Employees are a Pure Representation of Your Company

RCS Influencer Ken Kelly says that you should allow employees to be purpose driven and a part of something greater.

From a first impression conversation on the phone to the job site cleanup, employees are the images in your customer’s minds. This lasting impression defines your company’s brand and determines its worth. People buy from people, not businesses. Your employees determine if a customer will buy from you, recommend you or trash-talk you. Although our company prides itself on hiring and retaining great people, we haven’t figured out the perfect mix just yet. However, we have learned a few things that we believe are important regarding employees. 

Here’s our philosophy:

 Open Book Company: By publishing revenue goals, profit plans and company changes each quarter employees are engaged and help accomplish those goals.

Company Outings: Bowling, picnics and local sporting events are all great ways for the team to engage on a more personal level.   This provides for better communications and problem solving.

Personal and Professional Bests: Each week, in our division meetings, each employee tells the team what they are most proud of accomplishing or doing in the last week.  This breeds trust in one another and helps resolve minor differences without having to get management involved.

Trust but Verify:  Ronald Reagan’s philosophy is great for employee management.  Checking in on employees is good, checking out and just believing they are doing everything right is foolish.

Everyone has a Number: Everyone in the company has at least one number they are responsible for.  And, they call it out each week at the division meeting.  “My goal was ___ and I hit/missed it with _____.”  Self-reporting creates a silent manager effect.

Responsibility and Accountability:  Give employees the responsibility to make good decisions and hold them accountable for them.  No one wants to just be a cog in the wheel.  Allow them to be purpose driven and a part of something greater than their position.

Issues and Opportunities:  Every employee should have the ability to bring forward any issue or opportunity idea and have it discussed and/or solved.  Doing so helps with morale and engagement.

Reward Frequently and Substantially:  Everyone in our company has the ability to make extra, every month.  Using commissions, bonuses and incentives are great ways to keep productivity high.   

Training and Practicing:  Don’t just train something once and expect it to be the new way.  Things must be said 7 times before they are heard the first time.  Role play, practice, record and shadow to ensure the processes you expect are followed every time.

If you have any questions about these and would like to discuss them further, feel free to email me Ken@KellyRoofing.com for a more in-depth discussion.

Ken Kelly is President of Kelly Roofing. See his full bio here.