How Employee Engagement Curbs Turnover at Facilities Management Services
When Scott Koloms became president of Facilities Management Services upon his father’s death in 2001, he took over the helm of a small company in Louisville, Kentucky, that already operated with a lot of heart. His father, Jerry, had founded FMS in 1999 and imbued it with his upbeat personality from the get-go.
“He was a really nice guy who always had a joke or a great smile for everybody,” Koloms says. “He trusted that folks would do well by him and he carried that attitude into all of his interactions.”
When Koloms took over in 2001, the company had 30 employees and was doing about $1.25 million in sales as a commercial cleaning company that customized and provided cleaning programs for educational, financial, manufacturing and office facilities. The company now is tracking $20 million in sales and employs more than 800 people in branch operations throughout Kentucky and southern Indiana. In a field not necessarily noted for its environmental consciousness, FMS’ core cleaning chemicals — general cleaner, restroom cleaner, glass cleaner and neutral cleaner — are all Green Seal certified.
And while the company’s growth was sought after and welcomed, it also created new challenges for its leadership.
“I have never been motivated by money,” Koloms says. “Sure, I needed to pay the bills just like anyone else, but the financial success of the company was never my primary motivator. Initially, I simply wanted to succeed, to prove to myself and others that I could be an effective leader.
“But as the company grew and did start succeeding, things got a little more complex. As a group of leaders, we knew our success was possible in part because we really cared about each other and had each other’s backs. But as we grew, how could we get that message to the new people that were coming in? We were operating intuitively and it was time to be more intentional about how we cared about each other. Otherwise, we were going to lose the soul of the company as we expanded.”
Koloms and his team had already done significant work on identifying their company values and formalizing its structures when they encountered B Lab representatives at the 2014 Flourish and Prosper Conference at Case Western University in Cleveland. The FMS team investigated B Lab’s impact assessment tool and felt it would expedite the process of formalizing programming, policies and procedures built around the company’s values.
“The assessment tool asked us questions that we hadn’t even considered,” Koloms says. “We decided at the conference to become a B Corp.” Koloms says the company is currently working to create the metrics that show a direct correlation between the successful execution of its social mission and its operational and financial successes.
“Once we had clarity around how we wanted to impact our world in a positive way, things started to fall into place,” he says. “Our people became more motivated and more likely to stay. Our leadership turnover has dropped drastically in the last several years. We’re attracting talented people who want to work for a company that’s about more than just the bottom line, and we’re attracting customers who see the value in our efforts and recognize the likelihood of better service due to the successful execution of our social mission.”
B the Change Media asked Koloms and HR Director Jennifer Coombs to expand on the importance of employee engagement and the difference the alignment between social mission and FMS’ operational and financial success makes for the company, its employees and its customers.
How does your value of compassion translate to day-to-day business operations?
Compassion is a fundamental value in our organization, and we try to insert it into everything we do, from the way we engage with our customers, our vendors, and our communities to how we treat each other in meetings. We actually have a chief compassion officer.
Our mission statement says: Facilities Management Services will use its financial, human and physical resources to ease suffering and promote the well-being of our employees and the citizens of our communities by providing people with educational, wellness, cultural and developmental opportunities and being responsible environmental stewards.
Core Values:
1. I care about the people working with me. I am compassionate.
2. I stay positive!
3. I always get better.
4. I am available and responsive.
5. I keep my word.
6. I know face-to-face communication is a key to success.
7. I get it done right, today.
8. I know we will succeed as a team.
A particular interest right now is in teaching our leaders how to communicate with kind awareness — how to enter into conversation without bringing in all the narratives we have a tendency to carry with us that can ultimately make the conversation more emotionally charged or difficult in other ways.
Can you talk about your training programs for supervisors and employees? What differences do you think such an emphasis makes?
By providing continuous opportunity for growth and development, we engage our team members at all levels. Our training programs, in addition to other programs we offer, give us the opportunity to connect with our team members. This results in more engaged folks who are connected with their team, our customers, our communities and leadership.
Seventy percent of our current leadership team consists of team members who started their career as a front-line team member (cleaner). Our most recent employee survey reported a 94 percent job-satisfaction rate.
How do you implement your training across your entire company?
All newly hired team members are required to complete our on-the-job 30-day training program. The program includes a review of our mission and core values as well as job-specific training and safety awareness. Conducting this training over a 30-day period gives our leaders time to build relationships with new team members and model our core values. It also gives us the opportunity to let our new team members know more about FMS and the programs we offer.
In partnership with Kentucky Community and Technical College, we have implemented the FMS Leaders Learning Program. Twice a year FMS leaders are selected to participate in an eight-week class taught by a certified trainer and designed to enhance their leadership and supervisory skills. Some examples of the curriculum include team-building activities, interpersonal skills training, effective communication techniques, conflict resolution, problem solving, ethical decision making, time management and stress-reduction practices — all paid for by FMS.
These classes are eligible for college credit and occur on a regular basis for our team members. After the initial eight-week program is complete, the leaders can attend quarterly training on additional topics related to personal and professional development.
We conduct internal training for all our leaders. FMS Process Meetings, which occur twice a month for all midlevel and senior leadership, are an opportunity for managers and leaders from various geographical areas and departments to come together on a regular basis for professional leadership development and team building.
Each year the FMS Senior Leadership Team hosts the Annual FMS Leadership Retreat. For three days, leadership and support staff come together to reinforce the FMS core values, vision and mission, discuss short- and long-term company goals, and participate in various team-building activities.
Our training materials and programs have been developed by taking what we’ve learned over the past 15 years and designing them in a way that’s fun, experiential and reflective of our values. Employee input and involvement have been key in the development in all of our programs. Our onboarding videos were created and filmed using real FMS team members and leadership.
We pilot our programs with smaller groups and get feedback before rolling out any training programs out company-wide. This allows us to gain buy-in and ownership from those who will be responsible for conducting the training.
We’ve had nearly 100 percent completion rates in all the Leaders Learning Courses conducted thus far and have just completed the curriculum for 2017. We’ve had nearly 100 percent participation at the FMS Leadership Retreat over the past five years. This year was our largest group ever with 60 attendees. This level of employee engagement from our leadership has translated into positive results for the training of our front-line team members.
What difference do you think such emphasis on mission-based training makes?
Turnover is one of the biggest challenges in our industry. We are constantly asking ourselves, “What can we do? How can we create the best possible experience for our employees and our customers?” The training programs we offer are just one part of a larger picture:
• We offer a ride-share program that shuttles front-line team members to and from work at no charge to the employees.
• We offer flexible schedules, retention bonuses and paid maternity leave to all team members.
• We have an Emergency Relief Fund Program that our team members can apply for when they are facing difficult times. The funds in this program consist of contributions from our leaders and a match from FMS.
• We offer FMS-sponsored cultural activities for our team members and host an annual festival for all employees and their families.
All of these programs combined contribute to lower turnover and increased employee and retention.
Currently, our average hourly wage is $11.03 and one piece of our 2017 social mission is to be paying a living wage in all the areas we clean. Our average pay for salaried individuals is $38,403.71 per year.
It’s not just one thing. We believe that by creating an environment where people gain access to development, educational, social and cultural opportunities and have the opportunity to engage in helping their own communities, they’re much more likely to stick around.
B the Change gathers and shares the voices from within the movement of people using business as a force for good and the community of certified B Corporations. The opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect those of the nonprofit B Lab.
