Find leaders
Before you can communicate with a team of capable managers and employees, you need to hire them. At Waste Management, Rose is looking for people who not only mesh with the company’s values but can set an example for the co-workers they come into contact with each day.
“One of the big things we look for is, ‘Do they have a very strong, positive attitude, and are they willing to learn?’” Rose says. “In many cases, we’re hiring to bring in someone who has an attitude that is contagious, who really drives that employee engagement. That is something that we are really passionate about within our culture. We really believe that the way you treat your employees is the way your employees will treat your customers.”
To find people who fit the profile, Rose and his management team identified a set of characteristics that they want in a manager and in an employee. When recruiters review potential job candidates, they go through a series of assessments that help determine whether a given applicant is a good match for a position.
From there, the interview process starts, and Rose and his staff use dialogue with the candidate, along with the assessment of the recruiter, to try to paint an accurate picture of the applicant’s skill set, demeanor and personal values.
“It’s really based on behavioral types of questions,” Rose says. “We want to make sure our goal is hiring the best of the best, to train them, have them be successful and get promoted.”
Once you’ve brought the right people on board, you need to continue to reinforce the mentality and values that made you want to hire them in the first place. You cultivate a positive attitude through positive reinforcement, whenever possible.
“What we want in our culture is to catch people doing things right, as opposed to the ‘gotcha’ mentality,” Rose says. “We are getting that right, but we didn’t always have that. We were going out there trying to catch people doing things wrong. But when you do that, when you’re out there swinging a proverbial stick and trying to enforce the culture, it is only temporary.
“When you are really recognizing and emphasizing the behaviors you want demonstrated, people are much more apt to continue those behaviors.”
