or to give “hands-on” support to a mentor, from a distance.

There may also be opportunities for companies to recruit older or retired technicians from adjacent industries. A tech may have passed the point where they can safely work on an offshore oil rig but could still be an asset in a less arduous service environment in an industrial or residential service field.

HR departments at service organizations could look at the existing pool of technicians and start having open conversations about their retirement plans and try to coordinate that with the onboarding of new hires. Those discussions are going to vary a lot based on age, health, family situation, and industry. The point is not to start pushing people out the door or trying to get them to stay past the point they want to work, but to find common ground that helps them meet their retirement goals and still make sure the business can support its customers. Just like a good company has paths to career advancement, they might want to create formal paths to (for lack of a better term) de-advancement – shifting into less-demanding roles as they reach or pass the typical retirement age.

There are ways this can be appealing or helpful for technicians, too. They may need to maintain company health benefits, for example, or they could use the extra income. According to the HBR article:

“If older people have more years to enjoy purposefully, they also have more years to fund. Many Americans approaching or in retirement do not have nearly enough savings. The Boston College Center for Retirement Research has found that nearly half of working-age households are at risk of not being able to maintain their current standard of living in retirement, even if the people in them work to age 65. Our recent research found that more than 40 million workers were thinking of retiring later than planned (by an average of five years), most often for financial reasons. Working longer is prudent for many—and necessary for some.”

Don’t get me wrong, that’s not a great scenario. People shouldn’t have to keep doing hard, manual labor into their 70s because the cost of living is too high. But there is probably an opportunity for employers to work with older technicians to ease that burden, address some labor shortage issues, and better protect institutional knowledge by taking a fresh look at how retirement works.

Has your company found novel ways to keep older techs engaged and involved in a way that’s mutually beneficial? Send me a note and let me know what you are doing!

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How Do We Channel the Power of AI While Reigning in Risks?

August 5, 2024 | 3 Mins Read

How Do We Channel the Power of AI While Reigning in Risks?

I live about 30 miles from the beautiful Chautauqua Institution in New York, yet somehow my first visit was just this summer. The Chautauqua Institution is a 150-year-old nonprofit education center and resort that serves as a catalyst for creative exploration, educational growth, relaxation and recreation. Each summer the Institution brings to its campus a stellar lineup of guest speakers and last month I had the opportunity to go hear a talk on AI given by Joanna Stern.

Emmy Award-winning Stern is the Sr. Personal Technology Journalist at the Wall Street Journal. She’s interviewed countless tech leaders and is well versed on today’s trends and tomorrow’s promises. She began her session with a bit of a farce – a video clip of her apologizing for not being able to deliver her talk live. As the audience grumbled, she walked out on stage and shared that the video was entirely AI-generated.

After talking about both the upsides and risks of AI, Joanna was asked by an audience member whether she feels the upsides of AI outweigh the risks. She took a long pause before answering, which surprised me. Then said, “Tough. Yes – it’s the natural evolution of technology. Humans have persevered through others – like the smartphone, which has its own positives and negatives. But we do need to be thinking about the potential negative consequences.”

Joanna began her talk with an overview of AI types and recent advancements, sharing examples of the sophisticated capabilities that have been developed particularly with GenAI. She shared some anecdotes from her interviews, such as Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella stating that his view is, “AI will help us do our jobs better, reducing drudgery and lowering barriers to knowledge work, even creating more jobs.”

Nadella’s points about reducing drudgery and lowering the barriers to knowledge work are ones that hold tremendous promise and could really positively impact service organizations. She also shared the views of Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, who said “I’m not scared of jobs going away; I think it’s good. But we need to contend with the speed of which this will happen. Humans will keep finding things to do.”

I feel less warm fuzzies about Altman’s statement, in part because of course the CEO of OpenAI isn’t going to go on record saying he fears how the technology will take jobs. That said, I do think there’s some truth to the point he’s making – if AI is used appropriately, yes it will automate some work – but it makes room for humans to deliver their irreplaceable value elsewhere.

