Use Bagles to replace management consultants
I’ve been reading freakanomics. One of the stories is about a gentleman who decided to sell bagels by dropping them off and asking people to put the appropriate dollar amount into a box. This simple business yielded volumes of information about people’s trustworthiness, ethics, and job satisfaction. I believe the bagel barometer should be used by any company that is concerned about its employees morale or job satisfaction. Here’s how the experiment should go down:
Management sends out a memo saying that to improve the workplace environment they will have bagles delivered to the office every morning. The cost for bagles is $1 leave a collection tin next to the bagles.
Each day tally up how many bagles were taken vs how many bagles were paid for.
At the end of each week or every other week send out a scathing email chastizing people for not paying for their bagles. The email needs to be firm but not overly harsh. You don’t want to scare people simply make it kown that the bagles are not free and that people are expected to pay for them. This is to prevent the rule from becoming a guidline and eventually a joke.
What to watch for: Obviously management should be watching for any dips in the payment rate for bagles. This change should be tracked and refferenced to any business activities that would disgruntle employees. If there are layoffs or if hours suddenly change the bagle theft rate should be an indicator of how employees actually feel about whats going on. If there are no changes in the work environment that would cause employee dissatisfaction this is an indicator of a problem cropping up in employee moralle. A disgruntled employee is more likely to steal from their employer in small ways before quitting or doing more damage.
In addition to being a relatively low cost experiment the bagle consultant has the positive advantage of making an office a better place. Who wouldn’t be more happy working in an office where fresh bagles were brought in each morning. This is a win win.
