Everybody Matters: The Extraordinary Power of Caring for your People like Family by Bob Chapman and Raj Sisodia
Review by Anne Jung, Senior Library Assistant, Central Library
With recent massive layoffs from Amazon and Microsoft, we all need a sense of hope. Here is a true story of how one company did things differently.
"Everybody Matters is about what happens when ordinary people throw away long-accepted management practices and start operating from their deepest sense of right, with a sense of profound responsibility for the lives entrusted to them," said Bob Chapman.
Sounds like it is too good to be true, doesn't it? But it is reality. “Everybody Matters” chronicles how Bob Chapman, CEO of Barry-Wehmiller, a global supplier of manufacturing technology, turned his company into a place where people are individually respected for who they are and what they do.
Story after story in this book demonstrates how bringing out the best in people allows them to excel within the company. Humanizing people's work lives by empowering them to make changes in their workflow and contribute to decisions not only produces higher efficiency and increased productivity but transforms their personal or family lives as well. Often the prospect of losing your job or being laid off riddles your life with stress and fear.
Many times, big companies shut down factories in North America just to open them in another country where labour is cheaper. Laying off people every few years builds an expectation, and creates an atmosphere of fear and distrust.
In contrast, Bob Chapman saved jobs in the past when the company ran into hard times by having all staff, including himself, take a month off without pay. Employees were not forced to take a particular month off, for example, if you were a mother of small children and wanted to wait until a summer month, you were able to do so. Or if you could afford to take six weeks off without pay but your colleague could only afford two weeks, you could arrange to take your colleague's two weeks.
What deeply impressed me was that when the company was doing better financially a few years later, Chapman made sure his employee's pensions were topped up as if they never lost that money. What a unique management style!
To create an ideal work environment, Chapman instituted his revolutionary ‘Truly Human Leadership’ strategies that are "tested, refined, and proven to work dozens of times in half a dozen times in many different countries and in numerous towns and cities across the United States".
Check out this true story in a well-written, easy-to-understand book about doing business in a way few of us have experienced. Truly inspirational!