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Camille Cheney Fournier

By Kristy J. O’Hara

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" If somebody doesn’t mesh well, don’t keep them around because so many people do mesh well together." -- Camille Cheney Fournier, CEO, Southwest Sanitary

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Get people who buy in. If somebody doesn’t mesh well, don’t keep them around because so many people do mesh well together and are after the same objective.

It’s very disruptive if you have one person that doesn’t fit in to your team. As we keep growing, what’s important when we’re interviewing is for them to realize that we all work together, and some things overlap each other, and it’s critical to work together as a team.

The team is extremely critical, whether it’s the guys in our warehouse or the people that are in our office, that we all work harmoniously together, because it takes every single aspect to make this run smoothly. I don’t know how you find them, but from the get-go, you let them know that they’re responsible for their section of the job and everyone else is there to help, and there’s a lot of interaction between departments in the company.

Hire team players. You want people who are strong and can handle their job, but you don’t want somebody that thinks they’ve got all the answers and can do everything, because then they won’t ask questions and they won’t interact with other people.

That definitely comes out in an interview, if they’re quick to work with other people and ask other people questions, as opposed to making a decision when they’re really not sure.

It’s a key balance because you don’t want them to ask questions all the time — you want them to make decisions and act. But at the same time, you want them to question enough that if they’re not sure about something, to feel comfortable enough to go to somebody and figure it out.

Help employees understand their jobs. One of my strong objectives is for everyone to feel responsible for what their job is because that gives you pride.

Everybody in our company is cross-trained so that if somebody is out, someone can step in, and when that person comes back, they’re caught up and the work isn’t backed up. It helps everyone, and we don’t miss a beat.

It’s so imperative to have a group of people that like what they’re doing, take pride in what they’re doing and work together.

Create balance. My group will go the extra mile to do whatever it takes. It may mean staying late. It’s not, ‘Doors are shut. It’s 4:30 — we’re out of here.’ They stay until it’s finished.

The other thing is, I want them to get finished. I don’t want them to feel that they have to take work home. We have it so well organized that when the day is done, they get to relax and enjoy time with their family. It creates a nice balance, and everybody needs time off. We have company lunches every quarter to just have some fun, and that kind of thing helps, too — just to create a good balance in the work environment.

There is a balance to life, and a lot of times people get out of balance in their companies. People have to have vacations, and they have to have time off. You have to make your company environment where you know everybody has a life.

If we find that we’re having to stay too much, then it’s probably time to add another person or simplify some method of what we’re doing, so we’re always having office meetings to just throw things out and see if there are things that need to be changed or altered.

Share changes and be upfront. We’re changing so fast. When you’re growing like that, people’s jobs change or get added to or subtracted from to create another new job.

That’s something else we tell people when we interview them — what a fast-paced, changing atmosphere we’re in, and they need to be able to be adaptable, but that’s kind of fun because it keeps people very much in the know on every aspect of this business. They feel that they have ownership and a say in what’s happening because they have knowledge. You want everyone to have the knowledge because then they take pride in it.

Set your eyes to the future. Always look ahead. Always be proactive.

All the things that could be a hiccup along the way, try to address them so you’re the best prepared you could be going forward, so that when an unexpected hiccup arises, you have a lot of knowledge and experience from the past and from really thinking things through that you can come up with a solution pretty quickly and implement it.

Communicate and partner with customers. When you grow fast, there’s so many other people and companies involved, and sometimes the communication level has not been extended to all the people that should be involved.

We work with our customers in partnerships. We need to partner with them so we’re all working together. We’re all trying to achieve the same end result. We want everything to be smooth, efficient and profitable.

Listen. Ask. People generally like to talk, but you can’t talk yourself. Listen and ask questions and be truly interested. Show that you care, because you do care — it’s your business, it’s your livelihood and a big part of who you are.

Be open-minded. If you’re close-minded, you’re not as accepting to change, and this world is constantly changing, and it’s moving very quickly.

Read and be involved in learning. Be open to new things. I never would have thought as a child that I would I have a PC sitting by me or a phone I could send e-mails from.

It’s really changed a lot, and if you don’t adapt with it and change, you die on the dime. You have to change, and a lot of the changes are great changes. Keep it all in perspective. HOW TO REACH: Southwest

Sanitary Co. Inc., (972) 466-9720