Communicate with employees
In any type of uncertain business environment, communication needs to start from the top. Employees need guidance and ground rules set from the top tier of the company.
At The Corky McMillin Cos., McMillin set the communication wheels in motion with meetings on both a group and an individual basis, depending on each person’s position and situation.
“Employees want to be appreciated for the things they’re doing and they want to be in the know about what is going on,” McMillin says. “That’s why we had very open meetings with them both on a big group basis and one-on-one.”
McMillin wanted to set an overall positive tone for his group meetings, so he always led off with positive news. Whatever progress he could report was always first on the agenda.
“If we had a good sales week and month, we’d lead off with that,” he says. “Then we’d share where we are financially with our loans and so forth. But we’d tell them outwardly that we’re not out of the woods, that we still had some debt that we needed to work our way through, but the banks are working with us.
“You need to start out with the good news because people need to hear the good news. I like to tell them good news. If you can’t make lemonade out of lemons, get out of the kitchen, I guess.”
Not every meeting can have a positive angle, however. When McMillin had to reduce head count by laying off a portion of the staff in the company’s Bakersfield office, he went there to attempt to cushion the impact for those who were staying.
“You need to get out there and interact,” McMillin says. “I personally visit our four divisions, talk to people and be seen. In Bakersfield, I tried to make the light a little brighter for those who remained.
“You kind of have to look at it the same way as when you’re doing well financially. You need to be out there, on the ground, visit the sites and locations, visit your salespeople and so forth. We tout ourselves as a family company, family owned and operated, so we want to be an open book and show our people that, despite negative circumstances, we’re not going to give up.”
Ultimately, you have to remember that your people drive your business. You might have the blueprint for your business. You might have built the machine. But your employees fuel it, oil the parts and run it. If you’re not putting them in a position to succeed by keeping them connected and enabled, you’re not putting your business in a position to succeed.
“The No. 1 commodity in any business is people,” McMillin says. “People are what make the difference. Everybody can go somewhere and buy lumber. Everybody can go somewhere to get sales and marketing advice. But it’s the team you have put together that is going to be out there doing the right things for the people you serve. That’s my advice: Get out there and make sure you know and connect with the people who are representing you to your customers.”
