Our Company Culture
My friend Travis asked me on my personal FB wall what makes my employees enjoy working for us in our Amazon FBA business. The original post he asked about is below:
“You know what joy is?
A new employee told me today that he was telling his son about his job with us and he was saying how much he LOVED his work. His son was astounded because he’s never heard his roughly 50 year old dad say that about work… EVER
I’ve had some crappy bosses over the years man this makes my heart so damned happy.”
I’ll share a few things that I think we do that contribute to this. Many of our employees are in here so they can chime in but I’m NOT posting this and didn’t post the OG post to solicit compliments from them. I just REALLY want to have the kind of company that people WANT to work for. So in no particular order here are some of the things we do that contribute to a great working environment.
- We treat our employees like equals. One of the first things I realized when God blessed me enough to be self employed was how infantile the typical workplace is. I felt and feel like most jobs treat you like a little kid. It’s insulting to my kids to be treated like a kid, much less a 40 year old adult.
- I see them and treat them as subject matter experts. This means that I solicit, listen to and value their opinions.
- I make sure they have EVERYTHING they need to do their job – everything. As in don’t be cheap – tools, training, supplies. Buy the extra heat gun. Build redundancy.
- Praise them – a lot. Tell them that you know you couldn’t do the job without them (because you can’t). Tell them you appreciate the dedication, brains, and commitment they bring to the company. Then tomorrow or the next day do it again.
- Reward them – once you find reasons to praise, back it up with $$ or food or inventory gifts (we sell shoes) or in our case TACOS – everyone loves getting free stuff.
- Correct in the moment – don’t harp on employees like they are sullen teenagers, and don’t store up a list of things they did wrong. Read the One Minute Manager by Ken Blanchard. In fact don’t personalize problems at all. Look at problems – even the ones caused by employees – as process problems to be solved, and do a root cause analysis on them so you can prevent them. Take a look at Scrum Board Management.
- Have regular touch points so that you can find out what problems they are having. Most people want to be good soldiers and do what they are told and not rock the boat. Give them a format to let you know what is bugging them.
- See yourself NOT as a boss but as an obstacle remover. Your job is to find out (see point 7) what you can do to make their job EASIER. Yes that’s right, easier. Spend time investing in the processes your people do and you will remove the pain points. Remove the pain points and they will love working for you and your company.
What do you think about this? Agree or Disagree ? Do you have something to add? We’d love to hear from you!