The Potential Dark Side of AI

Joanna readily stated that “We are at a phase where AI doesn’t live up to its hype – but we’re moving fast.” And this is both good and, potentially, bad. She explained that where we are today aligns with the statements made by Nadella and Altman, but where we are going (AG1) becomes murkier. She summarized for the audience a number of AI risks, including:

Hallucinations
The lack of regulations and laws
The need to indicate if something is AI-generated
How AI-generated audio has fooled a bank
How AI has been used to clone presidential candidates and mislead voters
The unknown impact AI will have on our children
The resource constraint being created by the exponential growth of AI
Uncertainty on how to protect IP
Questions around how to keep AI ethical
How AI can perpetuate social ills
The use of synthetic data

She even said at one point that she didn’t mean for the session to cause fear or seem negative. While she is excited about what AI can do today and the potential it holds for tomorrow, she wants to illustrate the need to take both the benefits and the risks seriously. As we determine how best to apply this technology, and when – and when not – to trust it, we should be “thoughtful stewards” of its use, and I think it’s a very important reminder.

Joanna was asked by another audience member what she feels makes us human, to which she responded “creativity.” I think my answer would be empathy, which we should apply as we forge our path of AI. What would your answer be?

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July 29, 2024 | 4 Mins Read

What’s Better Than an Open Door Policy?

On a recent trip to Texas, I made plans to stop and catch up with James Mylett, SVP U.S. Digital Buildings at Schneider Electric. I first met James over a decade ago when I interviewed him for the cover of Field Technologies magazine and I’ve since admired his demeanor, his open mindedness, and I always enjoy talking with him about how the world of service is evolving. He has a reputation for his impactful leadership, and we discussed his views on the demands of modern leadership in a two-part podcast, which you can find here and here.

When I arrived at Schneider’s Dallas Hub, James greeted me at the door with a smile and I got checked in. We stopped to get a drink in the common area and an employee visiting from California excitedly approached James and began “talking shop,” not realizing at first that I wasn’t another employee. The three of us chatted for a bit, James happy to engage and never once making her feel rushed. I was thinking about how they say that the best conversations happen around the water cooler and how, as employees walked by and waved to James, he must have many interactions just like this.

After we finished talking with her, we did a quick tour of the facility which was remodeled during Covid and is modern with a fun Texas energy. As we walked over to sit down at a table and talk, I asked James if his office was on the second floor. He responded, “Oh, I don’t have an office.” He travels on a frequent basis, visiting other offices across the country and well as partners and customers – but when he is in Dallas, he opts to set up his workspace in the common area and uses a conference room when he needs privacy for a call or a meeting. He explained that he much prefers being out in the open where he has the opportunity to have those casual catch ups and keep up on the pulse of the working environment.

Now in retrospect, I’m not at all surprised. But in that moment, I was thinking – an SVP in a massive company, and no corner office? If not unheard of, certainly uncommon.

Breaking Down Walls

So, what’s better than an open-door policy? Perhaps a no door policy! Forgoing the corner office is truly representative of James’s approach. He doesn’t have an ego to feed, feel the need to take up space based on his position, or have the urge to demonstrate any sort of power. He would rather be in the midst of it all not only because I think he genuinely enjoys it, but because he knows staying closely in tune with what’s going on with his employees is the best way to be effective in his role.

He shared with me that in the company’s most recent employee engagement assessment, the Dallas Hub had the highest scores, and I’m not at all surprised. This isn’t to say that is entirely attributed to James, but I know he plays an important role.

I share this for other leaders as food for thought around what we need more of in service (and beyond). There are still plenty of companies with leaders who sit in those corner offices, detached from the realities of the frontline workforce and enamored with their positions of power – and those companies are quickly falling behind, because the culture that creates is untenable in today’s talent landscape. Now I’m not suggesting there’s anything wrong with a leader having an office, or that everyone should move themselves out of theirs. My point is the mentality – that’s what matters.

