In most company’s mission statements there is some rhetoric about the value of their employees to the company. The question of the day is, do these companies actions prove the mission statement? Or is it just talk and the companies bottom line is more important than anything thing else? When you have days like today in Kansas City it really puts the company’s values to the test!
Here in Kansas City its beginning to look a lot like Christmas! There is 6-12 inches of snow on the ground, on top of the 12 inches we received less than 5 days ago. In other metros where this is a typical winter, this is just another work day; however, in KC we lack the man power and snow removal equipment, and it is dangerous. Most major roads are still not plowed and almost all backroads are under a foot of snow. There are also power outages throughout the area, as well as power lines falling down everywhere.
On February 26, 2013 Kansas City got hit by the second winter storm.
Weather like this leads to the roads seeing far less traffic then normal. The people who are out on the roads might even be considered careless. Many of these poor people who braved the road ended up in a ditch or worse.
I own a company that employees over 50 people of which over half are field agents with a vehicle i provide them, while the other half works in the office. A couple years ago we made a change in philosophy based off a purchase of another company over 300 miles from our location. At the time we were unable to preform any tasks remotely but with the switch in paradigms we became able to work from remote access. I will explain how we made this shift in another article later. The results of this switch in mentality is when bad weather hits we are able to tell out employees to stay home and remain safe.
I want to be clear, I understand that nothing up to this point would differentiate my company from any other; however, my company however walks the walk when we talk about truly caring about our employees.
A friend of mine has a company that changed the way they were able to do business. These changes allowed them to be mobile and work just as effectively as my company from a remote location.
The owner of my friend’s company purposely left his house an hour early to make it to the office. Once he was there he sent out an email stating he won and the storm lost. He also made a comment about the roads declaring them to be “not bad at all.” I am not saying what he did was wrong; however, I feel as owners/mangers we have just as much a responsibility to keep ourselves safe as we do our employees.
The email swiftly prompted all the employees to get out onto the dangerous roads to ensure they were not considered lazy. The owner sent out an email later in the day stating that the office was going to be closed and everyone should stay at home. This email was after four stalled vehicles, two accidents, and an employee being injured.
The reason I explain this story is a no obvious: Do you really care about your employees or are profits more important? If you care about your people then let them stay at home and use the tools you provided them to work remotely. If you don’t care then don’t invest your money on systems you will never use.
My people are the most important asset that I have. There is no doubt in my mind that I believe this and that my actions prove my convictions. I encouraged my entire staff to stay home safely and work remotely.
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