Communicating with employees
This series on TQM is dependent upon this
basic requirement: communication with your employees as a
valuable tool of motivation. You may say: “My workers are
here only for the money.” In a way, you are right, but
money is not enough since a raise in pay
lasts only a short time, and then the desire for more money
comes into play. The answer is to compensate your workers with
things other than money, but only when the money is
satisfactory to begin with. In this way you can compete with a
competitor who tries to steal away your good workers with more
money.
 | ||
The “other things” are what
builds loyalty of employees, and they constitute communication
as a motivator as follows:
• Place the employee in a job
which he or she finds interesting, but give him or her other
jobs within the same department as “cross training”
in case of absenteeism by other workers. Compensate the worker
for learning more than one job as an incentive for being more
valuable, and recognize him or her for that value with your
verbal appreciation.
 | ||
• Treat the worker as an
individual personality, as being a special person.
• Consult employees on matters
concerning their work areas and equipment and get their
personal comments whether positive, negative or zero.
• Establish competition among
the workers to achieve production and quality, and give a
reward for the winner but sympathy and hope for the losers.
• Keep improving the work place
for cleanliness, ventilation and work efficiency.
• Greet employees with a
friendly salutation, such as: “Good morning.” “See
you all tomorrow.” Do not just come and go.
In order to keep good workers happy in
their jobs, you must keep them busy.
This is where cross training is most
important since it is very embarrassing for a worker to be idle
due to “nothing to do” especially when the boss is
around. The first thing that comes to the worker’s mind
is that there may be a lay-off coming if there is no work in
that department.
Therefore, there must be good
communication with your workers to negate that possibility
because this industry has its slow periods, as well as its busy
periods, and good, experienced workers are very hard to find
these days.
We all know how critical the finishing
department is to our objective, and how we must contend with “prima
donnas.” By learning the individual personality of each
presser and being able to communicate with that personality, we
can then develop a little bit of prima donna in each one, but
no one worker will be outstanding in that role.
In my plants, the manager was charged with
having a little birthday party for the employee one-half hour
before quitting time. Of course, the employees were paid for
that half hour. We had ice cream, cake and soda, and we all
sang: “Happy birthday dear Mildred; happy birthday to
you!” A gift was then presented to the birthday person.
What a way to communicate? It always works.
Another good way to communicate is to
publish a company newsletter and post it on the bulletin board.
News about special interests, hobbies, personal situations,
birth of children, after work activities, etc., are good
subjects for communication with your employees. After all, “We’re
family!”
As mentioned above, an ideal way to
motivate and communicate with your workers is to create a
source of competition among them. The desire to excel over one’s
peers, as well as one’s past accomplishments, is one of
the basic drives of individuals. We should, therefore, take
advantage of this drive by providing competitive situations to
maintain high quality (TQM) as well as high production numbers.
This works well with two shirt units, two
similar finishing units and two separate plants within your
network. The winner should be rewarded, and the loser
encouraged to strive for future wins.
In a small plant with fewer production
units, the workers can be motivated to compete with themselves
as against previous records. However, in the interests of total
quality management (TQM), the goal should be for quality first
and production second; but the reward is for each category to
encourage both objectives even if only one is accomplished. In
most cases, a bonus is considered more important than a small
raise in pay.
A good way for employees to communicate
with management is through the suggestion box. Sometimes an
employee is too shy to approach management with a good idea,
and sometimes an employee is afraid to tell management, except
in the form of a written note, about a harmful situation
existing in the plant.
The suggestion box gives the employees a
feeling of “being in on things” as part of the
organization. This attitude motivates the worker to maintain
quality work (TQM) to secure his or her position and the
company’s strength. When reviewing the suggestions each
week, you must contact the worker involved and discuss the
suggestion with him or her. If it is accepted, a reward must be
given. The reward must be substantial, otherwise, it may be
considered insulting or unimportant to management.