We need more leaders with less ego and more of a mind to serve. We need more leaders who focus on diversity and inclusion not because they know it’s “important” but because they believe it is imperative to their organization’s success. We need more leaders who make employees feel valued, respected, and heard – in big ways and small. We need more leaders who are more interested in listening than in talking. We need more leaders who are more invested in helping build future leaders than they are in protecting their own value. We need more leaders who realize their role today isn’t to know it all, but to curate teams of talent that compliment one another and then allow that talent to be creative, to weigh in, and to make a difference. We need more leaders who are looking around them to see who they can lift up rather than looking in the mirror at their own accomplishments.

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Balancing Empowerment and Efficiency in Field Service

When I began in this space, efficiency ruled the world of field service. Field service was perceived as a cost center of the business, and efforts to maximize efficiency took center stage. While efficiency is still important today, in a landscape where service is a differentiator for your business and a potential avenue of growth, the concept of employee engagement and empowerment has become far more important.

This begs the question, is it possible to balance efficiency and empowerment – or are they innately at odds? My belief is that we can, and must, find a balance. Companies that remain focused only on wringing every last ounce of productivity out of their field force with no regard to employee engagement (let alone how the impact of that type of management mentality trickles down to the customer experience) will fail in today’s talent landscape (and beyond).

What’s Your Perspective?

Finding the balance has a lot to do with perspective. If your leadership style is “command and control” or your company’s focus is too narrowly on the quarter-by-quarter financials, it’s time to evolve and consider the value of a more employee-centric approach. For those of you who are rolling your eyes, trust me when I say this doesn’t mean abandoning standards, or rules, or even a focus on efficiency; it simply means that you consider the more modern thinking that if you trust, enable, and empower your employees they will take ownership in their roles and meet – or exceed – your expectations. Without micromanagement!

If you find yourself rooted in skepticism, there is ample evidence of the correlation between employee engagement and productivity (among other benefits). For instance, according to Gallup, companies with highly engaged employees are 17% more productive and 21% more profitable than companies with disengaged employees. Gallup also states that, “engaged employees are more motivated to complete tasks on time and successfully, and they're better at meeting customer needs, which can lead to more sales and higher revenues. They also tend to be more innovative and efficient and have higher customer retention rates.”

Moreover, today’s talent is unlikely to tolerate working in the efficiency-at-all-costs environments of yesteryear. They seek environments that offer flexibility, invite their creativity, provide a sense of purpose, and uphold a sense of humanity. So not only is it proven that employee-centric environments yield better performance, but you’re unlikely to be able to fill roles and retain talent if you aren’t putting genuine effort into creating and nurturing employee engagement and empowerment.

Empowerment > Efficiency

When it comes down to it, I believe leaders must prioritize empowerment. Prioritizing efficiency illustrates a disbelief in, or disregard of, the correlation highlighted above, and while it’s fine to have measures in place to focus on or improve efficiency, weighting the importance of that above employee engagement is foolish.

So how do we create environments where employees feel empowered, and we are maximizing efficiency? Here are some thoughts:

Employee-centric cultures often happen from the top-down, with alignment on the importance and value of the approach
Leaders must create relationships with each of their team members and prioritize one-on-ones to understand their goals, motivators, communication preferences, and so on
Leaders need to ask a lot of questions, inviting teams to provide feedback, take part in brainstorming and problem-solving, and feel invested in team and company objectives
Employees need to feel valued, respected, and heard. Ensuring communication channels are varied, all opinions are welcome, and efforts are acknowledged and rewarded
Employees should have standards to adhere to, but be given room to be authentic and personalize their approach
Expectations should be clear and well-rounded (not short sighted) – metrics like customer satisfaction and retention should be weighted more than efficiency-driven metrics like jobs per day, because they are more indicative of success in an environment where service is a differentiator
Efforts around efficiency should be geared toward alleviating friction from the employees day-to-day work and removing barriers for them, not driving them to work harder and harder; we must balance what’s possible with what’s reasonable
Companies can use technologies that improve efficiency to create better employee engagement and satisfaction. For instance, one IFS Planning & Scheduling Optimization customer has used the intelligence of the tool to allow technicians to select their own start and end time each day, giving them something back from the benefit of automation. Stuart Thompson of ABB also shared in this podcast how as they’ve automated weekly reporting, rather than the company clawing back every moment of productivity, they’ve given the employees some of their time back
Enablement, through proper training, effective tools, ample knowledge management, and more leads to greater efficiency – the goal should be one of maximum effectiveness versus maximum efficiency

