There’s a wall between people who work on the production floor — and those in the office.

That wall is a barrier in both the literal and figurative sense.

I want to address how that wall creates separation between employees in unintended ways that results in miscommunication, misunderstandings, misperceptions and missed opportunities.

According to some research from Gallup, less than 25% of employees in the US strongly believe their company cares about their wellbeing.

That figure was highest among those in management positions.

And, most alarming to me, the percentage of employees who are extremely satisfied with their company as a place to work dropped from 23% to only 18% over roughly the past year.

Obviously there are many external factors that are contributing to this.

But not all of them are external. There are many that are internal. And that means they can be addressed and corrected. 

I've found that great manufacturing companies that truly see their employees as humans (not some sort of cog in a machine) do these 5 things consistently well.