Employees Come First Quotes & Sayings

Your employees come first. And if you treat your employees right, guess what? Your customers come back, and that makes your shareholders happy. Start with employees and the rest follows from that. — Herb Kelleher

From the very first time I talked to Safeco employees, I said the reality was expenses were too high and the reality is two-thirds of our expenses are people, so the reality is there will be effects on people. — Mike McGavick

I did the first HBO special ever in 1975 at Haverford College. Cable was new then: HBO was a Time-Life entity, with maybe 400,000 or 500,000 subscribers and maybe 50 employees. — Robert Klein

Google has a strong focus on technology, and it serves them well. My experience there was that they ordered technology first and people second. I believe the opposite. It isn't all about how many servers you have or how sophisticated your software is. Those things matter. But what really makes a technology meaningful - to its users and its employees - is how people come to use it to effect change in the world. I don't mean to throw Google under the bus. Obviously they're brilliant. It's just that my priorities are flipped. People come before technology. — Biz Stone

At the height of the first great dot-com boom, Craig Kanarick, then in his early 30s, was running Razorfish, a Web design firm he'd co-founded with an old friend, which at its peak had 2,300 employees in nine countries. — David Sax

As one of the first employees at a small cellular phone start-up called Nextel, I gained firsthand experience in how a business grows from an idea to a company that, at its peak, employed many thousands. — Jack Markell

We needed to be uncompromising with our workforce, to expect 100 percent of our employees to comply 100 percent of the time with complex and ever-changing government mandates. Striving to comply with every law does not mean agreeing with every law. But, even when faced with laws we think are counter-productive, we must first comply. Only then, from a credible position, can we enter into a dialogue with regulatory agencies to demonstrate alternatives that are more beneficial. If these efforts fail, we can then join with others in using education and/or political efforts to change the law. — Charles Koch

The first thing that has to be recognized is that one cannot train someone to be passionate
it's either in their DNA or it's not. — Richard Branson

If the employees come first, then they're happy. A motivated employee treats the customer well. The customer is happy so they keep coming back, which pleases the shareholders. It's not one of the enduring green mysteries of all time, it is just the way it works. — Herb Kelleher

At Brit + Co, our mission is to unlock creativity, so we look for future employees that actively flex their creative muscles. The design of your resume is the first way to let me know more about your aesthetic. — Brit Morin

Clients do not come first. Employees come first. If you take care of your employees, they will take care of the clients. — Richard Branson

Everyone talks about building a relationship with your customer. I think you build one with your employees first. — Angela Ahrendts

I think as a rough estimate, you should aim to give about 10% of the company to the first 10 employees. — Sam Altman

In 2009 Southwest Airlines was the largest airline in the world based on the number of passengers that fly the airline each year,30 and in 2011 it was not only America's leading low-cost carrier but was also rated America's favorite airline by Consumer Reports.31 Joe Harris, a labor lawyer for Southwest, explains that the company's harmonious employee relations are no accident. "At Southwest, our employees come first; our customers come second; and our stockholders come third," he said. "The rationale is pretty simple. If we treat our employees right, they're going to treat our customers right. If our customers are treated right, they will come back and our stockholders will benefit."32 — Douglas Van Praet

If you talk to say any of the first 40 or 50 employees, they all feel like they were a part of the founding of the company. — Sam Altman

He remembered the Professor's advice to his eager employees during his first year: With us, feelings are described through images, and in the world of television, there are only seven feelings: well-being, Schadenfreude, sentimentality, shock, outrage, disgust, and anger. Nothing else. — Erik Valeur

Find ways for people to shape their work and the company In addition to stripping leaders of the traditional tools of power and relying on facts to make decisions, we give Googlers uncommon freedom in shaping their own work and the company. Google isn't the first to do so. For over sixty-five years, 3M has offered its employees 15 percent of their time to explore: "A core belief of 3M is that creativity needs freedom. That's why, since about 1948, we've encouraged our employees to spend 15% of their working time on their own projects. To take our resources, to build up a unique team, and to follow their own insights in pursuit of problem-solving."103 Post-it Notes famously came out of this program, as did a clever abrasive material, Trizact, which somehow sharpens itself as it's used. — Anonymous

Don't wait for your employees to seek you out. Choose to be assertive and go to them first. — Barry Banther