Ask employees what they want
Roski’s desire to build a charitable foundation doesn’t just
serve his love for Los Angeles, it also acts as glue for his
company. In order to keep growing, he knows that he needs
to do more things to keep his employees involved, and
charitable projects give employees a chance to do something more than the daily grind.
Roski has always had an interest in philanthropy, but he
found out that employees want in on the action, too. So as
he decided that the company should make the evolutionary
step to starting the foundation, he wanted as much employee input as possible. To do so, he did something many executives rarely have time to do, he walked up to his employees and asked for that input. In fact, Roski makes regular
communication with employees a part of his weekly schedule.
“I set it up so that I can spend time with them,” he says. “I
enjoy talking with them and finding out what they’re all about
and what their desires are and what they really want. In my
experience, everybody wants to be working in a place where
they enjoy working there. It’s not the money they make, it’s the
satisfaction they get out of where they are and if they’re really
doing something to make a difference. And you find that out by
just spending time with them to find out what they want.”
Of course, the chairman and CEO of a company can find it
quite hard to just talk to people and find out what they want.
There is no question that a barrier exists between employees
and senior executives, and Roski says the way you can shed
that is by making employees comfortable by being yourself.
“Everybody puts their pants on the same way,” Roski says.
“Everybody is contributing, so you just try to be comfortable
with who you are, and then they can be comfortable with who
they are, and you can try to communicate.
“It’s getting out there and talking with everyone. It’s really
spending time, not just with the individuals that are running
the office but spending time with everybody in the company.
They have to feel like they can talk to you.”
To Roski, the basic summation of his ability to open up with
employees comes from one word: empathy. He says he does-n’t always know what employees are thinking, but he’s willing to take the time to try.
“In other words, they are not operating out of fear or anything, they are operating in a situation where they feel their
contributions are being recognized and, in one word, there’s
empathy,” Roski says. “When you’re dealing with people, you
really can’t imagine how they think or feel, what you basically need to understand is what they want. You can’t just tell
people to do something, they really have to want to do it.
That’s the one thing that I’ve learned.”
Not only does the time Roski spends talking to employees
help fill him with ideas, but he says it also gives employees a
reason to feel empowered.
“I think it honors them, it gives them a reason to think that
what they’re doing is worth something,” Roski says. “Instead
of just coming in and punching the clock, they are coming in
and they have something to say and somebody is going to listen to it, too.
“You make them part of the process. The most important
thing is the role that the employees play in every aspect of
the company and that they are actually involved in all the
planning and execution. We’ve been very fortunate most of
these people have been with the company for many years,
and for a company, especially a smaller company, employees
are your whole resource.”
