OUR PRIME advisory panel includes some of the remodeling industry’s top companies. This month’s question to our PRIME Experts is, “How do you express your appreciation for your employees?”
TRUST YOUR EMPLOYEES
We show our appreciation in many small ways, with things like team building events and holiday gatherings in the office; however, I believe the way we really show our appreciation is by placing a lot of trust in our employees. Our approach is to hire good people and depend on them to be successful. We try not to micro-manage, asking instead that our employees use our “Codes to Live By” to guide their decision-making. People are our most important asset.
Bill Simone, President, Custom Design & Construction
El Segundo, Calif.
EMPLOYEE RECOGNITION
We host picnics for Memorial and Labor days. We always have a party for Christmas with plenty of gifts and bonuses. We cater lunch to celebrate employee birthdays during the year. I send emails regularly to recognize a job well done. The bulletin board in our break room is filled with good referrals from customers and individual recognitions from customer surveys. Our first four employees that started with us are still with us.
Joe Smith, President, LeafGuard of Central Iowa,
Granger, Iowa
DONUT SATURDAYS
Every year we have a picnic, give out turkeys for Thanksgiving, and a Christmas party. However, this year we will contribute to the Hurricane Sandy relief efforts in lieu of a Christmas party. Employees are recognized monthly at our company meetings for positive comments received on surveys. We send emails out to all employees recognizing positive feedback from our customers. We also will give a gift card periodically to any employee for the above and beyond behavior. We are now making an attempt to make sure that one of us personally speaks to each employee a few times a month. This means either staying late to meet them, or arriving early to greet them. Donut Saturdays has been implemented for employees working on weekends.
Emily Lindus, Lindus Construction/Midwest LeafGuard,
Baldwin, Wisc.
RECOGNIZE EFFORT AND SUCCESS
I write a monthly column for our employee newsletter and routinely recognize special employee efforts and successes. We have a weekly email Kudos bulletin with each manager submitting a few quick thanks for specific employee actions during that week to let employees know we’ve seen their day-to-day efforts. We recognize sales and production staff at twice-monthly meetings, and employee successes are acknowledged in monthly team meetings. We have a few employee events during each year to celebrate our successes. We hold an annual meeting for our employees to wrap-up the year and acknowledge employee contributions.
Tom Kelly, President, Neil Kelly Inc.
Portland, Ore.