{"id":3363,"date":"2023-01-18T11:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-01-18T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tlscontact.com\/?p=3363"},"modified":"2023-12-12T16:33:22","modified_gmt":"2023-12-12T15:33:22","slug":"people-and-culture-are-our-most-important-asset","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tlscontact.com\/en\/insights\/managing-change\/people-and-culture-are-our-most-important-asset\/","title":{"rendered":"People and culture are our most important asset"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In the process- and technology-driven world of visa applications, it might seem odd to put the focus on \u201csoft\u201d assets such as people and culture. The truth is, they are what allows us to make a real difference in both customer care and in delivering quality and consistency to our government clients every day.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As we previously outlined, day-to-day interactions with applicants matter in the visa processing world<\/strong><\/mark><\/a>. They make the process smoother and give future travellers a positive image of their destination country. But what matters just as much is what happens behind the scenes. Our staff must be thorough when processing every single visa application, to enable our government clients to then review applications quickly and efficiently. That is an essential part of ensuring travellers get the best possible experience from the very beginning of their journey. It means aiming for operational excellence at all times. And that cannot happen without the active involvement of our teams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Creating the Right Culture for Operational Excellence<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Operational excellence is a critical strategic objective for us. But reaching that objective is not possible without the right culture. As the famous management consultant Peter Drucker remarked, \u201cCulture eats strategy for breakfast<\/em>\u201d: whenever strategy and organisational culture are not aligned, it is impossible to implement strategy effectively. \u201cEmployees must be willing and able to unleash their individual and collective human genius to support the company purpose and strategy, and this can only happen in a culture perfectly aligned with both,\u201d <\/em>as former chairman and CEO of Best Buy and senior lecturer at Harvard Business School Hubert Joly argues in a recent article<\/mark><\/strong><\/a>. Which is why we have directed our efforts at creating a culture of empowerment where our employees are able and willing to act to make operational excellence a reality at every level.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Employee Satisfaction: The Key to High Performance<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Promoting this kind of culture has a clear impact on employee satisfaction and that, in turn, impacts operational performance. In 2022, TLScontact achieved Great Place To Work\u00ae certification in 34 countries, representing 80% of our workforce. This is a marked improvement from the total of 22 countries where we obtained that certification in 2021. Of course, high employee satisfaction makes us proud, but there is more than pride involved: according to Gallup, a global consultancy, employee engagement has a very tangible impact on businesses<\/mark><\/strong><\/a>. For example, highly engaged business units realise an 81% difference in absenteeism, a 14% difference in productivity and a 10% difference in customer ratings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We have repeatedly witnessed the results of this focus on our teams and our culture of empowerment in recent crises, whether they affected only TLScontact or the whole world:<\/p>\n\n\n\n