'Undercover Boss' Can Change The Workplace

Posted By: Melissa Kennedy In: Business Professional

If you've never seen the show, 'Undercover Boss', you might want to check it out. It is changing the way that employers look at the problems facing their business and it's even helping to make the workplace better for employees. The premise of the show is that the CEO or owner of a company goes undercover in order to get a better idea of what it's like to work for the company. The employees they work with don't know that the person is the "big boss", instead, they are told that the person is a new employee. For a week, they work at various jobs throughout the company, providing them with a chance to hear the honest opinions of the workers and experience the jobs for themselves.

As you would imagine, not all of what they learn is positive. However, the knowledge gives them more information and helps them come up with policies and strategies to make workers more productive and happier. The most recent episode of the show featured the CEO of Oriental Trading Company, a large party supply distributor. The CEO, Sam Taylor, started with the company in 2008, shortly before the beginning of the economic recession.

After the October 2008 stock market crash, the nation as a whole cut back on spending and companies that sell party supplies, along with the corporate world at large, started to feel the pinch. As profits went down, Taylor was forced to cut corners. The company laid off 1,000 employees and cut out employee perks like free drinks.

After the changes were made, employees were very upset. When Taylor started his week undercover, he worked at a warehouse fulfillment center in Omaha. It was there that he met Troy, a long time Oriental Trading Company employee. Taylor quickly found out that the working conditions in the warehouse were tough. The heat was almost unbearable and without the free drinks that the company used to provide, employees were forced to bring their own water bottles from home. In spite of this, several workers had to lose time at work due to preventable conditions like heat exhaustion.

During Taylor's stint in the warehouse, he became overheated and complained about the heat as well. Another wake-up for him was finding out that the employees don't think that the company is "fun", which is part of their original mission statement. When Taylor asked an employee at the fulfillment center if she ever became distracted because the products are so fun, she thought the question was so absurd that she didn't even bother to answer it.

In the end, Taylor learned that in order to make the best decisions for the company and its employees, he needed to understand how the company worked from the bottom up. In the last few minutes of the show, when the undercover boss's identity is revealed, Taylor announced that the company will once again provide free drinks throughout the company's warehouses. He promised to raise the salary for loaders by 25 cents per hour and announced plans to install overhead fans to help combat the heat.

Surprisingly, Taylor also said that he will begin requiring every senior executive to spend at least two days per year on the ground, learning from employees.

What do you think would happen if your company's CEO had to do your job for a week? How do you think things would change as a result?