It might sound small, but it’s true. We work harder and better when we feel appreciated.
Money, prestige, and all the other aspects of work we benefit from will be compromised if we do not think that those we work for care about us.
Wainwright Industries of Missouri says its average employee generates fifty-five ideas per year to improve the company’s production of automotive and aerospace parts.
Wainwright’s chairperson, Don Wainwright, credits his company’s attitude toward employees for fostering creativity. “In most organizations, the managers operate like parents who make the rules and then administer punishments and rewards. The nonmanagers play a corollary role of children who have to be good and do what Mom and Dad say, or else.”
At Wainwright, he says, they adopted a People First Policy. The new policy “avoids this parent trap and encourages every employee to speak up when they have a better idea instead of either making the suggestion to a superior, who might then steal credit as the idea works its way up the line, or, ultimately, not saying anything at all.”
The policy has been a huge success, and Don Wainwright credits it for a 35 percent drop in production costs and a 91 percent drop in customer rejection rates. It also helped bring home the coveted Malcolm Baldridge National Quality Award.
Lower-management workers who felt like they were appreciated by superiors were 52 percent less likely to look for a different job.
Jones 2000