The larger an organization grows, the more its brand message and promise gets delivered by their lowest paid employee: the front liner.

Whether your business is retail, food services, theme parks, or a church, those first interactions with a customer usually happen with the lowest paid person in that organization. These are part-time sales people, wait staff, hourly workers and in the case of churches, not-for-profits, and ministries, those positions are volunteers who give of their own time to serve. The challenge here is to create a effective system to screen, train, and measure the effectiveness of the front line team.

Disney Parks figured that out a long time ago and has created an effective way to make sure that each “cast” member understands the importance they have as spokespeople for the Disney brand. Chick-Fil-A is another organization that hires and trains their front line employees to carry the company’s brand promise. Unfortunately, most all other fast food restaurants have not yet figured out how to do that and the discrepancy in experience is quite stark.

Next time you think of your most basic hires, think of the real impact they will have in the eyes of your customer and potential customer. This implication might change your hiring and recruiting practices. It has mine.

What’s your experience with organizations that get the importance of their front line workers and those that don’t?