The Welsh Wire: Pam Olson of Crystal Flash

Crystal Flash is an eight-decade-old employee-owned petroleum distribution company. Because their 280 employees are spread out in multiple locations across Michigan, northern Indiana and northwest Ohio, it faces some unique challenges when trying to maintain engagement, accountability and an understanding of the “big picture” of company goals and objectives.

One technique they use is making everyone in the organization responsible for developing their individual plan-on-a-page and reporting their progress in meeting organizational objectives.

“Over half of our workforce are the delivery drivers, so things very specific like miles and gallons and things that relate to their day-to day work, are the focus of our key performance indicators for customer service,” says Pam Olson, Vice President of Human Resources for Crystal Flash. She talked recently with Sheri Welsh on The Welsh Wire podcast. “We had some of these tools in place, we developed some others, and we really started pulling it together so people could understand how it all worked and connected to the overall strategy.”

Videos messages and tutorials are an important communications tool for Crystal Flash, and Olson says helping workers understand manageable targets and objectives is a priority. “(It’s) things that made sense to them in their day-to-day work. It was just trying to connect that-day-to day work in their results and understanding how it drives the business and the overall company results.”

She says that driving the culture of the organization as being-employee owned is a great asset for recruiting workers. “Being employee owned (is) a great retirement vehicle. That may not always resonate with folks when they’re first considering coming on board with us but what does resonate is the fact that you get to work with a group of folks that are dedicated to the organization, understand how to make a contribution and that your work and effort is seen and recognized,” Olson says.

Listen to Sheri’s entire interview with Pam Olson.

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