Link Solutions’ John Barrass: Tips to boost employee morale
Few executives understand the importance of open communication — and its role in fostering loyalty — like John Barrass. For six years, Barrass worked at STG, a privately held government contractor specializing in IT services. With Barrass’s help, STG graduated from 8(a) status to a large business model. Barrass also established longstanding ties with up and coming executives within the ranks of STG. Among them was Bhuphesh Wadhawan. Wadhawan later went on to start his own venture, Link Solutions. Last fall, Barrass moved on over to Link Solutions to help the company continue its impressive growth and aggressive business strategy. Here Barrass talks about his new role as president and chief operating officer and how area companies can boost employee morale in challenging economic times.
Let’s talk about employee morale — how can companies strengthen it, especially in tough economic times?
John Barrass: In tough economic times the biggest challenge is rumor control and just talking to employees. In a vacuum there will be rumors and the rumors won’t be good; people will panic with a lack of information so the most important thing is outreach.
What are some key steps for senior management or team leaders to engage in outreach?
John Barrass: In a company of our size we try to have a monthly luncheon — sit down with employees in an open environment — where they can just tell us what they are thinking and we can respond. As executives we share our cell phone and office numbers with everybody so if there is a rumor starting we ask them to just pick up the phone and call; as it scales it becomes a management challenge and that’s really the beauty of Web 2.0 model with the blogs and the wikis. As you get too big to have a face to face with your employees that communication is critical.
How can a bigger company pull off a monthly luncheon?
John Barrass: You just push down. The project manager, the first level of manager at the corporate is responsible to do that. As you get bigger you have to hire the right people to do that.
How do you manage an open door policy while also managing your time?
John Barrass: As long as you remember that your employees are your number one priority it is pretty easy to manage your other obligations.
Where did you pick up that management approach?
John Barrass: It goes all the way back to my beginning days at my first company, a good 15 or 16 years ago. I was in the Army for a number of years and when I got out and joined the industry I was in Korea. The headquarters were here in Washington and I was a site manager of a site in Korea; that’s as far as you can be from the headquarters. I had a boss who reached out and kept us in the loop. I think that gave us a huge competitive advantage because when I talked to my other company peers they all saw headquarters as a taxing agent. They would get letters from their headquarters beating them up over things, whereas I got communication from my boss providing us information. The way my managers treated me … created a bond between the customer site and the headquarters which is really, really hard to do. Our corporate leadership was absolutely adamant that if you have a question dial my phone. I know it’s 2 o’clock in the morning here but I go back to sleep well. I saw how that helped our business grow; I was one of the first employees there and we grew to 30 employees in no time.
Let’s talk about the year upon us. Who are some of your clients and what do you want to accomplish this year at Link Solutions?
John Barrass: We’ve got some high-value customers here. Our largest customer is the Department of State followed by the executive office of the president and then the Army. My goal is to transition Link Solutions from a start-up to an ever larger thriving business. I think keeping the employees a vested part of the team is a key step to making that happen. That step is something I embrace; it’s never a burden. If our employees are happy then our customers are too, and we are going to grow.
Interview with John Barrass was conducted by JD Kathuria
Read more interviews here: http://blog.executivebiz.com/category/interviews/
Posted by Staff Writer
on Friday, February 6th, 2009. Filed under Executive Spotlight.
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