Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/1014893
POWDER COATING, August 2018 23 then record this win on a piece of paper and review it later – ideally, once a quarter at an offsite company event. A caveat The mixture of people in our work- force will always bring challenges. Every employee has their own life out- side of work and bad days happen. One thing that I have come to learn is that when different cultures mix in the work environment, I have to respect the journey that person has had to get to where we are now in the workplace. is does not mean that we adapt the company culture to suit each employ- ee. However, I do recognize that some people will not care as deeply or think of the above suggestions in the same way I do. One way to head off a lack of engagement due to corporate culture differences is to use the core values of your business as a measuring tool during the hiring process – if someone is not meeting the known values of your business, it is likely that they will be unsatisfied at best or destructive to your organization at worst. ere are values that I take for granted given my upbringing, but others who grew up in other parts of the world may not naturally consider them important. One example of this is speaking respectfully to your cowork- ers. In some cultures, there is a much larger emphasis on a top-down hierar- chy where dominance rules the day. This is not how Aegis operates, but some of our past employees came from a place where that was the norm and had to be reminded of what their new norm was. Another vehicle that is tempting to use is to pay people a higher wage. It may feel easier to do than working through some of the more complex human issues. is is a short-term solution and does not address the need that I believe people have to align their goals with that of the company. Profit sharing should be considered if you are looking for a tangible way to reward people, but test the model that you envision on past financial data before rolling it out and make sure that the way in which the employees can influence the growth in their share is easy to understand and measure. Once that genie is out of the listen to what their personal objectives are. If you have a larger organization, model this to the people you have reporting to you and let them know you expect them to do the same to those under their charge. If you can find a way to help them realize how achieving the goals of the c o m p a n y w i l l h e l p t h e m m o v e towards their personal goals, the align- ment that ensues can be powerful. is makes it easier for people to care about the company as a whole because it supports the individual. You also need to provide honest feed- back and guidance when things go wrong. Clearly communicating what was not good, why it was not good, and what the desired outcome was goes a long way. Furthermore, do not be so quick to give the answer and instead bring a sincere curiosity to the conver- sation to learn why they think what they think and do what they do. Celebrate, celebrate, celebrate If you make the time each day for a huddle with your production team, try starting off the meeting with a request for any good-news stories or examples of personal or business wins from the day prior. At our company, we always celebrate positive customer feedback, anniversaries (date of hire, birthday, wedding, etc.), and any good-news items by having an employee bang the shield you see in the photo below. A shield is the logo for our company. We Photo digilube Y O U R L E A D E R I N CO N V E Y O R L U B R I C AT I O N CALL FOR A FREE SITE EVALUATION • Manufacturer & Supplier of Conveyor Lubrication Systems • Conveyor Chain & Trolley Cleaning Equipment • High Temperature Maintenance Lubricants • Single & Multi-Point Lubrication • Pneumatic Air Filtration WWW.DIGILUBE.COM ( 9 3 7 ) 74 8 - 2 2 0 9