According to Craig Cotter, maintenance and reliability leader for Occidental Oil and Gas, recognition of a job well done is “best served warm.”
Craig Cotter, Maintenance and Reliability Leader for Occidental Oil & Gas
“In other words, do it as quickly as you can. If you’re out there in the field with your people, if you see something, you should say something to thank them for their job,” Cotter said. “And be specific. Don’t just say, ‘Hey, good job.’ Say, ‘Hey, good job. You got that transmitter back online and prevented us from over-filling the tanker,’ or whatever it happens to be.”
Discussing ways to increase more and better workforce engagement at the Downstream Conference and Exhibition, held recently in Galveston, Texas,
Cotter encouraged managers and supervisors to keep records of these verbal recognitions to refer to during workers’ performance reviews. “Give sincere, and frequent verbal recognitions,” he added. “Deep-down, people like to be appreciated for what they’re doing.”
Chad Bates, Operations and Maintenance Gatekeeper for BASF; Frank Tanner, Maintenance Section Leader for Celanese and Bill Wasilewski, President of Process and Industrial for Day & Zimmermann joined Cotter on the panel discussion. Vic Stroud, Program Manager for DuPont Sustainable Solutions, moderated the session.
