It's vital to reconnect with staff, says Undercover Boss star
The star of TV’s Undercover Boss has told Insider "no manager should turn down" the opportunity to go back to the front line and reconnect with staff which are "the whole point of the business".
Narin Ganesh, regional finance director at Birmingham-based removal company Crown Relocations also told Insider: “The worst thing a general manager can think is that they know all the answers – quite often they don’t. Going into a programme like Undercover Boss, you don’t know what you’ll find. But it has been an overwhelmingly positive experience.”
The Channel 4 programme shows some of the country's top managers going undercover and heading back to the frontline to witness how their companies are really run.
Ganesh was disguised as an entry level employee, which he said was a difficult task to take on.
“It was very difficult trying to strike a balance between asking the questions the director wanted and not blowing my cover.
"At one point, the packing crew in Birmingham started asking if I had been planted by a rival company – it was quite a nervy moment. But they seemed surprised when I revealed my identity at the end, so it all worked out.”
As part of the documentary, Ganesh travelled to the company’s sites across the country. He said: “It was tough – I was doing a job I’d never done before in a number of locations. I had never done that kind of work before. By the end of it, I came away with a real appreciation of what these guys are doing every day. They’re on their feet, lifting and carrying all day. It’s demanding work.”
Ganesh, who joined the company last November, said that the “amazing” opportunity had been “an overwhelmingly good thing” for the business.
He said: “Since the programme, we have made some changes to how we work – overtime has been reinstated, so the guys who are working longer hours are earning what they’re working for. We also realised that a more regional focus was needed. The sites outside London are now much more involved.”
However, Ganesh admitted that he did see a side to the business which he was “disappointed” with.
“The situation in the Manchester office was the most disappointing,” he said. “There was a lack of communication with one manager and her staff. But it was really a training and development issue, which we’ve now sorted.”
The regional finance manager said he thought the company was “brave” to expose itself on national television.
“You never know what you might find”, said Ganesh. “I think it takes quite a degree of maturity to expose your business on TV like that. But saying that, it was just too good an opportunity to pass up. Exposure like that would have been very difficult to get elsewhere.
“No manager should turn down the opportunity to go back to the front line and reconnect with the staff that are, effectively, the whole point of the business.”
He added that the company had reaped the benefits since its appearance. “The night the programme was aired, enquiries shot up ten-fold. Whereas we usually get around 30 enquiries, we got 320.”
The company has now been named as a finalist in the National Business Awards, which Ganesh said he was “absolutely delighted” about.
He said: “It was great news - I was delighted when I found out. I think it fits in perfectly with how well we work as a team and the hard work that everyone saw on the television programme.”
