COVID Creates Demand – Customers Buying Employees Laid Off. Factory Shut Down – Orders Canceled?

Enterprise Value Accelerator. Story #2 (5-minute read)

Our factory is in a college town surrounded by Colorado ranch country.  Employees drive pickups decorated with American flags and rifles in the rear window; others have Biden stickers on their bumpers.  It is March 2020, orders for our existing product lines have stopped.  Employees are laid off.  With a huge advertising campaign, we introduce a new product we have working on for three years.  The consumer research looks great and engineering is done.Its success will make or break the company.

I drive into the lot and park between Betty’s Volkswagen Micro bus and Frank’s Ford F-150.  Betty, our Customer Service Manager, sees my car and runs to the parking lot wearing a brightly colored “Biden” face mask and waving a fist full of papers.  She jumps and skips all the way to my car yelling,

“25 NEW ORDERS THIS MORNING”!!

We run to her cluttered desk, and Betty shows me the details.  COVID has moved families from gyms, swimming clubs, and sports centers to their homes. Everyone seems to be ordering our new product.  The sales budget for the 31 days of March is 75 units.  New orders for just the first weekend of March exceeded 100 units.  The new product is a winner.

We have to ship quickly or the orders will be canceled and we will get a bad name in social media.  Betty and I look across the factory floor, we have plenty of raw materials and parts, but only three of us at work.  I can operate the fork lift, Betty can handle the shipping, and Frank, our Production Manager,can plan production scheduling.

The solution is in sight.  We need to bring back 15 employees, make the product, and ship the product before orders are canceled.

“No problem!” I say to Betty and Frank, the three of us will get on the phone and invite all employees to a meeting on the factory front lawn tomorrow at 9 AM.   Tell them we will have coffee and donuts.  Oh yes, and have them wear face masks.

We start making calls and then the BIG PROBLEM–All 15 laid off employees basically say the same thing –

“NO!  NO!  NO!IT WILL KILL US.  I CAN’T WORK WITH THEM.”

I did not see it coming. Employees I had known and worked with are scared, angry, confused, and unsure of how to proceed.

Pete said, “COVID-19 is a hoax but I am coming to work because I need the money. I will never wear a mask.”

Joan said, “I will wear double masks but you have to move my work station 10 feet from others.”

Susan said, “You cannot control those men. They will not socially distance.  I am staying home with my kids.”

Ralph said, “The virus is only in China.  I will not get sick.  I will be there tomorrow and work my ass off.  But no mask.”

And on and on.  I see different pain points and problems. The conflict is real.  I am facing new challenges I had never dealt with before, who had?

I get mad and jump to a solution.I draft a letter to all employees referencing the employee manual and the section on not reporting for work on time.  The letter says all will report for work and those that do not will be terminated.  I solve the problem,and I walk from my desk to get a cup of coffee.

I grab the coffee go back to my desk and look at the drafted letter again.  The letter makes me sick.  This is not me, and this will not work.  Looking for ideas, I call my friend in Minnesota, the best operations person I know.Paul greets me, and we talk briefly about family and how Sarah and Priscilla are doing and then he takes a breath and asks me three questions:

How many of the 15 will read the letter and come back to work?

How many will stay once they work in your current environment?

How quickly can you replace and train the ones that leave?

Through Paul’s eyes, I see the company’s crisis.  The problem is rooted in the pain of political talk, information sources, family stress, scientific understanding of the virus’s impact, and the hygiene protocol needed to address the virus.

Paul says, “forget your letter”.  This is not a legal issue;do not use the rules in your employee manual.You must look at the deep emotional and need-based decisions of your employees.

Paul went on and said, “you know how you study the emotions of customers looking at new products; use the same approach.”Just like I work to understand a customer’s pain and needs and their buying decision process as I create a great product, I have to understand how to create a successful work environment for my employees.

Some by phone and some by Skype, with pen in hand and note pad on the desk, I call each employee using my “Listen First”process.  And WOW, did I learn a lot.  I now see a path to get the factory back into production.

Just as with new product focus group research, the phone calls share the new world of each employee’s feelings, needs, fears, and understanding of facts.  The real and painful problems and conflicts of my employees reveal themselves.

I see they all want to work, not just for the income, but for their love of the company.  There are strong political, religious, social,and knowledge differences.  These will not change.  Understanding that, the path is to create a working environment where all feel respected and safe.

I call Paul back.  I wish I had more data, like I normally would get from a consumer research team, but time was short.  Paul and I feel we can move forward as the process can be adjusted and refined.

I get all employees to agree to a first meeting.  As I prepare to get the factory back to work, I know that uncertainty and change will be the new normal.  The plan is to share our new direction with a few simple steps:

#1 A daily transparent open meeting.  We learn and we adjust.

#2 Minimal hygiene rules. Enforced with only polite reminders.

#3 Most Important.  Families first. Anxiety at home addressed quickly.

The direction is to focus on the essential work,not the differences.  The key is the daily meeting encouraging a high level of adaptability and quick decision making, as the environment, internally and externally,changes rapidly.

By Thursday, all are at work.  Tension and fear are on every face but they are back as a dedicated and questioning team.  Masks and sterilizing lotion are everywhere and equipment and work stations are moved to create social distancing.With our daily meetings, we learn that all have reasons for their beliefs, but it is clear all are doing their best.  The meetings continue to work well, letting fears, differences, and concerns flow freely.  The discussion and sharing generates new ideas and adjustments are made daily.

The moral –

COVID is a crisis for the employees, a new world of emotions and decisions, using the Employee Manual rules will not make you a Hero.

With a new product, you know the tools to get insights about emotions and behavior.  Due to COVID,employees are in a world like a new product.  Use the same approach to get employees’ insights.  Become a HERO, increasing the Enterprise Value of your company.

Details: The phone and Zoom calls using “Listen First” data collection share the details of the employees needs and thoughts as well as the true pain points and needs. We work to have clear communication and do not assume all understand each other’s fears.  Disagreement is OK and reasons for thoughts and action are shared.  The goal of each daily group meeting is to focused on understanding and moving forward taking common action to adjust and make the factory work.  The key is to create a minimal set of rules and to have the team of employees continue to discuss fears, concerns, and beliefs with the only goal of adapting so we can work together.  The simple list of rules we used: 5-minute group meeting each day.  Work stations are positioned 10 feet apart. Problems at home, you take care of family first.  If not at your work station, you must wear a mask.  If you test positive for COVID, must stay at home for 14 days – with pay.  Rule enforcement done gently, only by the boss.  It works great.