Page 100 - How America's Best Places to Work Inspire Extra Effort in Extraordinary Times

Steering the Ship and Inspiring the Crew C87

40 percent about selling QLI. Even if a person isn’t hired, we want
them to go away with a sense that this is a remarkable place to work,
which in some way will come back to help us.
After someone has accepted an offer, we continue our efforts. We
know after accepting the job a person can feel some cognitive dis-
sonance about their decision. It’s like when you buy a new car—you
immediately begin to pay attention to any advertisements about that
car on the television and tell friends how proud you are to have made
that purchase to validate your decision. We want to reinforce to em-
ployees that they’ve made a great decision, so in that same spirit we
send them home with a packet of information about QLI and what
a great place this is. If a loved one—a grandmother, for example—
stops by the home of our new employee, we want that employee to
share with the loved one how excited they are to be coming to work
here—that’s how that pride can be built.
Finally, that old adage about having only one opportunity to
make a first impression impacts how we conduct employee orienta-
tions. We don’t have a person conduct those orientations just because
they have a certain title or rank. We tap the best salesperson we have
to share our history, our mission, the bumps in the road we’ve faced,
and our successes. These acts help to develop a sense of pride about
working for QLI.

Q: How do staff learn the 260 mindsets?
Elson: We don’t spring the whole thing on anyone at one time. For
example, we just started working with a group that has several new
employees. We chose 10 mindsets that are particularly important in
their work. We’ll use those to build on as they grow into their new
roles.
Pearson: In football, the kicker doesn’t need to know all the plays, just
the ones that pertain to him. And most of what we do is on-the-job,
that’s where the teachable moments are anyway. Our job is to help
them “live” these mindsets so they’re not just words from a notebook.
Karolski: Exactly. The mindset book is really like a playbook. As leaders,
it’s our job to identify what’s right for the team and the situation.