Building strong employee relationships starts with showing respect for your employees and the jobs they do, says Doug Sibila.
And to help employees better understand your vision for the company, you have to tell them why their actions are important, interact with them in their environment and put yourself in their shoes, says Sibila, president and CEO of the warehouse, distribution and transportation company Peoples Services Inc.
“There’s been a lot of talk of what motivates the younger generation versus older generation,” Sibila says. “Although you need to have some flexibility, to me, most of this is timeless and cross-generational.”
Sibila’s communication has paid off in employee loyalty, as most of the company’s hires come from staff referrals, and its turnover rate on the transportation side is five times less than the industry’s national average.
Smart Business spoke with Sibila about how to communicate to employees the importance of what they do.
Communicate the ‘why’ to employees. Try to engage all different levels so they feel they have a voice. We have this grandiose vision, but what does it mean to the guy that is loading and unloading the trucks for the customers?
It’s not up to them to translate your vision to their language. It’s the CEO’s responsibility to translate his vision into their language.
Try to meet with them in an environment where they’re comfortable — which may be as you are sometimes walking around sharing parts of that vision on why they’re doing what they’re doing — is important.
There are books out there that [advise] a leader who does what by when. What we like to add is ‘why.’ If they understand why they’re doing it, then the ownership of that activity becomes easier to understand.
I think that’s a good way. We try to show that. Why is it necessary for the truck to be clean? Why is it in the driver’s best interest to make sure his truck has been washed?
Even though that may take extra time, it may help him. It’s looked favorably upon when you go to an inspection station and your unit is clean.
We don’t have a product, we have a service, so that image of that service is reflected upon what does your equipment look like.
Verify that employees understand what you’re trying to communicate. Walk around asking questions. There’s still a tendency for people to tell you what you want to hear rather than what you need to hear. Sometimes the only way, as we like to say in our organization, is trust but verify.
Did they understand what you were talking about? If they completed a report that you requested, have them show it to you. Ask them questions to make sure they understand the ‘why’ of what they were doing as opposed to were they just filling in the information because you asked for it.
Ask an open-ended question to see if they really do understand what you were really trying to communicate as opposed to yes, no. Of course they’re going to say yes.
