Promote from within
At the young age of 5, Rumpke Sr. started learning the company ropes. He’d venture out on the trucks with his father, the company founder, and at each stop, he’d wait for his father to pitch the garbage to him so he could dump the can. He went from making 25 cents a load to the helm of the company.
The tradition continued with Rumpke Jr., who also only needed one hand to count his age when he started spending Saturday mornings on the routes.
In fact, most of the company’s management team knows what it’s like to do their employees’ jobs because they’ve done them themselves. And the employees know that history, too.
“Everybody here knows that we both have done the job,” Rumpke Jr. says. “I think that helps gain respect because they understand that we’ve been there, and we’re not too good to do what they’re doing. Because a lot of our management team has been promoted from within, a lot of them have been there, as well.”
If you’re going to make a conscious decision to develop your employees into future leaders, you need a culture that embraces that ideal. And that starts with not only telling employees there are opportunities but also showing them.
Rumpke’s human resources department puts out a list of available jobs throughout the company once a week. The more than 2,100 employees have the first stab at openings regardless of if the jobs are in their division or market. Current employees who apply are considered for the job before looking outside of the company.
“(Employees) look at those offerings by the week,” Rumpke Sr. says. “They can ask questions, nothing is hidden, no secrets, no special agenda for anything, and they feel like I have a shake at a lot of good jobs.”
In order to get employees to buy in to your words and actions, there is a fundamental step that a culture of employee progression cannot miss.
“The big key is how you take care of the people themselves,” Rumpke Sr. says.
In order for your culture to turn full circle, you need employees to want to stay with your company and continue to move up through the ranks. The only way you can accomplish that is by getting in front of your employees and showing that you care.
Promotions and monetary incentives might keep them hungry, but your interest in them will breed their interest in the company.
“If someone is head of third shift recycling down at a plant or something, you talk to them about how things are going: ‘Are you keeping up? Do you have enough employees to run this thing?’” Rumpke Sr. says. “Something in their line of work that would be of interest to them, and therefore you ask them questions so you get knowledgeable about how they’re doing.”
“At the same time, you develop a personal relationship with them,” Rumpke Jr. says. “Talk to them about anything under the sun: ‘What’s going on with the local sports team, or what’s going on in the community?’ So they understand that we care about them, as well.”
You need to budget time to get away from your desk and in front of your people. Rumpke Jr., whose direct reports are the majority of the division directors and five regional vice presidents, says as a company grows, it gets harder and harder to reach all of your employees.
“I understand as companies get larger it’s more difficult,” he says. “But I still think they need to make their face be known, be seen.”
