Considering every business is going to have a mix of different personalities and beliefs with its workforce. Curious from an owner and employee perspective. What are the thoughts of those here when it comes to workforce environment? We are a small business Private Dental Practice. Originally inherited a couple of insurance companies that we contracted with but no longer do. We take great care of our employees. At the same time it is a very interment environment/family. We really try to create a family environment. But it is work. With that said… Like the above general question. Really curious people’s thoughts on what they look for in a workplace environment. And thoughts on how to handle different personalities. I certainly have built my own thoughts. But think this could be a productive place to get input from.
when I had my 4 restaurants I only cared about 3 things when it came to my employees were they "Legally" allowed to work in the US and could they speak fluent English would they follow the rules I set up would they always strive to do their best I paid them above min wage I never asked them to do something I would not do- they saw me clean the restrooms, wash dishes and scrub the floors I treated them with respect an decency I had 4 different ways they could earn a bonus I fed them for free every shift they worked - my managers could bring their entire family in once a week and feed them for free I had a calendar that kept track of their birthdays, and they all got $50 cash on their birthday or if they were off then the 1st day they worked after their birthday I had the highest retention in the company - when I sold my last store, out of 22 employees, 16 had more than a year of service
Development programs and learning opportunities, multiple non-gender bathrooms, puppies and other animals running around, a flexible space and ergonomic chairs, lots of healthy snacks and drinks, 12 month parental leave, a lactation station, cutting edge technology, a nap station, and if you got this far you just described your home office.
Appreciate the company actively enforcing a culture promoting family, empathy and respect. We recently fired two out of our Top Ten salespeople (out of about 200 nationwide) because they were jerks and caused chaos and trouble in their offices. FWIW, both were white males but none of their nonsense had to do with race - just horrible behavior. Yes, company expects production. And, your work has to be done honestly and respectfully to all involved. Love this company.
I ran business a lot how Bill did. Birthdays and work Anniversaries always got a $50 gift card, thanksgiving I gave $75 gift, or I bought them hams or turkeys I matched up to 4% in their retirement accounts, would give a bonus at the end of the year, based on production, how many days missed etc. When I sold about 4 years ago, 16 of the 22 employees had been with me 6 years or longer. We did take 4 company trips where I paid for the entire weekend for them and their families, we ate at Bonefish in Orlando there was like 46 of us, it was a lot of fun.
Shit I'll even tolerate a little minor stealing. One of my employees is probably my best driver. Shows up is super safe knows the route I don't have to worry about him on the road at all. When he fuels up the truck he throws a bag of chips or a drink on there every once in awhile. He doesn't realize I know this but I also really don't care if it costs me an extra 20 bucks a month. He's way more valuable to me as a really good driver so I'd rather him enjoy getting a little something over on the man
If I'm reading OP correctly, seems like the topic is more about employees with different beliefs and personalities. I've found you really need to hire people that fit your culture and work to retain them. If they're miserable at work, it will become apparent to co-workers and even your customers. I had one applicant that told me he could not work on Saturdays for religious reasons. Same religion also dictated he take off for several Mondays in the fall. At the time, I figured what the heck, I don't care what religion you are. But, it became a problem when the others had to work Saturday if we had rain days or needed to catch up on work and this employee wasn't there as part of the team. He has since moved on - lesson learned. Had a very left leaning PETA person working in our office. She was miserable and made everyone around her miserable. I've also had an alt-right employee that would verbally harass a co-worker that was training to become a preacher. I strictly enforce our employment policy when it comes to harassment, including profanity in the work place. To me, this is probably most important in making sure employees are not offended by others. Like @flgator2, we offer those same benefits. It works and I often hear feedback from appreciative employees about our "family environment". But just like in a real family, you're going to have that one crazy relative.
Exactly. You get it. This is where process and procedure management fails business. I need people to go out to different locations for sometimes extended stays. I realize the inconvenience to the employee. But procedure says they can only fly home once/month and won’t re-imburse home maintenance expenses unless the stay is >45 days. Now, no one wants to go. The value that I get from having the right person in the right place at the right time is well worth the extra $500 -$1000 for an additional flight home and reimbursing for someone to do the yard and walk the dog. Hell, we’re paying probably half that in per diem expenses for the three days they stay somewhere on location. I started approving the additional trips home and now people are willing to do it.
My dad once gave me a hiring tip that you should always have a nice old lady at the front desk, because the first thing you want an angry customer to see is someone that reminds them of their grandma. In general though I think people skills are much more valuable than other things. You want people with extensive knowledge, but anything customer facing, you need people that put someone at ease. There are different ways to do that. In general though, its usually older people that know how to talk to people in person. I don't know about kids these days lol. My own thinking, is I dont really care for the "customer service" faux concern/caring vibe. You've got to be real, without being rude or confrontational.
I currently do and prefer to work for individual owners. We do work for Fortune 500s and in call centers, etc. and it just looks like hell in there to me. What kills me is the false sense of self-importance because you don't do physical labor. Funny thing is my guys probably make just as much or more and don't have to work in a stifling corporate HR culture. They're friends. They can bust balls and talk as they please to one another, not sit all day in cubical hell doing the bidding of sub-standard corporate middle managers.
Who'd you sell to? Someone like yourself or larger operation. If the latter, I guarantee the employees are sad for losing you.
Don't do work for Advent Health. Had to cut a project off at midnight on Friday and couldn't return until Midnight Sunday.
They don't want to talk at all. Hell, how many times do I see losers going through self checkout at Publix when there are wide open registers. Oh, no, I may have to actually interact with a person. Clutch my pearls. I always laugh at them when I'm walking by, because they ALWAYS screw up and are ALWAYS slower than going through normal checkout.
You do the most at hiring you can to weed stuff out, after hard lessons learned. I changed over time on the workplace environment. I am very sarcastic and dgaf on most topics and would let stuff go. Took me a while to figure out that a number of employees have a much different attitude, with some types of language and kidding really bothering them. It would surprise me that would include seriously hard folks that had really been there and done that. You strive for folks that gel. Unfortunately, a group of the hardest workers thrown together often doesn’t do that. Leadership really sets the tone on expectations and attitudes. Everyone has to be respectful. Have fun, work hard, keep learning, just be respectful. Zero tolerance for bullying, liars and lazy folks. Those are all poison to small work groups, especially with long term folks. Well of course, if it is a heavy Union shop, I got nothing.