This is just what quickly comes to my mind – what would you add to the list? And how do you balance the criticality of empowerment with the need for efficiency? I’d love to hear from you!

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How Can Service Organizations Contribute to a More Sustainable Future?

July 8, 2024 | 11 Mins Read

How Can Service Organizations Contribute to a More Sustainable Future?

Sustainability is a topic that impacts each of us personally and plays an increasingly integrated role in the business landscape. From the perspective of how companies comply with and support sustainability requirements to how they aid customers with sustainable offerings or their own initiatives, it’s a topic that impacts just about every area of today’s business. Perhaps one area that is underrepresented though is the intersection of service and sustainability.

To discuss this and more, I recently welcomed back to the UNSCRIPTED podcast Rainer Karcher, sustainability enthusiast, “climate activist in a suit,” and former Chief Sustainability Officer, who has recently departed the corporate world to start helping companies work toward their sustainability objectives through his own organization, Heartprint.

As the Founder and Managing Director of Heartprint, he brings more than 25 years of IT experience from companies like Allianz Technology, IBM, and Siemens AG. His expertise spans support, infrastructure, data centers, service operations, and IT sustainability. For Rainer, sustainability extends beyond environmental protection to encompass a holistic approach aligned with the UN Sustainable Development Agenda, addressing all ESG aspects – and his passion for this work is contagious, so I strongly recommend listening to the full discussion.

There’s Always a “Why” for Sustainability

Let’s start with ensuring we’re all operating from the same understanding that everyone – and every business – should be invested in this topic and committed to taking action. There’s always a “why” for sustainability, it’s just a matter of through which lens the view resonates with you most.

“Start with your own health,” says Rainer. “If you take the SDGs, the Sustainable Development Goals, good health and well-being is part of sustainability. So, this is already a first advantage. The second is, if you for example eat less meat, you help the planet. Even by reducing consumption to maybe once or twice per week, you can consume the higher quality products, helping animal treatment, saving you money, and more. From the perspective of a company, there’s the topic of inclusion – a company that is inclusive has an advantage. If you provide a surrounding for employees to work towards a better future, the growing numbers for whom it’s a private passion will be happier in their jobs – so it can play a role in talent attraction and retention. Then we get into all of the ways these trends are impacting companies, there’s just so many reasons why this matters.”

As you read through the trends we discussed, you’ll see that whether you share a personal passion for this topic, feel invested in leaving a better future for your children, or are looking at it from strictly a business perspective, sustainability matters. There are demands to comply with, but also opportunities to win customer mindshare and marketshare by leading the way, and even create offerings to help customers on their own sustainability journeys.

Current Sustainability Trends

So, what are those trends? In an hour discussion there’s no way to cover everything, but Rainer and I focused on talking about the areas that would be especially relevant for service-centric businesses. Here’s a synopsis:

