TEAMBUILDING AS A GRANITE WORKTOP FIRM

Teambuilding as a Granite Worktop Firm

Over the years we have seen staff come and go. In fact, our industry tends to have a relatively poor record in terms of staff retention. Wages can be low, conditions can be tough, and the physical stress on the stonemasons and fitters especially can be high.

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But in recent years, we have seen that change around.  We have seen very little staff turnover during the last four years, and we are glad and proud of that. This applies to the “hands on”, stone mason staff, but also to our office team.

What are the ingredients for a strong team in a granite worktop firm? What does that look like, even in the office team? How are we trying to strengthen our team? And what are the challenges facing an office team in a small business today?

team teambuilding human resources office staff granite worktop firmIn the interests of further team-building, one of our recent developments has been to draw on the resources of an HR professional who has been helping us to talk through our team work, so as to streamline processes and make some of our instinctive coordination a little more deliberate! Thus far, the process has been good!

Pressure

The last weeks have seen an unprecedented period of pressure in our office. As well as the usual spring time stream of enquiries, quotations and installations, we have seen in rapid succession:

  • A major issue affecting the internet in the village – all companies in the area (not just this granite worktop firm!) being cut off for a significant period from what is, to all intents and purposes, our lifeblood.
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  • Major website issues caused by incompatible plug-ins in WordPress updates – a BIG headache!
  • The big drive to get ourselves sorted for the new General Data Protection Regulation – see here for our statement.
  • Five of us in the office losing close relatives in a matter of weeks – in two cases very close relatives indeed. In one week we lost staff to attend funerals on three days. As I write we are short-staffed after one of our team suddenly and shockingly lost her mum – a lady known to and loved by us all.

Diversity

What is true right across a granite worktop firm is true in the office too – we need a variety of people with a diversity of gifts and skills. We are not all the same – thankfully! Admin people tend to be sticklers for method – they are the rottweilers of our paperwork and communications processes. Sales people tend to be freer-spirited – goal-focused rather than method-focused.

team teambuilding human resources office staff granite worktop firm

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Thankfully, we are blessed with a team that, by and large, really pulls together. Everybody gets what it is all about. And within that team, tasks are divided up – quoting, processing orders, organising the template and fit schedule, dealing with enquiries by phone, email or online chat, website development, sample labeling and posting, photographs to take and send out – there is a ton of it. All of it aimed at getting granite worktops (and quartz… and Dekton…) out to our customers as efficiently and happily as possible.

Coordination

Everybody needs to be pulling together though – things go wrong when sales people can’t be bothered to follow method, and relationships fray when admin people lose sight of the big goal.

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Cohesion

Coordination at its best is more than simply “using skills together efficiently”. There is more to the glue than just good ergonomics. A real team has a sense of belonging, of mutual ownership, of pride, of personal and group responsibility. In our case, as a granite worktop firm, that means a sense of group satisfaction in every set of worktops fitted and every bit of positive customer feedback through Checkatrade or grateful customer messages. And it means that the sense of punch in the gut when things go wrong is shared too – as is the desire to put things right for our clients, and quickly.

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Affection

The weird thing is, once you have built that team thing, and seen the staff turnover drop right down, then you find something beyond coordination or even cohesion. You start to find that you have become a family. You find that when one person hurts, others feel it too. You begin to care – not just about the work, but about each other. Those bereavements have touched us all.

Affordable Granite is not just another granite worktop firm. We are family. 

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