Earlier this year, we conducted our first Employee Net Promoter Score (eNPS) survey at United Transportation

For those unfamiliar with eNPS, it’s a series of questions that are rated (1-5 or 1-10) and in some cases, allows the employee to provide open ended feedback to two or three specific questions.  This is completely anonymous and we only ask for tenure to assist with some analysis later. It allows an executive team or leadership team to accurately guage overall employee satisfaction. Depending on the type of survey, the data can provide clear examples for areas of strength and areas of focus or opportunity.

I have done these surveys for the past fifteen years, because “you can’t manage, what you can’t measure.” When we launched the survey, we weren’t looking for perfect scores. We were looking for honest feedback. The team has experienced quite a bit of change with new ownership, a new warehouse location, and some internal organizational adjustments. We wanted to understand how our employees truly felt about the direction of the company, the work environment, and the culture we are building together.

Well…. The results were incredibly encouraging and our team believes we are performing exceptionally well. I was delighted to see the scores, however even more impressed with the comments, ideas, constructive feedback within the open ended questions. This gave me and the other leaders great visibility in to our strengths and opportunities for where we can further improve.

I was excited.  However, in full transparency, what I have been most excited by since acquiring the company almost a year ago is that we’ve had zero employee turnover. In an industry where operational pressure is constant and turnover can be common, that tells us we’re doing something right. It also reinforces something we believe strongly as a leadership team — when people feel valued and supported, they stay engaged and committed.

When introduced by our former owner last year to the team, I told the staff that they will always be my first priority. It’s not to take anything away from our customers and the importance of customer satisfaction. I simply subscribed to the idea many years ago that if employees are happy, content, motivated, and understand how they fit into the larger organization, our customers will always be delighted with our service.

But we also know that maintaining a great culture requires constant attention. For the year ahead, we’re focused on several areas of growth.

First, we want to enhance the skill sets of our warehouse and back office operations teams. We operate in a highly specialized environment, and investing in training helps ensure our teams can operate safely, efficiently, and confidently. We want everyone to learn new skills and ideally be thriving in new roles in the near future.

Second, we’re prioritizing additional leadership training for our supervisors. Strong frontline leadership is critical in any operations-driven business, and giving our supervisors the right tools and development opportunities will strengthen the entire organization. We continue to build our bench and to have our next line of leaders ready and available as we expand.

Next we want to provide opportunities for external education and personal development. Helping employees grow both professionally and personally benefits not just the individual, but the entire company. Lunch and learns, guest speakers, summer outings to give back to the public, evening charity events can all be part of enhancing the culture.

Finally, I want to ensure that our entire organization is paid fairly. Whether you’re driving a truck, working within warehouse operations, providing operational support, or a part of our management team, we want to provide equitable compensation based on overall work performance, tenure, and the role being performed. Benefits are now available and we are researching profit sharing, offering long-term equity, and other benefits to ensure we have an engaged and high performing workforce.

In the end, companies don’t build great operations. People do.

Our role as leaders is to create an environment where those people can thrive.

This survey was a great reminder that we’re moving in the right direction, and that we have a responsibility to keep building on that foundation.

Because the best organizations never stop listening.