Direct communication with employees can be
accomplished through a periodical suggestion meeting. Even if
there are no suggestions to be offered, just the personal
contact with the employees will be rewarding to management.
Future purchases of equipment, changes in methods of
processing, changes in company policy, special recognition of
an employee, etc., can be good material for a periodical
meeting with your employees.
In my own operation, I would hold monthly
meetings with the customer service representatives and branch
manager to discuss operations and customer relations. We held
training sessions and role-played various customer situations,
etc.
As also mentioned before, the work
environment can either be an incentive or a deterrent to
working in the plant even though the worker admits that the pay
is very good. A break room with refrigerator, sink, small
toaster or oven, table, chairs and a couple of cabinets is a
wonderful motivator for TQM and as a viable communicator. A
clean and well-ventilated work area is conducive to employees
keeping it that way with all trash going into the waste baskets
and not over the floor. Even if your plant de-tags all garments
before bagging, those removed tags should go onto the invoice
or into the waste basket, not all over the floor.
Remember, good pay wages are vitally
important to your employees, and wages pay for the necessities
of life as well as for some of the pleasures to be enjoyed, but
if you do not motivate through communication with your
employees and give them the “other things” that
they crave, your TQM program and necessary production will not
prevail.
Note: My spotting video, “The
Caplan Method of Stain Removal,” which includes my
comprehensive text (edited by Hal Horning) and the handy
spotting board reference, is available in English, Korean
(video only) and Spanish from the Golomb Group, c/o Dennis
McCrory, 7664 Plaza Court, Willowbrook, IL 60521, phone
(800)679-5856. This video is actually a “Trainer in a Box”
and is a complete training course for both experienced and
novice spotters. My comprehensive text reinforces all of the
background technical material required to produce a
professional spotter. Each method of spot removal is thoroughly
discussed and demonstrated. Bleaching and use of digesters are
explained in addition to basic textile chemistry.
Also available from Golomb Group, in
English and Spanish, is my video on step-by-step shirt
finishing which includes my comprehensive text in loose-leaf
form outlining each procedure for single-operator and
two-operator cabinet shirt units. Both units are demonstrated
using a cabinet sleever and single, or triple, heated collar
former. This procedure was developed by me for top quality with
no touchup (regular sizes) together with maximum production
without overexertion by its operators. Avoiding shrinkage,
wilting and dipping of the collar, together with its proper “breaking
and forming” on the heated collar former, are all
demonstrated. Both the collar and front buttonhole placket, the
two thickest parts of the shirt, are totally dried under the
press head with no loss of production.
Attractive detailing and packaging of the
hangered shirt, padding, steam pressure and timing are all
discussed. A unique wash formula to give whiter whites,
brighter colors and complete removal of grease and body oils is
included in the loose-leaf text book.
Stan Caplan has over 35 years experience
in his own high volume dry-cleaning, laundry and tailoring
plant and two package plants with adjoining coin-operated
laundry and dry-cleaning. He is a former chief instructor at
the International Fabricare Institute, The Southwest
Drycleaners Association School, the Illinois State Fabricare
School, the Michigan Institute of Laundering and Dry-cleaning
School, the Mississippi Fabricare Association School and
Louisiana Fabricare Association School, the Pennsylvania
Drycleaners and Launderers Association School (now
Pennsylvania-Delaware Cleaners Association), the Johannesburg
Cleaners Association School (South Africa), the Hyatt-Regency
Southeast Asia School (Singapore and Hong Kong) and numerous
short courses in all areas of the fabric care industry
throughout the US and Canada. Stan offers consulting, training
and engineering services in all areas of the fabric care
industry from customer service area to the boiler room. His
total system (TQM) encompasses maximum efficiency, economy and
product excellent quality. Stan can be reached at 7341 Amberly
Lane, Suite 310, Delray Beach, FL 33446; phone/fax:
(561)496-2548; his e-mail address is:
stancap100@aol.com.
stancap100@aol.com.
