“Clients do not come first. Employees come first. If you take care of your employees, they will take care of your clients.”- Richard Branson.
In any field, it has been inculcated in us that clients always come first. For teachers, the welfare of the students is of utmost priority. For business establishments, the customer is always right. For profitable institutions, it is a must to keep the clients happy, because they bring in the money.
However, this statement by Branson makes us look at things from a different perspective. To some extent, his idea holds water and is worth pondering. Let us zoom in on the teaching profession as an example. Teachers ideally have one goal in mind, and that is to teach and educate their students. Everything they do is for the sake of the students because service to the students is what they have sworn to do. They teach the students, but are they teaching their children also? Is the salary okay? Are they allowed to take a leave? Are they being overworked? Are they being respected? If the workers are not being properly cared for, would it not affect the care they give their students as well?
There is no institution or company in this world that can guarantee a perfect satisfaction rate for their employees. There will always be room for improvement. As time passes by, changes are bound to happen and more often than not, these changes affect the workforce either negatively or positively. What we dream of, therefore, is a dynamic and secure workforce—may they be nurses, teachers, waiters, salesladies, etc. We would like to have employees who can adapt to changes and who improve over time but they should also feel safe and secure in their jobs.
We must never forget the people behind the excellent service we are striving for. It is given that we must push our workforce to be the best that they can be, but at the same time we must care for them like a parent would do to a child. Let us keep in mind that a dynamic and secure workforce is essential to the achievement of excellent service to our fellow human beings.
By Erwin Shim D. Fonite