L. Bart Adams

Several months ago, we started using employee engagement surveys with our employees. It measures employee engagement along 12 different elements. It has been an eye-opening experience to review the results with our management team and learn where our employees believe we are coming up short. It has led to some great discussions and resolutions to improve our management practices.

In my opinion, employee engagement is a way to measure your company's culture. Culture is difficult to define objectively. Conversely, I believe we can each subjectively judge whether a company has a good culture.  We know it when we see it.  With employee engagement surveys, we can more easily quantify, on an ongoing basis, how our company culture is doing.

Our survey showed that as a management team, we struggle in the area of praise and recognition.  This result was surprising to me because this is something I focus on continually with the management team. However, as is often the case, this leadership practice is not cascading down through each department.

We read articles about praise and recognition and discussed these at length as a management team. We used it as a theme for our weekly meetings for a month.  Since there are 12 elements, we will continue this practice using one per month as a theme for our management meetings.

We plan to conduct this survey on a biannual basis to measure our engagement and, in turn, our culture. It will be interesting to see how if and how we improved.

Recently, I went on a week-long trip with my wife to an all-inclusive resort in Palm Beach, Florida. Before departing, I made a conscious decision to leave my phone home. I wanted to have true separation from my business to have time to decompress and rejuvenate. (My wife had her phone, in case of emergencies, they could contact me.)

Sitting by the pool each day, I could catch up on some of my reading lists. I finished two books and started a third during this week-long excursion. I must admit, it was nice not having the distraction of my phone to keep me from focusing and learning from the books I was reading. Even a month after the trip, I still find myself quoting from the books I read. My retention rate during this time was certainly higher than usual.

I spent more quality time with my wife, which was the most important part of the getaway. With me running the business and running our household with four busy children, it was important for us to connect and rekindle our bond. Looking back, I wish she would not have brought her phone either. I found it more of a distraction for me because she was still texting her friends and our children throughout the trip.  (Note to self: book a trip where there is no cell service!)

When I returned home, I was nervous about the number of missed emails and phone calls. Here is the final tally:

• I had 259 unread emails
• I had six voicemails

That’s it.  Of the 259 emails, only 25 required a response. I was shocked at how much junk mail I received for newsletters and updates that I had signed up for over the years. This realization has caused me to unsubscribe to 99% percent of those emails. I learned that the return on time from reading the emails was not significant enough to keep the subscriptions.

Of the six voicemails, only 3 required a response. None were urgent. I attribute this to my management team. Since I’ve owned the farm, I have been deliberate in the delegation of roles and responsibilities, which was the payoff.

In conclusion, I would encourage all business owners to leave their phones home for their next vacation or extended weekend getaway. The benefits of rejuvenation, connection with loved ones, and relaxation far outweigh the important work you may miss.

Several years ago, I learned about a concept called Free Days from Strategic Coach. (Strategic Coach is a coaching program for entrepreneurs developed by Dan Sullivan. I was attending the program for three years.) Free days are part of the Entrepreneur Time System developed by Mr. Sullivan. A free day is 24-hours being away from your business and not being connected in any way to the farm. The purpose is rejuvenation.

I was very diligent in protecting my free days at the start of the program, and over time, I have slipped into the old habits of checking emails and our business website on my sort-of-free days. I don’t consider myself a workaholic, but the business is always on my mind, and I rarely disengage entirely from the farm activities.

Several years ago, I took a week-long vacation to a remote cabin on a lakeside. I did have cell phone service, but I committed to staying disconnected from the business during that period. It was indeed a time of rest and recovery. I recall being energized by the experience and ability to take on the daily challenges of business ownership with outstanding clarity and energy. I have not been as diligent in those efforts since that time.

I commit myself to actual free days as I prepare to leave for a week-long getaway to a resort in Florida with my wife.  We are about to go to the airport, and I have decided to leave my cell phone home. (My wife will have her phone for emergencies with our children.) I have packed a new notepad and pens with three books that I’ve been eager to read. We have no scheduled commitments during our stay. Our sole purpose is to rejuvenate and increase our connection as a couple.

As I left the farm yesterday, I told a longtime employee that I would leave my phone home for the entire trip. He said, “well if you can’t leave us for a week now, you’ll never be able to leave us for a week.” Comforting and wise words, to be sure.

One afternoon I was speaking to my eleven-year-old daughter Ellie about the mushroom farm. I was explaining part of the mushroom growing process, and she nodded in agreement, but clearly, she did not understand what I was sharing. I looked at my wife for guidance, and she mouthed to me, “keep it simple.” So, I back-peddled a bit and tried to explain the concept in more simple terms. I’m afraid I was unsuccessful.

The following week, I attended a Vistage Executive Summit in Salt Lake City. One of the speakers presented an idea that we should use The Six and Sixty Rule in our communication. Six and sixty means keeping your communication simple enough for a six-year-old to understand and valuable enough for a sixty-year-old. As he shared this teaching with the group, I immediately thought about my conversation with Ellie. Unfortunately, that conversation ended without understanding or usefulness.

