Page 10 - Mobility Management, January/February 2021

mm beat
Numotion CEO Pens White Paper
others, their children, their parents,” Swinford said. “My wife and my children watched, and I overheard my boys — who are both away at college now, a freshman and a soph- omore — talking about their takeaways and things they hadn’t thought about and some of the white privileges
they weren’t aware that they had. That sort of takeaway and awareness is so powerful. And it makes me proud to work alongside all of Numotion’s employees and those who participated voluntarily on these panel discussions. They just did such an incredible job of being transparent and vulner- able. It’s propelled our culture forward in terms of people being respectful and inclusive and being willing to listen to one another and those who might have different views.”
In difficult times and on such volatile topics, what can leaders do to improve the likelihood that employees will speak the truth when it matters most?
“It is many things,” Swinford said, “but all of those things need to be centered around listening, around being respectful, around being vulnerable and honest and trans- parent. It’s having multiple mechanisms to listen, to internalize what your employees are feeling and where their concerns are, and it’s taking action and making sure that they know you care about them and you care about their well-being in the same way we care about their customers’ well-being.”
And that includes when employees want to share feelings that can be tough for management to hear. “When we got constructive feedback after the first video, I immediately called these people, just to hear them and without ramifications,” Swinford said. “In the same way
I wanted to hear from our African-American leaders — and some who had feedback were African-American — I wanted to hear all the concerns.”
Numotion is also focusing on inclusion for people with disabilities. “We have become a corporate sponsor with Disability:In, which is a non-profit organization that focuses
We’re at a point now where we are accelerating, and we are making some big, bold moves
— Mike Swinford
on inclusion for people with disabilities, whether that’s vision impaired or hearing impaired or mobility disabilities,” Swinford said. “It’s one thing to have a mission for serving people with disabilities; it’s another thing to make sure
we are creating a culture that hires, promotes, develops, includes and values people with all forms of disabilities, as well as all races and all genders and every other form of diversity. I couldn’t be more proud to be all in for Numotion
10 JANUARY-FEBRUARY2021|MOBILITYMANAGEMENT
and Numotion employees to create a company that is as inclusive and diverse as those individuals we serve.”
Accelerating Into Hard Times
While 2020’s challenges tested the courage and convic- tions of so many, Swinford said Numotion is even now seeking to accelerate. The whitepaper, for example, speaks of the company’s expansion, both technologi- cally and via market growth.
Part of Numotion’s confidence, Swinford said, comes from vigorous multi-year planning that, even if it didn’t specifically anticipate a pandemic, put the company in a good position to take quick action as needed.
“We go through a multi-year planning session every year in the second quarter,” Swinford said. “A key part is going through literally dozens of planning assumptions. There are certain things you can plan for, like hurri- canes happen every year. We have employees who are displaced, so we have 20 generators that are solely for employees who have an extended power outage at their home, at no expense to them. We’ve had employees from Connecticut to Louisiana to California who’ve lost power, and we show up with generators and gas cans and a whole box full of very long extension cords and safety procedures on how to operate the generators.”
Swinford and Numotion have been quick to respond to natural disasters. After Hurricane Harvey in 2017, Numotion donated two tractor trailers’ worth of scooters, Group 2 power chairs, bath chairs and hospital beds.
At the end of the interview, Swinford circled back to Numotion’s team, their well-being, and what comes next.
“Planning for something you can’t plan for sounds counter-intuitive, but you can,” he said. “You know that you have to get cross-functional people together, you have to assess the issue, you need to assess the risk
to employees and to customers, and you need to put actions in place. Anytime there’s a natural disaster anywhere, we have a standard procedure for checking in on every one of our employees: Are they okay and safe, are their families okay and safe? Have they suffered any loss or personal property damage? Is there anything we can do to help them? If there is, we’re going to help them. And then we do the same on the customer side.
“I’m proud of our team. I’m proud of how we’ve managed through this crisis so far. We’re at a point now where we
are accelerating, we’re stepping on the gas, and we are making some big, bold moves. I think in the next six to 12 months, you’ll see some really big strategic bold moves we’ll be making because we’re so well positioned right now.” m
Read the white paper online: https://mobilitymgmt.com/ whitepapers/list/all-whitepapers.aspx
MobilityMgmt.com