Regulatory pressures. “With the European Green Deal, but also impacting companies in the U.S. and across the world, there are guidelines impacting how companies do business. Depending on revenue, but going down to even the small business world, is the CSRD, Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive, and it is replacing the non-financial reporting of the past. This is nothing completely new, but brings a broader and deeper granularity when it comes to sustainability. It contains the typical environmental aspects like carbon footprint, like water consumption, air quality, it goes into biodiversity aspects as well but also goes into social, including pay gaps, diversity, inclusion, accessibility, all those features. And finally, the governance aspect goes into the supply chain aspects. What is the code of conduct of a company to work together throughout the supply chain? It is impacting companies all over the world. We do have, depending on relationships and customer scenarios, for sure, always the need to make things transparent. And this is the biggest achievement of initiatives like CSRD and some others as well. On the other side, it does regulate where investments are going into the part of CSRD and that Green Deal called EU taxonomy. So, this is defining what is sustainable investments. I think the equivalent in the US is a bit the Inflation Reduction Act.”
Increasing Transparency. “Regulations require you to create a transparency on where your emissions are coming from and how you are making progress to further reduce and to get to carbon neutrality in the future, then until 2050 by latest to stick with that 1.5 degree Paris Agreement. To those of you who are not familiar, the objective of that is to limit the global average increase of temperature to 1.5 degrees. To achieve that, you have to look into, for example, the way you travel. In field service, employees normally spend a lot of time on the road. To get to your customers the sooner the better, you mostly aren’t taking any public transport or trains. You jump maybe onto a plane or into a car to get there. This is part of the regulatory for the environmental aspect, but also brings us to finding ways to lower that footprint.”
Lowering Environmental Footprint. “We have to find ways to lower your footprint, meaning maybe changing to electrical vehicles if it's on short ranges or mid ranges. Maybe changing to sustainable aviation fuel if you have to fly and if you have to.” There are also a number of ways in field service to use modern technologies to reduce your environmental footprint. For example, the incorporation of remote service capabilities that allow customer self-service and/or remote resolution help organizations avoid unnecessary on-site visits and also ensure that when a visit is needed, the information to achieve first-time fix has already been gathered. Moreover, technologies like IFS Planning & Scheduling Optimization (PSO) help to maximize efficiency and reduce travel time, helping to make sure you are keeping the footprint that is necessary as small as possible.
Accessibility. “The accessibility aspect in the U.S. is now coming over to Europe. We're quite behind here in Germany and in Europe. We have the European Accessibility Act, which is now enforcing companies starting in summer of next year to make their products and services accessible for anyone. That means inclusiveness for blind people, for people with any kind of mental diseases or disabilities. That is something which affects for sure service and field service as well.”
Human Rights. “In Germany, for example, we've started already last year, the German Supply Chain Act and now the European Union is enhancing that most likely in 2026 with the CSDDD (Corporate Supply Chain Due Diligence Directive). This focuses on the whole aspect on human rights treatments, children, labor, modern slavery and so on, throughout the whole supply chain. If I'm, for example, working with a call center in India, I have to ensure being the company who is providing the service, that even if it's a third or fourth tier supplier, that they are treating humans right and providing fair payment the way it is defined in the local area region. So, I have to ensure this is in my own responsibility and not just handed to the supply chain.”
Investment Decisions. “I don't make an investment into a company which I have to be afraid might not be existent in a year or two. I'd like to understand that whatever they do is resilient, in regard of the whole supply chain and even reputational aspects. I do not want to work with a company, invest into a company, or insure a company I might see a risk of getting into press and media in a negative way, or maybe in a year or two and they go bankrupt. I don't know for the U.S. market, but I know for the European and in particular German market, banking is heavily looking at who is getting loans and for what conditions. Companies who have a clear sustainability commitment, the target setting, and resilience and transparency already, they get loans to far better conditions than companies who not.”