Language Challenges

The workforce at the mushroom farm is about 70% Hispanic, with Spanish being the primary and only language spoken. I, unfortunately, don’t speak or write Spanish. Therefore, I must have a translator for most of my communication with my Spanish-speaking employees. My translators often have difficulty sharing my thoughts because of my habit of speaking and writing in a more technical form.

Using the Six and Sixty rule has helped me in my communication with my employees. For the past several months, I have written a weekly newsletter. It has been a learning process to see which parts of the bulletin the employees read and understand. By using the rule, I’ve focused on simplifying the message without diluting the benefit to the readers.  It’s an ongoing challenge to share technical information with our employees, but the advantages of using this rule make it worth continuing the practice.

I hope this post has been easy to understand and valuable for all readers, regardless of age. Happy communication!

We once had an employee who asked for a raise. I asked this employee's supervisor, "if he deserved a raise?"

He replied emphatically, "No!"

"Why did this employee not deserve a raise?" I inquired.

He went on the tell me how this employee had been underperforming in his job. The supervisor had had several "coaching" conversations with the employee about improving his performance. His response was, "If you pay me more I will work harder. I feel like I am working the level of my pay." This employee's performance did not improve. A few weeks later, this employee again asked for a raise and was denied.

He quit.

I'm not sure where this employee developed his mindset of working to the level he felt was proportional to his pay? In my experience, this is a unique thought process regarding wage-earning. Especially considering the following:

• He worked in the picking department before transferring to this "new" position. He understood our policies, procedures, and company culture.
• He worked from time to time at this position (while still working in the picking department) to learn the job before applying for the full-time position. So, he understood how to calculate the wages and the work required.
• His supervisor coached him on multiple occasions about his sub-par performance.  He understood he was underperforming.

Perhaps his mindset was influenced by the previous two positions he held at our facility. He worked as a box folder and a picker.  In each case, the job pays on a piece-rate basis. His speed or performance determined his wage. He was in control of how much he earned. I can only conclude that making the shift to an hourly wage proved to be too difficult to change this employee's mindset. If he had improved his performance, he would have earned a pay increase. What he failed to understand was that he still controlled the amount he made by his performance.

How Am I Paid?

Our mushroom harvesters are paid by the pound of mushrooms they pick each day. At the start of each shift, the harvester receives a new punch card to track the number of baskets of mushrooms they pick. Each punch is worth one lug, which is four baskets. At the end of each day, we calculate the total pounds harvested and divide it by the total lugs for the day to get the average lug weight. The lug weight is then multiplied by the number of lugs on the harvester's punch card resulting in pounds harvested by that day.

This method of calculating the lug weights was employed long before I started in 2003. Since its inception, the harvesters generally assumed that the average lug weight was 10 pounds per lug or 2.5 pounds per basket. This assumption was incorrect as the lug weights were actually between 8-9 pounds per lug.

From Misconception To Understanding

About one year ago, I learned about this misconception amongst our harvesters. I was shocked to hear that they had this idea that the company was "stealing" pounds from the harvesters. I learned it was a common sentiment with the harvesters and was being shared with our new harvesters. At orientation and from time to time, we review the pounds calculation with the harvesting department. However, there was still a disconnect between the assumed and actual pounds harvested. You can probably imagine the effect this was having on employee morale.

In our next team meeting, we brainstormed for ideas on how to help the harvesters understand the actual pounds calculation and payment method. We considered:

• Reviewing the pounds calculation with the harvesters, as a group or individually
• Weighing each basket, by the harvester, instead of using a daily group average
• Spot checking and weighing baskets for each picker
• Posting a report of lug weights by the picker

We ultimately settled on a combination of the last two.  Our controller and HR Manager, Lisette Garcia, and the Harvesting Manager, Gilberto Gutierrez, worked together to implement this project. They purchased a scale, made a worksheet, and began recording lug weights, by picker, for each room we picked. I created a database for this data to be recorded and made a report that the department managers could print for the harvesters to review daily. On the report, any harvester that was below 10 pounds per lug was highlighted in red.

From Understanding To Accountability

We saw three immediate changes in the harvester's behavior after we started posting this report.

1. The harvesters started filling up their baskets to ensure they picked over 10 pounds per lug. They did not like seeing their name is red in the report for their coworkers to see. At this writing, our trailing twelve-month average lug weight is 10.40 pounds per lug.
2. Because they were being paid with an average lug weight, any harvester that was under the average was being paid more than their fair share. The harvesters quickly caught on to this and started holding each other accountable to fill up the baskets.  Within a month, the number of names in red went from 15 per day to 1-2 per day, on average.
3. The harvesters now understood how they were being paid, and their morale improved significantly.  Many of the harvesters expressed how they felt like they got a pay raise. This was, of course, purely psychological because nothing had changed in pounds calculation or the payment method.

Aside from the boost in morale, this also resulted in an operational improvement. Our product cooler capacity was effectively increased by 20-25%. The baskets were 20-25% fuller while maintaining the same physical footprint in the product cooler.

This experience taught me that employees need to understand how they are paid, appreciate knowing where they stand, and help keep each other accountable.