I wanted to start tonight’s blog with a quote. Here it goes
The place to improve the world is first in one's own heart
and head and hands, and then work outward from there.”
― Robert M. Pirsig
― Robert M. Pirsig
Why this quote is so relevant is because what I want to talk
about. Maintenance. Yes we develop maintenance plans for our
machines, our mixers, our trucks, but do we our employees? How does one develop a maintenance “plan” for
people? It’s not like you can change the
oil every 3 months or replace a belt every 12.
What do we do? Is it
necessary? My opinion is yes it is
necessary and what do we do…three things. Listen, learn, and educate. First
listen. Listen to your employees. Stick your finger on the pulse of the
company. Is your employee going through
tough times, is your employee hiding something, is your employee elated about
something? Every day is different, but
this goes back to some of my old blogs, you are only as good as your employees
make you. Listen to them! There may be something affecting them that
could swing you positive or negative.
But like I said every day is different; keep your finger on the
pulse. That is the only way to maximize
productivity. Second and third learn and
educate run together. Your employees can
teach you things and you can teach things as well. It’s a give and take. I always find it amazing, at our plant we
have one guy who can look at something and take it apart in his mind. Any engine, any machine, he can dissect it. Well every time something needs repair it’s a
learning experience. I find myself
thinking every time what happens when this guy retires? You can’t replace this knowledge, but what
can you do? Learn and educate. Teach another, teach each other. Along the same lines we have an employee that
is time and time again the most recommended delivery driver job after job after
job. What does he do differently? Again I find myself thinking, “We need to
keep this mentality up, what happens when he is gone?” Every person on your floor or in your fleet
has value! They all can teach and they all can learn! Open it up let them be teachers, let them be
the students! I cannot stress this
enough. We are a society of learned
citizens who always yearn for the next step, the next plateau, and we as managers/owners
need to lead to those plateaus. And a
lot of times those plateaus are within the company, we just never knew it. That being said we also have more resources
than our shop employees. Why not use
them? Case in point. I have started an education fund for our
employees where I will match whatever money they put into an “education fund”. This fund will pay their way to educational
courses put on by our national organization, the National Precast Concrete Association. Why do I do this? Everyone wants to reach that next plateau,
they just don’t know how. Flip the coin over, this is preventative
maintenance on my part. I invest money in
my employees to be better educated in their job, what is my return? A better understanding of their job and a
better respect of what they do. Money
well spent period. That will give more of
a return than any extended life filter or belt you will ever buy. So it’s like Robert says, “The place to
improve the world is in one’s own heart and head and hands, then work outward
from there. “ Maintenance on a man will
go infinitely longer than any machine.
Listen, learn, EDUCATE!
You ask employees pay for a portion of NPCA classes?
ReplyDeleteRobb--
ReplyDeleteWe actually have empolyees that want to pay for the courses. Thy believe, as I do, the NPCA has the best courses for furthering the knowledge of quality precasting. We are a very small company and have never been able to afford to send anyone to the educational courses. That is why I started the fund. I want to get some of them to the courses this year.
Thanks for reading!
Aaron