Supply Chain. “A perfect example we've seen already throughout the pandemic. If you remember that ship blocking the Panama Channel for a couple of days, brought a lot of companies really to their limits. If I have an understanding of my suppliers throughout the whole chain and transparency of what is their impact and what could bring my supply chain to risk. With human rights, the fashion industry has been an example of poor working conditions and reputational aspects. Every company leader, every C-level in a company, whether it's 50, 500, 5,000, 500,000 employees, has to take responsibility.”
Sustainable Product Design. “If you design a product in the way that you're first of all able to repair it quite well, and when it's not able to be repaired anymore can be fully reused, you are acknowledging that our resources on Earth are limited. We don't have unlimited resources. In many cases today, we produce something, we use it, and at the end of the life cycle we throw it away often to landfill, often exported to sub-Saharan Africa or elsewhere, and we just waste and dump. This has to change. If we design products for longevity and to where we can dismantle components, separate metals from plastics, and so on, it will not only lower costs but create more circularity and lessen the environmental harm.”
Circular Economy’s Service Potential. The circular economy is not only better for the environment, but it can present opportunity for service providers. In a recent post on LinkedIn, Lucas Rigotto, CSO, Liquid and Powder Technologies at GEA Group, shared how he feels many research organizations and news sources discussing sustainability miss the opportunity to touch on the intersection with service. He says, “In some of our recent Sustainability and Circular Economy discussions, I came away feeling incredibly energized about the crucial role service plays in our organizational goals but even more on impact for the industry to be more efficient, profitable and really deliver outcomes from a circular approach. Service is in a prime position to help our customers achieve their sustainability goals by focusing on upgrades, modernizations, service contracts, and digital solutions. We’re ensuring products run smoothly and efficiently for longer periods, reducing waste, and conserving resources. How do we do it? Upgrades and modernizations give our customers’ assets a new lease on life. Service contracts provide ongoing care to keep everything in top shape and minimize unnecessary downtime. Our digital solutions bring process insights, help optimize their operations with our autopilot like applications and real-time monitoring and predictive maintenance, ensuring our customers and their industries are always one step ahead. By adhering to these practices, we’re not just assisting our customers; we’re also making a significant positive impact on the planet. We keep pushing forward, embracing the 5Rs, and demonstrating how our strategic service activities are paving the way for a more sustainable future. It’s a win-win for the environment, for our business and mostly for our customers and society!”
Artificial Intelligence. “If you look into the digital and IT world, everyone is talking AI. Everyone is looking into trying to find real use cases for AI. I just recently had a service experience myself where I called my mobile provider with a need and after about five minutes of conversation, realized I wasn’t talking with a human. We are just at the beginning of that – AI capabilities are tremendously changing the way we live, the way we work, what we do and how we do things. In service areas, you can take the simple first-level support and free up the people doing that on a day-to-day basis to work on creative, innovative things. From that aspect, there is a huge opportunity to improve our lives with artificial intelligence. On the flip side of the coin, it always comes with a price. And AI is consuming already a huge amount of energy. For example, if you Google yourself versus putting your name into ChatGPT4, ChatGPT will bring up more or less the same results but costs you 100 times more energy than Google does, and this goes for any AI solution. The energy consumption is incredible, and it requires a huge amount of data centers to be built. There’s also the ethical aspects of artificial intelligence, including the treatment of people entering the data, the issue of bias, and the question on its impact on humanity as a whole. If it sounds like I'm an enemy of AI, I am not. I am quite sure we need to have it. It's part of a solution, but we have to treat it right.”

