Happy Employees Make Productive
Employees
 Employees who like where they work
will help the company make more money. Sears conducted an 800-store
survey that showed the impact of employee attitudes on the bottom line.
When employee attitudes improved by 5%, customer satisfaction jumped
1.3%, consequently increasing revenue by one-half a percentage point.
Seeking ways to motivate and build worker morale pays dividends to any
business or organization. The motivated worker is more committed to
the job and to the customer.
In order to attract and keep good
workers, many businesses are providing more family-friendly benefits.
The Families and Work Institute released the "Business Work Life" study.
(http://www.familiesandwork.org) It provides a benchmark to
corporate work life policies and practice. The study focused on
companies that employee 100 or more workers.
Ninety percent of the 1,000
companies surveyed allow workers to take time off to attend school events.
Half-let workers stay home with mildly ill children without using vacation
or sick days. Two thirds permit flex time defined as allowing
employees to adjust work hours on a daily basis. Nine percent offer child
care at or near the workplace. Thirty-three percent offer maternity
leaves more than 13 weeks. Twenty-three percent offer elder care resources
and referral services and half provide dependent care assistance plans.
Forty-four percent hold supervisors accountable for sensitivity to their
employees work/family needs.
The Los Angeles Department of Power
and Water (LADPW) offers its 11,000 employees such benefits as a free
seven-week lunch time series on nutrition, prenatal care, use of health
benefits; an ob-gyn/pediatric nurse comes two days a week to answer
medical questions; electric nursing pumps for mothers to provide
milk to babies at child care (and dads can take the devices home to their
partners); certified social workers to help employees use programs and
resources; parenting classes at lunch time; support groups for parents.
It also offers four-month maternity and paternity leaves, a resource
center for parents, and a beeper that lets expectant fathers know when
their wives go into labor.
After the agency discovered that the
cost of employee absence due to caring for children ran around one million
dollars a year, it subsidized a child care center for employees. The
center generates its own revenues.
Studies show that having workers
involved at all levels has a major impact on improving profit and
productivity. A good example is Guardian Industries, an 800-person
glass plant in Indiana. They decided to start listening to their
employees to find out their opinion on how to staff the plant's 24-hr work
shifts. The employees decided instead of working rotating day
and evening shifts, they would rather work permanent 12 hour shifts.
The result--turnover fell by 50%.
Wainwright Industries, located in
St. Peters, Missouri created a total employee involvement program which
increased trust, equality and ownership.
In the 70s and 80s, Wainwright faced
a severe recession. Sales dropped and operations slowed to three
days a week. The workers were frustrated and a riff was growing
between the workers and management. So they started changing.
The first step was to start calling
the workers, "associates." This one small change lead to even
greater changes. They eliminated time clocks and everyone was put on
a salary. Today, associates are paid even if they miss work and paid
time-and-a-half for overtime. A team of associates developed a
profit sharing program that covers everyone at Wainwright. The team
consisted of one manager and seven non-management associates.
Ownership developed propelling them down the track at a faster pace.
What impresses me most is
Wainwright's Continuous Improvement Process. (CIP) In 1994
associates implemented over 8,400 improvement ideas from their workforce.
They presently average 300 ideas a week from 146 associates.
The associates - not management - totally run this powerful process.
This works because associates at Wainwright have authority to make any
improvements, without permission up to $1000 in cost. If their idea
or change exceeds this amount, they fill out a form to for approval.
Each week the names of those
submitting ideas are eligible for cash awards. Four names are
randomly drawn. Two people win $50 each for safety CIPs (Continuous
Improvement Process) and two people win $50 each for regular CIPs.
The previous week's winner makes the drawings. The company also has
quarterly drawings for a $300 gift certificate, and it comes with a
catered luncheon for everyone who submitted a CIP during that quarter.
The final results--profits grew from $5 million to $30 million.
Despite these success stories, most
businesses do a terrible job listening to and involving their employees.
A Towers Perrin survey of 3300 employees show an increase from 25% to 30%
last year who say supervisors have ignored their interests when making
decisions that affect them.
Gregory P. Smith lives in Conyers,
Georgia and the President of Chart Your Course International. He
helps organizations solve problems and build more productive work
environments. For further information please call (770)860-9464 or
send E-mail to greg@chartcourse.com. You can find more information
and business tips at
www.chartcourse.com
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