PERSONNEL GUIDELINES - SECTION FOUR
Key Assumptions:
1.
The more people-intensive (and less fixed
asset-intensive) businesses have the following:
a.
Maximum potential flexibility to change, but also
b.
The biggest problem of keeping employees focused.
c.
Intangible, service products which sell both slowly
and as a result of consistently good service interactions and good customer
testimonials.
2.
Consistently superior service is produced by:
superior caliber people who receive superior training and work in a superior,
motivating environment receiving super wages from a company that can still make
superior profits. These elements are not mutually exclusive but rather
inter-dependent.
3.
A company’s environment and coaches (manager) drive
behavior. 2’s and 3’s can turn into 8’s. Get hobby energy on the job.
Guidelines:
1.
Work to achieve a quadruple-win pay policy for
which employees earn 150% of the average metro-market wage for a given
commodity job, but produce 165%(+) of the output of an average worker.
a.
Fewer people; better quality; strip out inspectors
and supervisors, achieve zero errors and 120% input effort.
b.
Pay a lot, expect a lot: pay for results, week for
lack of results; post numbers for quality, quantity and department “PPR” for
individuals and team.
c.
Achieve caring, service excellence which primes the
stakeholder cycle and allows management and salesmen to grow business vs. react
and protect.
2.
Hiring is the most important decision a manager
makes.
a.
Advertise premium wage range for measurable, proven
tract record with references for a generic type job.
b.
Don’t be distracted by specific industry knowledge
of applicants.
c.
Use multiple screening process; call and check
references; insure team ownership and chemistry.
3.
Equal pay is unequal.
a.
Penetrators and peak performers deserve more and
greater raises than steadies (weed coasters).
b.
Only penetrators may be potentially motivated by
incentives.
c.
Incentive programs are over-rated, over-used and
under-managed (the health analogy).
d.
Criteria for person for whom an incentive might work:
01. Will they
change behavior for an incentive?
02. Can they
afford at-risk pay vs. a raise?
03. Difference
between serious and fun incentives?
04. Can they
cope with cyclical and external shocks to the pay plan?
05. Can they
re-negotiate plans with a long-term win-win outlook?
06. Can they
explain and self-administer progress scoring frequently?
4.
Balance the mix of penetrators with peak performers
for innovation vs. maintenance. Seek a constant level of tiger-power that is
geared to the company’s growth rate; the team needs one heart-beat and pace.
5.
Create an environment that induces employees
to turn on and work hard, smart and enthusiastically. You can’t run
companies anymore.
a.
The entrepreneurial - wanabee, new-value employee.
b.
Decentralizing DB information and power.
c.
Elements of the high performance environment:
01. Reference
- providing big picture orientation and training.
02. Make
employees responsible for growing productivity or GP$/employee; GPS/total
people costs.
03. Lots of
growth expectations - on-going education and personal development for all.
04. Lots of
positive feed-back on all progress and well-intended efforts.
05. Keep
pushing stretch responsibility that will allow only small, learning mistakes
and tuitional expense.
06. Structural
discipline and motivation of posted numbers and commitment to service
excellence standards.
07. Team
building, awareness and celebrations. Hooplah!
08. A sense
of family to replace the traditional family and community support which is
declining.
09. Make the
job an enabling or growing experience.
10. Promote a
sense of ownership in the job, department, branch and company at least as a
stakeholders; perhaps someday as a shareholder.
11. Teach all
to be capitalists who work to insure the company’s profits to provide growth
and development capital for:
·
Stakeholders’ future growth.
·
And perhaps year-end profit-sharing business.
·
Vs myopic, selfish, adversarial, static-pie
philosophy of get more and do less.
12. Have one
class of employees, o excessive perks, titles and formalities.
13. Give
everyone credit and responsibility for knowing the most about their job.
Consult on changes involving them and make sure they sign-off and up for any
such changes.
14. Measure
monthly, year-to-date and annual rates of: turnover, sickness and lateness
quietly and then publicly if it become a source of pride, an indicator of a “we
like it here, you can count on me” attitude.
15. Jazz up
the learning environment by getting everyone involved in teaching at least a
weekly, group, show-and-tell session.
16. Does
everyone have a chance to conform and belong as well as a chance to stick out
and feel important.
6.
Everyone’s motives and sources of motivation are
different. Survey what motivates them; how motivated they currently are
and what can they, as well as the company, do to achieve or maintain a
high level of motivation.
7.
Maintain first-day enthusiasm and motivation of all
new employees.
a.
Assign a sponsor to teach orientation lessons.
b.
Lay out a learn-and-earn, cross-training
certification program.
c.
Turn osmosis OTJ training into a science. Drill,
test, measure and pay.
8.
Create strong, positive work norms; they
self-perpetrate themselves and provide the most powerful, relentless incentive
of all - keep up with your peers or feel the heat.
9.
Informally practice full employment planning and
then formally announce the policy assuming a person maintains quality and
quantity standards.
a.
P.R.I.C.E. and write-up someone three times before
weeding.
b.
Make sure other stakeholders’ perceive the
treatment fair.
c.
Practice work-sharing in tough times.
10. For
unions:
a.
Treat them like every other partner, stakeholders.
b.
Invest trust to get trust.
c.
Don’t try to humiliate or embarrass the
institution.
d.
Find successful union shop role models and
examples.
e.
Negotiate with measurable, objective standards (PAR
example).
f.
Put in upside individual and team bonuses to put
peer pressure on the coasters.
11. Summarize
employees “bill of rights” and their responsibilities; they should both
increase together as well as decrease if abused.
a.
High wages; high responsibility, flexibility, reliability
and standards.
b.
Everyone is responsible to contribute to a high
performance environment.
c.
Future raises? Every one must work to lift
GP$/employee.
d.
Either part of the solutions or part of the
problems. No free riders.
12. On-going
personal education and development requires among other things:
a.
1 - 3 goals; each of which is written-up on one
page.
b.
A one-page job description including how to measure
good performance for which employee and manager have 100% agreement.
c.
Everyone must understand, believe and practice the
rule of 5 - 7 and 1 - 10 if progress is to occur. (First-time teachers vs.
fist-time students.)
d.
Everyone must forward invest some of their time
into themselves.
e.
Personal initiative before someone else has to tell
you what to do.
13. Promote:
a.
From within to give others positive expectations.
b.
To underscore new company values and directions;
not to reward seniority and out-dated values.
c.
Only after the fact: leaders have followers; you
can’t command others to do things; power-seekers and users are outmoded.
d.
Fewer people as managers and inspectors are
eliminated and the numbers, the standards and the guidelines allow more
self-governing.
e.
Pro-actively form bench strength. Chose today’s
hires to grow into tomorrows responsibilities.
Personnel Guidelines - SECTION FOUR