The Issue of Greenwashing

I was curious to ask Rainer whether, with the mandated increases in transparency, greenwashing is still a major issue. According to him, greenwashing won’t go away. “As long as you have humans who are intelligent and smart at using the right words and the right visuals, there will always be greenwashing from an outside perspective,” he says. “Things like the CSRD are aimed to reduce that and it is being enhanced with a clean claims directive to regulate how you have to set up your strategy to be allowed to talk on carbon neutral or net zero. For example, to stick with that, you have to reduce your own footprint by 90% and only 10% is allowed to be compensated and offset with certificates. If you have to compensate more, then you are not allowed officially to use the term net zero. Does it keep all the companies away from greenwashing? Surely not I’m pretty confident if you keep your eyes open and trust your gut feeling, you’ll be able to identify those who are serious in their efforts and those who are doing the check-the-box thing.”

What’s Next?

Curious what Rainer anticipates the next 12 months will bring in terms of the trends discussed above, and more? “Twelve months will definitely be the time in which we’ll see AI dramatically increasing. I think we need to have a way bigger focus on resilience and the awareness that what we’ve already seen in terms of the effects of climate crisis aren’t going away. We’re still focused on things like transparency for the as-is, but we need to put a dramatically fast focus on what will happen in the future. So AI will have a huge role in prediction and helping us adapt to situations and find alternatives. I also think the world is connecting more and more – we as humanity and as the enterprise world are connecting globally. We have a global issue, so we have to treat it as such – not as competitive advantage, not with intellectual properly, but with collaboration and working towards one goal together.”

And with that, you can likely understand why Rainer named his new company Heartprint. His enthusiasm for and view around this work comes from the heart, and companies who are most committed to doing the work will know that along with creating a strategy and a blueprint, you will be most successful if you genuinely care.

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Are We Facing AI Fatigue?

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Are We Facing AI Fatigue?

An artificial intelligence (AI) search company called Lucidworks recently published a report on what they characterized as a slowdown in AI spending, and it brought to mind a roundtable discussion at our recent Future of Field Service Live event in Cologne, Germany.

During my final interview with Jelle Coppens, Product Domain Expert for Service and Repair at Electrolux, the discussion turned to AI. Electrolux is using IFS's AI-powered planning and scheduling optimization engine (PSO) and plans to expand their use of the technology. The conversation was a great real-world use case of AI in action, but what struck me was that during the roundtable sessions after the session, some participants said they are growing tired of hearing about AI.

I get it. AI is an inescapable topic, no matter what industry you are in. Much of the roundtable venting had to do with the volume of AI coverage and the lack of specifics on exactly where and how to use the technology. (“We are tired of hearing about this technology” is not part of the Gartner hype cycle, but maybe it should be!)

That's why the Lucidworks report caught my eye, because their data indicates actual deployment experiences are throwing some cold water on AI-mania, and that will probably help make the projects that do move forward a lot more successful. I think what has happened is that the bandwagon took off without many defining a clear business case or selecting proven, functional tools. Now we are stepping back to assess how best to make use of AI, and I can see how all of the conversation can cause some to grow weary.

However, I do believe AI is an incredible opportunity – in field service and beyond. One we need to take caution to harness appropriately and balance with humanity, but the potential to layer more intelligence into existing digital ecosystems is massive.

AI in Field Service

In field service, AI is (at least near term) best suited for what the tech industry now refers to as co-pilot scenarios, where the algorithm exists to enhance or augment workflows, rather than supplanting the real humans doing that work. In applications where there are simply too many variables or too much data for a person to possibly evaluate accurately, AI can help narrow choices and point people in the right direction. It can also help to automate work that is time consuming but low value, and to heighten predictive capabilities.

AI projects that are not well planned or properly implemented can quickly prove to be costly and useless. Large language models (LLMs) trained on unfiltered data can hallucinate, and models that ingest AI-created data can suffer from what is known as model collapse (I talked about this back in April).

The Lucidworks survey indicates that AI adoption is beginning to slow because of some of these concerns, with just 63% of organizations planning to increase AI spending this year, compared to 93% in 2023. According to the study, just around one quarter of planned projects are fully implemented, and 42% have not produced significant benefits. In many cases, projects haven’t made it out of the pilot stage.

The number of companies worried about project cost has gone up 14 times compared to 2023, and concerns about response accuracy have increased by a factor of five, The more complex the application, the more these concerns increase (along with costs), while success is harder to achieve.

The WBR Insights "AI in Field Service Report" also mirrors some of the Lucidworks findings. In that survey, 92% of respondents said they struggled with legacy integration in their AI implementations, and 74% were challenged by a lack of data quantity or quality. Costs were a problem for 62% of organizations.

Most of the companies in the WBR were already using AI for predictive maintenance (88%), parts wastage prevention (82%), case predictions (58%), and call deflection (57%).

