We know that Amerit’s most valuable asset is our people. Our technicians, field management and corporate staff all play an integral role in driving our company forward. Retaining our employees is a critical driver of our success and, we believe, can be a meaningful differentiator in our industry. So lately we have been thinking a lot about employee engagement and how we can make sustainable improvements.

Employee engagement is a complex issue driven by many factors.  For large, nationally distributed workforces such as Amerit’s, employee engagement is a particular challenge– how do you ensure that every employee at every location knows they are valued and feels heard? While there is no single answer to these questions, we are actively taking steps in this direction.

Recognition is one of the core values at Amerit. To make that a reality for every one of our employees we have recently deployed a recognition and rewards platform that we call Drive. The application is available to all employees and is designed to enable real-time recognition and peer-to-peer support. Rewards are given by managers in the form of points that can be redeemed for great merchandise or gift cards.

We have found the most important part of this is the public recognition of our employees. It is really motivating to see yourself receiving compliments and points on the company-wide feed for everyone to see. We believe it is positively influencing our employees and creating a culture of recognition.  In fact, employees are now recognizing each other through the platform in a purely social way.

We also recognize a key factor in employee engagement is the role of the supervisor – they are the #1 driver of employee satisfaction.  An exciting initiative this month is our Fleet Manager Summit. In this yearly event we bring all Amerit Fleet Managers from across the country together for three days of training, collaboration and team building.

A key message of the event is how we place great value on our fleet managers and their role as leaders. Our managers are the backbone of our company, we believe in them and the critical role they play at Amerit. We are very excited to infuse this incredible group of professionals with a renewed sense of purpose and insight through Leadership workshops and seminars.  The goal is simple; more effective management leads to more employee engagement which further supports our initiatives for improvement and growth.

We know employee engagement is a journey and we will always be striving to be better.  We are excited about our two current initiatives and are committed to creating new programs and initiatives that drive even more engagement, enthusiasm and excellence.