Share ideas with your staff. On an
annual basis, the vice president
of human resources, the vice
president of operations and I
will do business road shows
around the factories as well as
here at center.
It’s a review of the past year’s
financial performance in a formal presentation to the employees at those particular locations, and it’s followed by question-and-answer sessions. We try and
give them a feeling of confidence that there is a commitment by all to grow.
People are generally interested to know not only how the
business has been performing
but what plans we have to grow
in the future. We’ve seen a more
engaged and motivated work
force. We’ve demonstrated a
willingness to talk about these
issues and demonstrated our
respect for the work force.
We’re prepared to go into this
level of detail, and we’re happy
to answer questions within reason and take something back
from that feedback as to how
we might improve on our plans.
Be an active listener. A lot
depends on how you choose to get feedback and what you do
with it. Are you demonstrating
that you’re listening and acting,
or are you doing the opposite?
You have to listen and learn.
That’s something I’m trying to
get better at and something I
have to work on. At the end of
the day, if you’re going to capture the best ideas and consider
the best options before making
a decision, then you’ve got to be
prepared to listen.
Distill feedback into an action
plan. We try to increase the different ways of communicating with
the work force beyond the road
shows, not only through feedback on the Internet where people are free to express their opinions but also we’re in the process
of doing an employee survey.
In this survey, people’s identities can remain anonymous,
and a third party will assimilate
that data. We’ll highlight what
the findings were and what
action we plan to take about
that feedback.
It’s quite important that you
need engaged employees if
you’re going to have a successful business. That means treating them with respect. You’re
actually willing to ask for help in
these areas, and it demonstrates
that our employees do matter
and that we’re listening to them.
High up on the list of the leadership team’s priorities is corporate culture, and you’re only
going to grow that if you stay in
touch with what’s happening on
the ground so you can get feedback and respond accordingly.
Leadership isn’t just the
responsibility of one individual;
it’s a collective responsibility of
all employees throughout the
business. From that standpoint,
we try to ensure that these feedback items stay on the leadership team’s agenda and are
acted upon.
In the factories, the employees
came back to us and said, ‘Look,
we greatly appreciate that you
come around and do the road
shows, but we’d also like to see
you a few times a year outside
of that to go through some of
these issues and concerns.’ I
am consciously making an
effort to get around to the factories more regularly so that
not only do we have meetings
with the management there but
also with selected employees
from time to time.
HOW TO REACH: AB Mauri North America, (314) 392-0800 or www.abmauri.us