When it is deployed successfully, AI can produce notable benefits in time savings, increased first-time fix rates, reduced parts wastage, and faster resolution times. For instance, another report from MarketsandMarkets claims the integration of mobility and AI in field service can result in 30% to 40% productivity gains.

So, are we facing AI fatigue? In some cases, yes – but not because the technology is overhyped. Rather because many companies leapt into AI projects haphazardly when the buzz began, only to learn the business benefits of AI demand a much more fastidious approach. To me that’s what this data represents; a collective step back to take a more tempered, strategic approach to AI, which will ultimately pay off.

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What Do We Mean When We Say, “Service is a People Business?”

June 17, 2024 | 4 Mins Read

What Do We Mean When We Say, “Service is a People Business?”

In countless conversations, podcast interviews, and event sessions I’ve heard the same phrase: “Service is, and always will be, a people business.” I agree wholeheartedly, but I think it’s interesting to ponder what exactly does this mean?

This statement seems to surface among a few common themes – one is when discussing advancements in technology. Almost as a reminder of the importance of human connection and the power of our frontline workforce. Another common point in conversation where this phrase arises is in seizing the full potential of service; determining how best to honor, protect, and leverage the relationship the service provider has with customers.

When I ponder what the phrase means, there are a few things that quickly come to mind:

The impact of people on creating brand perception and customer experience and loyalty. We know that the service workforce is often the most prominent face of the brand for customers, and that position holds a lot of power. Sure, the worker is there to “get a job done,” but in reality, when they are properly enabled and empowered, they do so much more. They build relationships that foster customer satisfaction and create goodwill for the inevitable moments that things might not go smoothly. They are the epitome of the term “trusted advisor;” a term that many can try to capitalize on and exploit, but only those really making the effort can achieve. There are aspects of the daily job that can be automated to make things easier and smoother, even certain service tasks that could be eliminated, and roles may change to where service execution becomes increasingly remote and so on. But I think, fundamentally, the humanity that exists in this relationship and the nuance to it that only people can create will remain, even if its form morphs and evolves.
The potential of people to uncover new service opportunities and aid in business transformation. The companies who don’t recognize the wealth of knowledge that exists at the frontline to lead their business to the next phases of success are truly missing the boat. We talk about the importance of customer intimacy and the need to truly understand a customers’ business; who better to do so than the service technician? When we are able to consider how they can take part in innovation rather than being solely at the receiving end, we can unlock a new source of valuable perspective to help influence what’s valuable to customers and therefore how our service can grow and expand. We can use predictive analytics to understand trends and to infer a lot about how customers use our products and what they may find value in or need, but, again, the relationships and interactions that service is built upon are a treasure trove of perspective that can’t be found anywhere else.
The unique way people complement digital capabilities. Data is powerful and AI is bringing to service a new wave of intelligence that holds tremendous appeal and potential, but when the phrase “service is a people business” is spoken in this context, it’s to remind us that those capabilities are most impactful when used alongside the power of people. There’s so much debate about at what point AI will replace humans, I think we remind ourselves and each other of the people nature of service to reinforce the fact that we must balance our focus on and investment in technology with our continued and amplified focus on and investment in our people. This doesn’t mean roles and duties won’t change, but we need to work to define what can and shouldn’t be automated and shape that into what the future of service will look like, and how it will remain a people business.
The irrefutable, irreplaceable importance of human connection. In all of these ways, and more, there’s just something about human connection. This comes up at every Future of Field Service event we host; there’s nothing like coming together face-to-face to share with each other, learn from one another, and feel less alone in the world. It can be hard to articulate or summarize, but we as humans are meant to engage with one another; and while in service what that engagement looks like may take new shapes in the next era, there will always be a certain part of the experience that can only be delivered by people.

What would you add to my list? How are you thinking about ensuring we protect the power of people while working to innovate and keep pace with digital capabilities? I’d love to hear from you!

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