Posts Tagged ‘Culture’

Holiday Giving – The WOW! Way

In: Culture

By: Sherry Zachary on Dec 07, 2010 at 9:30 am

Imagine you are the married father of three growing teens and a toddler and you are the sole wage earner in your household.  You work two jobs to make ends meet.  Then within two weeks, your car quits, and both your washer and dryer give out.  The car alone is going to cost over $1000 for towing, parts and labor.  All this happens just before the holidays.

Then imagine you work for WOW!. 

Guess what? 

Your supervisor calls the garage who maintains the vehicles for their office, and the garage owner offers to repair the car for the cost of parts alone.  Your supervisor picks up the tab for towing.  Your teammates secretly hold a meeting and take up a collection.  Their money pays for the parts.  Then they find a replacement washer and dryer set in good working condition and buy it for you.  Finally, they purchase gift certificates and donate the rest of the collected cash toward food and gifts so your family can have a real reason to celebrate Christmas.

This is just one story, in one location, in one holiday season at WOW!.  These kinds of efforts go on all year long when a member of our WOW! family is faced with unexpected trauma and need. 

It’s called Leading with Courage.
It’s called Serving with Heart.
It’s called Celebrating the holidays with Grace

This year, like last year, there is more need than ever in our neighborhoods and our communities.  Please consider a few less stocking stuffers, or a more cost-effective Christmas meal and consider spending your savings on someone else.  You can touch the life of someone who has very little to celebrate this year.

I’ve quoted our CEO in this column before, but it’s appropriate to repeat it here:

“NOTHING FEELS BETTER THAN GIVING.”

Happy Holidays from WOW!

0
VN:F [1.7.4_987]

Rate Me

Rating: 3.0/5 (4 votes cast)

Tags

, , , , ,

It is Tough All Over

In: Customer Experience & Support

By: Bill Wright on Dec 02, 2010 at 9:10 am

  It is that time of the year again where, not only does the cost of living go up, the cost of doing business goes up as well. In order to support our customers and deliver the best customer experience possible, some customers are experiencing a rate adjustment this year. We do understand that these are difficult times and many people are just getting by. We all do our best to stick to a budget, especially this time of year. At the same time, our loyal customers must realize that in order to provide the incredible service, you have grown to know from WOW!, rates from time to time will need to be adjusted.  When the station providers increase their rates, we must also in order to stay in business. Also, with the high demand for streaming video across the WOW! network, WOW! will have to invest in our technical network to ensure we deliver the quality and reliability our customers deserve.

  This is not something that WOW! enjoys doing but it is something that needs to be done in order to bring the service to you.  WOW! is always looking for the best balance of the needs of our customer with the very real cost of doing business.

  Happy Holidays to you and yours!!

0
VN:F [1.7.4_987]

Rate Me

Rating: 1.4/5 (11 votes cast)

Tags

, , , , , ,

Career Pathing – the WOW! Way

In: Culture

By: Sherry Zachary on Nov 30, 2010 at 11:28 am

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!.

0
VN:F [1.7.4_987]

Rate Me

Rating: 2.3/5 (6 votes cast)

Tags

, , , ,

Saying ‘Thanks!’ the WOW! Way

In: Culture

By: Sherry Zachary on Nov 23, 2010 at 8:00 am

Recently, I was struck anew with appreciation for being in a Human Resources position at a company like WOW!.  Why?  Because I was asked to review a tri-fold recruiting brochure being developed in one of our field locations and in it, there are several quotes from WOW! employees.  This is what they said:

“I have worked for WOW! for five years and I can truly say WOW! is part of my family.  If you ever wanted to work for a company that cares and supports their employees and helps them strive for ‘gold’ in their career, then this is the company for you.  I cannot imagine working anywhere else”

“It only gets better and better and you WILL have a WOW! Moment while you are here… it’s just a matter of time!”

“Working for WOW! has been one of the best experiences of my life.  Since working here I have gained a level of self-respect that will never go away, and I have the courage to step out and do things I never would have imagined possible.”

Can you imagine working for a company where the culture and atmosphere inspire employees to say things like that?!  At WOW!, it’s all in a day’s work, and it all boils down to our focus on Servanthood.  Everyone at WOW! learns (and eventually believes in their own heart) that it is an honor to serve others.  When you are in a Human Resources department, whose primary function is to serve others, it is extraordinarily rewarding to have other managers, department heads and yes, even the executives of the company have the same mindset… the honor of serving others. 

Servanthood is a self-fulfilling practice.  When you ‘do’ for others, I guarantee there will be a time, maybe when you least expect it, that others will ‘do’ for you.  As we approach our national day of giving thanks, I would like to express my own gratitude for being part of this unique company and send out my own Thanksgiving wish:

May everyone who reads this either give or receive a WOW! Moment today.  Happy Thanksgiving!

0
VN:F [1.7.4_987]

Rate Me

Rating: 2.3/5 (3 votes cast)

Tags

, , , ,

Technology and the Pyramids

In: Technology

By: Steve Stanfill on Nov 17, 2010 at 8:01 am

I recently have had the opportunity to visit Egypt, a country with significant history and rich culture, both ancient and modern.  I was intrigued by how technology is intertwined with the lives of the Egyptian people, in this so-called “third world” country.

It is clear that ancient Egypt had tremendous intellectual investment in mathematics, science, and architecture, as we see the evidence of those capacities in the ancient buildings and monuments that still exist in the country–the pyramids, for example, are one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, and the only such wonder still extant.  Such a monument to man’s genius having survived over 3000 years is singular and remarkable.

I certainly saw much modern technology in Egypt as well, and my sense is that it is enhancing the lives of those folks just as we feel it does for us and our neighbors.  But I was also struck by the fact that face to face human interaction is precious, and sometimes lacking in our modern world.  We might think we know the hearts and minds of people, collectively and individually, when we see them on TV, talk with them on the phone, or visit internet sites associated with their culture.  And those communication tools are a wonderful blessing, but my point is that technology should only supplement face to face interaction, not supplant it entirely.

The Egyptian people are wonderful–warm, open, expressive, and friendly.  I felt welcome and safe in that country. Frankly, having relied on CNN and Fox News for my information on Egypt and its people prior to my visit, I expected something different.  I did not expect throngs of school children and their teachers surrounding us, anxious to take pictures with them and pelting us with questions, practicing their English.  I did not expect total strangers to wave to us as we sat in very close proximity (seven vehicles deep on a four lane road!) inching our way along the motorway.  I did not expect the help I received at every turn from total strangers.  And I was frankly a little put out at our media for the somewhat skewed impressions that they imposed upon me about Egypt’s history, culture, and people.

Our present technologies are terrific, but maybe it would be a good thing to get out a bit more and connect in more fundamental ways.  I worry about our children who speed along a motorway watching a DVD, completely disconnected from the beautiful world just beyond the windows.  I worry about the college student walking between classes glued to his cell phone, completely disconnected from those talented, gifted people he passes by on his way to class.  I worry about the societal loneliness incipient in our present culture as we interact less and less with each other, reducing that precious human element to a counterfeit avatar in a chat room.  Letting our technologies/media (or our politicians) handle all our interaction (diplomacy) one with the other will leave us with information that is partial and incomplete at best.  And we will miss the opportunity to enjoy the full richness and goodness that is humanity.

Until next time….

1
VN:F [1.7.4_987]

Rate Me

Rating: 3.7/5 (7 votes cast)

Tags

,