Most self-employed workers don’t expect pensions shortfall, says survey
Almost 70% of self-employed Dutch workers (zzp’ers) expect to have sufficient pension savings at retirement, according to a survey of 5,000 workers.The outcome of the survey – commissioned by lobbying organisations ZZP Nederland, PZO and ZZP Pensioen, and conducted by Motivaction – was 10 percentage points higher than a study by pensions think-tank Netspar found last year.In a letter to social affairs minister Wouter Koolmees and parliament, ZZP Nederland and PZO said the survey was triggered by the discussion between the social partners and parliament about the mandatory participation of self-employed in pension funds.They noted that the zzp sector as stakeholder hadn’t been consulted, and argued that the discussions had been based on “incorrect assumptions”. The position of zzp’ers had been one of the stumbling blocks for the failed negotiations for pensions reform, with the trade unions demanding the introduction of mandatory participation.The self-employed, however, strongly opposed mandatory pensions saving and highlighted that they, as entrepreneurs, were capable of looking after their pension interests themselves.Almost six out of 10 zzp’ers intended to save for a pension, the survey found, with 50% of them also having second pillar pension claims accrued from previous jobs.The survey also found that having the option to adjust their pension contribution to fit their income was very important to zzp’ers.It reported that 40% wanted the flexibility to deploy their pension assets for other purposes, such as labour disability.
Frenchman Michel Dussuyer has been appointed as the new coach of African champions Ivory Coast, according to the country’s football federation (FIF). 56 year old Dussuyer has signed a two-year deal with the option to extend the contract.He was on a final shortlist of two names along with compatriot Frederic Antonetti, after a third shortlisted candidate – Poland’s Henry Kasperczak – withdrew to take over the vacant Tunisia coaching position.Dussuyer replaces Herve Renard who won the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations with Ivory Coast in Equatorial Guinea in February.Renard resigned as coach of The Elephants to become a club coach with French side Lille.Dussuyer has considerable experience of coaching in Africa.He had three stints as coach of Guinea, and most recently took the Syli Nationale to the quarter-finals of the 2015 Nations Cup, where they eventually lost to runners-up Ghana. He also coached Benin between 2008 and 2010 and before that, he worked as an assistant to Henri Michel with Ivory Coast.His first competitive match in charge of Ivory Coast will be their 2017 Nations Cup qualifier against Sierra Leone in September.–Follow Joy Sports on Twitter: @Joy997FM. Our hashtag is #JoySports
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Walmart founder Sam Walton was famous for valuing the ideas of each of his employees — from baggers and clerks to stockers and janitors. He set up feedback hotlines, routinely encouraging input and engaging his team members. Walton wanted the retail behemoth he built from the ground-up to be agile and responsive to customer needs. He knew the best way to accomplish that was to tune in to the front lines and find out directly from his employees what Walmart’s customers thought was working or what the company could do better.Quite simply, Walton understood the incredible value of an employee’s voice. As a customer service manager for a startup or expansion stage company, are you soliciting insight from your customer service reps? You should be. They’ll know what issues your customers are facing and what features might make for a better product.
Forrester Research’s Andrew McInnes, a Customer Experience Professional, wrote a great blog post recently about the value of employee feedback as it relates to improving customer experience. He shared the example of American Express and the company’s card replacement issues.In the past, if a customer lost a card and called to cancel it, the cancellation was final. Even if the customer found their card under their couch cushion a few hours after filing the cancellation request, they still needed to wait several days until they received a new card in the mail.AmEx’s formal Customer Care Program (CCP) caught the problem, however. And, because the company had a structure in place for those CCP reps to report phenomena like the one described above, they were able to alert higher-ups about the problem and have the policy changed. Now, if you lose your card, you can put it on a 24-hour hold instead of canceling it right away. It seems like a rather simple change, but it’s that kind of responsiveness that customers cherish.All too often, Customer Ingelligence Teams do not formulate their customer service strategies on employee suggestions. That’s a big mistake and a missed opportunity. It’s critical to implement a proper program that allows customer care reps to submit suggestions and thoughts through a formal process.Here are a few reasons why:Smaller startup or growth stage companies tend to have smaller teams, requiring most employees to have direct interactions with customers. That connection gives them the ability to spot customer needs and issues before they arise in traditional research.Since employees are familiar with internal company matters, they are in a great position to recognize the sources of customer problems and complaints. Finally, employees have tremendous power over how they formulate processes and how their communications affect customers. Because they act as intermediaries between internal strategic decision makers and external clients, they can make quick alterations to processes that will make a much more rapid impact.In his blog post, McInnes outlines a flowchart that describes how to incorporate employee feedback into higher level strategic decision making. That flowchart strategically positions employees in the middle because they interact with both customers and the Customer Experience Team. They receive customer feedback and combine it with their business knowledge to form their own insights. Employees then pass their insights along through the Customer Experience Team on to the Executive team.As McInnes’ flowchart shows, it’s not horribly difficult to make employee feedback a crucial piece of your customer service program. With an organized system in place, employees can share customer issues with the right people, allowing for change that will drastically improve the overall customer experience. A few years ago, Entrepreneur.com contributor Paul Levesque penned a simple how-to article for spectacular customer service. In the article, Levesque highlights four ways to create that service and, not surprisingly, all four involve employees in some way. As Levesque points out, it can be as simple as encouraging employees to formally submit ideas for improving customer service. Every month, managers could select one of those ideas and implement it, tracking its success and rewarding the employee if it works.In the end, implementing a program like the ones McInnes and Levesque layout will pay massive dividends. Your customers will have better experiences and, ultimately, that will manifest itself into stronger business results.AddThis Sharing ButtonsShare to FacebookFacebookShare to TwitterTwitterShare to PrintPrintShare to EmailEmailShare to MoreAddThis