Q. How do you respond
when employees bring
problems to you?
When you solicit input,
you better be able to
take it. You don’t want
to be known as the person,
‘He always asks us for advice
and does what he wants anyway.’
The more they hear about
someone that brought a suggestion or a problem to me
and the more they saw it was
resolved and acted upon, the
more input you’ll get from
your employees.
They see the messenger is
not going to get shot and, in
fact, the messenger is going to
have an influence.
Q. How do you find people
that fit into your culture?
In the initial interview, I
explain the objectives of the
company and where we are
in the competitive arena and
what the plans are the next
12 months and how they are
going to contribute to that.
Once the employee feels part
ownership, that’s when you
have the best relationship. We
convey that before they are
hired, when they are hired,
and I try to convey that to my
employees all the time.
When it’s all said and done,
you won’t know until the
person is working. It doesn’t
end the day they are hired.
The first crucial weeks are
important for that person and the company. They have
to be directed, and they have
to understand what their
position is.
It’s not a survival test. You
need to spend as much time as
you did on recruiting in the
first several weeks to make
sure they understand the operations and make sure they
understand what their role is.
They’ll be a happy employee
and you’ll get production out
of them, and you’ll know right
away if it’s not a good mix.
The hardest decision is hiring
an employee. The second
hardest is letting them go.
When I’ve had to let employees go in the past, it’s been to
both of our benefits.
Q. What is a key thing every
CEO should remember about
employees?
They do have other options.
You don’t want to hire employees that don’t have other
options. Hire the best people
possible. You’ve got to keep
them happy with what they
are doing. Compensate your
employees when the company
is successful.
If you give your employees
middle-of-the-year gift certificates to a theater or something like that, it’s a relatively
inexpensive gesture. Because
it’s not the norm in our society, it has an unbelievable
impact.
When they are with their
friends, they say, ‘Yeah, I got
this ticket from my company.’
You can imagine that it sends
the right message that you
care and you’re thinking of
them and you know they have
a life beyond the eight hours
they spend at the office.
HOW TO REACH: Prime Produce International LLC, (714) 771-0718 or www.prime-produce.com
