Q&A: Building relationships, helping employees

COCONUT CREEK, Fla. - In an effort to help HME providers engage their employees, Valumatrix, a strategy, content and messaging service, launched The Fifth Element, a weekly newsletter, in April. Here's what Lynn Everard, managing director at Valumatrix, had to say about improving productivity and creating a better work/life balance.

HME News: How important is employee morale?

Lynn Everard: We're in an industry where we don't have the ability to raise our prices, even as the cost of business increases, so for any company to remain profitable or even solvent, they need to find a way to address those costs by improving productivity. I found a study that said the cost of low productivity was about $30,000 per year, per disengaged employee. 

HME: What will employees get from the newsletter?

Everard: Each month, we have a theme and each week of the month we focus on one area: the self/employee, relationships and dating, family and work. We provide practical suggestions to help them in their daily lives, so that when employees come to work in the morning, they're less likely to bring their problems with them.

HME: What's a common mistake that well-meaning employers make?

Everard: One of the things we do in the HME industry is we fill management positions with people who have the most functional experience. If it's a customer service position, we want someone who knows how to get the job done on the phone with a customer. But that doesn't automatically translate into the ability to sit down with their employees and connect with them on a manager/employee level. When people get promoted into these management positions we don't give them much in terms of training or guidance.