As many of you know, we recently met with some of the brilliant and most precious crown jewels of our Saia family, that is, our Silver Saia employees. Impressively, each of these employees have over 20 years of service with Saia and participated in our two-day inaugural events in Jacksonville and New Orleans. That is a lot of knowledge, experience, wisdom, and nostalgia, as well as a lot of storytelling and a lot of time to discuss what being a member of the Saia family means.

As a relative newcomer to Saia, I learned a lot over the course of the two sessions, including that, regardless of where we are from, where we work, where we live, what our job title is, we all want the exact same things from Saia: we want the company to grow and be successful, we want our work environments to be supportive and enjoyable, and we want to be proud of the place where we work.  

Part of that success, enjoyment and pride stems in part from our history and our culture; a history and culture which many of our Silver Saia members helped to build and grow. Now, our company is at an important point in time, that is, where we pivot from building the culture, to sharing it and helping it to grow. What better way to do that than to “ask the experts,” and that is exactly what we did. We asked each Silver Saia member — those among us with the longest arc of our history, the widest knowledge or our evolution, and the strongest foundation to our growth - how can we teach Saia’s culture to newly hired employees, how can we mentor new employees and those among us who may need a little help or some words of wisdom, and how our past can position us for the future.

As you would expect, the answers were incredibly informed, impassioned and well-stated. We want to share those answers with you now so that we may all learn from the ones who have seen it all, been through it all and stayed – all because they fell in love with a company with a funny sounding name over 20 years ago.

• Listen to others, especially when they are having a rough moment.
• Everyone can be a mentor to someone else, and as a mentor, look at yourself first.  Are you engaged? Are you positive? Are you a leader? Engage with other employees, and be a cheerleader, even when it’s a bad day.
• Help employees to know their value and how much we need them.
• Smile! It’s always a better day with a positive attitude.
• Have a “can do” attitude. Our jobs are hard and the industry can be harder, but we can achieve anything when we do it together.
• Know your coworkers. Make it a point to introduce yourself.  For long-term employees, it’s our job to make others feel welcome.
• Help new employees find their “place” at work by welcoming them so that they do not get “lost”.
• Always help others, and if you don’t know the answer, help them get in touch with someone who can. Then follow up to see that they received an answer or the help that they needed.
• Listen with intent, not with an agenda. Don’t be dismissive of someone’s concerns.
• Working with negative people can be draining and can turn positive people into negative people. Educate negative employees in a positive and careful manner, and help them to see that this is just a temporary bump in the road. It gets better!
• Be positive! You control the environment around you and will attract what you project. If you are positive, other people will be positive, too.
• We must teach the next generation our culture so they will understand where Saia came from and where it is going.
• We must continue our culture through training and mentoring so that people are more than coworkers: they are part of our family.

And many, many other nuggets of wisdom were shared. We plan to share these with you over the next few months, including having the Silver Saia members share their stories in pre-shift meetings, mentor new employees and any other employee who may need a little help, and a host of other ways for them to share their well-informed and much-needed perspective with others who may need to hear it.

In addition to discussing Saia’s culture, the main focus of our meeting was the concept of mentoring, and how to mentor other employees through example, leadership, and sharing your story. We have high expectations of this special group of employees and know that they are ready and capable to bring this new dimension – mentoring – to our Saia family.

In fact, it is this wish and expectation that led to the birth of our employee-created mission statement for Silver Saia: “Silver Saia, where mentoring starts one story at a time. What is your story?” We look forward to hearing these stories and many more.