If You Don't Know, They'll Think You Don't Care

May 09 2022
By: Shawn M. Galloway

A plant manager asked me to assess how mature his safety culture was and identify opportunities for further improvement. Of this 400+ person plant, the majority of the population I spoke with believed that the plant manager knew them by name. On Thursdays of every week for the past six months, the plant manager conducted what he called a "safety blitz." He would take a manager, supervisor and a couple of employees, and walk different plant areas. He would introduce himself to the employees, learn a little about them and inquire how he could help them with improving safety.

When I gave the plant manager this feedback, I remember him hanging his head and responding, "I wish that were true." He coordinated with Human Resources (HR) to commit to learning each employee's name and what was important to them. He had HR and Information Technology (IT) develop a screensaver on all department managers' laptops with rotating images of their employees' names and challenged them. They had six months to memorize all their employees' names and learn what was important to them.

If your employees know you know them by name and what or who is important to them, perhaps you have created the impression that you care about them. If you don't know this, maybe you have unintentionally created the impression you don't care.

"If I didn't know you I would say I don't know you." — Jaime Cabrera

"Everyone talks about building a relationship with your customer. I think you build one with your employees first." — Angela Ahrendts (Senior Vice President, Apple)