Hug Your People : The Proven Way to Hire, Inspire, and Recognize Your Employees and Achieve Remarkable Results

In Hug Your Customers , Jack Mitchell showed business readers how to keep their customers happy—and their profits booming. In Hug Your People , he elaborates on his big secret: hiring, motivating and keeping your biggest asset, great employees! "Giving great personalized customer service has always been the foremost goal in my family, but one thing we never lose sight of is that you can't possibly deliver great service if you don't treat your own associates right." So says Jack Mitchell, CEO of his family's astoundingly successful chain of clothing stores. In Hug Your People , he shares his secrets for creating happy employees, secrets as simple as they are revolutionary: • Be NICE to them (and hire nice people to begin with) • TRUST them (they deserve it and will work even harder and smarter to continue to earn that trust) • Instill PRIDE in them (they are more productive when they are proud of their work) • INCLUDE them (since you can't do it alone) • Generously RECOGNIZE them (and not only with money—but don't be chintzy, either) Hug Your People is filled with real stories about real people. Jack offers his principles on "hugging" your associates—whether they are the sales team, the cleaning staff, the delivery people, the backroom financial wizards, the marketing and advertising departments, or outsourced staff. Hug Your People is just what today's employees and managers need. "Positive people power is fundamental to the overall success of any business." —Jack Mitchell Publishers Weekly Reading a book with the word "hug" in the title that basically advises on how to be nice to other people makes one realize that there ought to be more books like this on the shelves. Mitchell, CEO of the clothing stores Mitchells/Richards/Marshs has already outlined how to keep customers happy in Hug Your Customers . With his newest, Mitchell repeats this mandate, now turning inward to focus on how to hire and maintain a happy staff. Divided into five parts that outline how to treat people, build trust, develop pride in your organization and be inclusive and recognize people, the book looks at how creating a niceness culture can help to create employees that stick around the company and take a personal interest in the organization. Mitchell ends each chapter with a helpful checklist that repeats the important points. In one chapter, he advises redefining "rules and regulations" as "expectations and standards" (rules, for example, are "unbending... cold and impersonal"; expectations are "flexible and freeing when they need to be"). While such changes may seem subtle, the spirit behind them is surely a worthwhile reminder of how to make work more enjoyable for everyone. (Mar. 4) Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information Title Page 3 Dedication Page 4 Mitchells/Richards/Marshs Hugging Team 5 Contents 9 Prologue: Everyone Wants to Be Appreciated 13 Part One: Nice: It’s How You Treat One Another 27 Chapter One: Building a Niceness Culture 29 Chapter Two: How to Hire Nice People 39 Chapter Three: Forget Probation, Get Married for Life! 51 Chapter Four: Is It Kathy or Cathy? (Cathie or Kathi?) 56 Chapter Five: Making the Human Connection 61 Chapter Six: Work Is Play, It’s Fun 72 Chapter Seven: Not Everyone Wants an Orchid 78 Chapter Eight: Now That You’ve Connected, Reconnect 81 Hugging Study Guide #1: Nice 87 Part Two: Trust: The Most Important Principle of All 89 Chapter Nine: No Surprises 91 Chapter Ten: Have Expectations and Standards, Not Rules and Regulations 96 Chapter Eleven: A New World Environment, the “Of Course” Philosophy 101 Chapter Twelve: We Like Things Transparent 109 Chapter Thirteen: Build on the Positives and Strengths 115 Chapter Fourteen: Check In, Don’t Check Up 123 Chapter Fifteen: Conflict Resolution: When Winnie Stops Talking to Kristin 129 Chapter Sixteen: Going to the Moon 135 Hugging Study Guide #2: Trust 141 Part Three: Pride: The Power of All of Us 143 Chapter Seventeen: Feeling You Are the Business 145 Chapter Eighteen: Throw Your Personal Party at the Office 153 Chapter Nineteen: Reaching into the Community 158 Chapter Twenty: Spread the Word 162 Chapter Twenty-One: The Sound of Two Hands Clapping 168 Hugging Study Guide #3: Pride 175 Part Four: Include: The Five I's 177 Chapter Twenty-Two: You Can’t Do It Alone 179 Chapter Twenty-Three: Invite 183 Chapter Twenty-Four: Input 188 Chapter Twenty-Five: Include 193 Chapter Twenty-Six: Involve 203 Chapter Twenty-Seven: Invest 207 Hugging Study Guide #4: Include 213 Part Five: Recognize: It’s Not Only About Money 215 Chapter Twenty-Eight: But Don’t Forget Money 217 Chapter Twenty-Nine: Run Their Picture, Too 223 Chapter Thirty: Hugs Should Be Enduring 233 Chapter Thirty-One: Fair Is Not Always Equal 237 Chapter Thirty-Two: Hugging Around the Clock 243 Chapter Thirty-Three: When the Passion Goes 250 Chapter Thirty-Four: Welcome Back, Welcome Home 258 Hugging Study Guide #5: Recognize 263 Epilogue: I’m Going to Have Fun Today 265 Appendix: Hugging Achievement Test (HAT) 269 Acknowledgments 277 About the Author 282 Praise 283 Also by Jack Mitchell 287 Credits 288 Copyright Notice 289 In Hug Your Customers, Jack Mitchell showed business readers how to keep their customers happy—and their profits booming. In Hug Your People, he elaborates on his big secret: hiring, motivating and keeping your biggest asset, great employees! "Giving great personalized customer service has always been the foremost goal in my family, but one thing we never lose sight of is that you can't possibly deliver great service if you don't treat your own associates right." So says Jack Mitchell, CEO of his family's astoundingly successful chain of clothing stores. In Hug Your People, he shares his secrets for creating happy employees, secrets as simple as they are revolutionary:Be NICE to them (and hire nice people to begin with)TRUST them (they deserve it and will work even harder and smarter to continue to earn that trust)Instill PRIDE in them (they are more productive when they are proud of their work)INCLUDE them (since you can't do it alone) Generously RECOGNIZE them (and not only with money—but don't be chintzy, either)Hug Your People is filled with real stories about real people. Jack offers his principles on "hugging" your associates—whether they are the sales team, the cleaning staff, the delivery people, the backroom financial wizards, the marketing and advertising departments, or outsourced staff. Hug Your People is just what today's employees and managers need. Explains how to improve customer service by taking care of one's employees, counseling business leaders on the principles of imparting kindness, trust, and pride in a working force to enable greater productivity and loyalty.