![]() |
![]() ![]() |
Home | Site Map | Buyer's Guide Search |
![]() |
Event Calendar | ![]() |
Article Archive | ![]() |
Message Boards | ![]() |
Classifieds | ![]() |
Product Showcases | ![]() |
News | ![]() |
Advertise | ![]() |
Search | ![]() |
Join Now | ![]() |
![]() |
![]()
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() Formula For Success
The pressures on management have been well publicized: menacing global competition, increasingly demanding customers, quantum leaps in technology. The theme that unites these pressure is change-- relentless, multifaceted, unforgiving, intense rapid change.
![]()
One aspect of the challenge of change is the fierce competition to keep and retain employees within the sign industry. With unemployment at record lows for a record period of time, finding the right employees and keeping them can be quite a formidable task. It takes more than a good manager to accomplish this task. It takes a good leader. The main difference between the two is that leadership is about influencing people to follow, while management focuses on maintaining principles and processes. As former Chrysler chairman and CEO Lee Iacocca wryly commented, "Sometimes even the best manager is like the little boy with the big dog, waiting to see where the dog wants to go so that he can take him there." For this segment of "Formula For Success" I interviewed a true leader. Mark Manfredi is the Director of Operations for Advanced Power Technologies. In the interview we discussed the challenges of the slim pickings in the employee market. Mr. Manfredi s approach to keeping employees once he finds them is simplistic, but often overlooked by "managers". Leading employees and treating them with respect by finding out what helps them to do their job better is the best approach and one that Mr. Manfredi uses. Our hope is that we can all learn something from others in the industry who have "been there and done that". The following is a portion of our interview:
SI: What has been your greatest challenge in finding employees and after you have found them, keeping them? To keep the employees, we find out what makes them happy and helps them to perform their job better. One of the changes we made is that none of our equipment is more than seven years old. We paid a little more to get air-conditioned trucks with AM/FM radios with CD players. We also let the employees customize the equipment the way the want it. Of course, nothing that interferes with safety or performance. Throwing money at people will not make them better. Pride and positive reinforcement are key factors and most often overlooked. I estimate that the extra money to provide better equipment is about $5000.00 per truck, but over a five-year lease it does not cost that much to keep my employees happy.
SI: What laws or regulations, if any, have been somewhat obstacles for your organization? Another obstacle for us has been our drug-free policy. I know it sounds crazy, but the benefit from the insurance company for us being a drug-free workplace may not be worth it if we lose people. When we have a surprise drug testing, some of our best people may have partied over the weekend and something is still in their system. It is not that they have a drug problem or that they do drugs at work-- we won t tolerate that, but if they smoke something over the weekend and are tested on Monday, we lose people. I am still not sure if the benefits outweigh the cost.
![]()
Mr. Manfredi: We train our people in-house on all of our equipment. Sometimes the manufacturer of the equipment might come to provide training. We also outsource some of our training such as repelling. We send our employees to a school for this one. We also provide safety training and we have a safety committee consisting of employees and management.
SI: Where do you see this type of business five or ten years into the future?
SI: What advice can you give to other companies in the industry who may have difficulty attracting and retaining employees?
Company profile:
|
![]() |
|
![]() |
|
![]() |
|
![]() | ||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||
© Copyright 1999-2021, All Rights Reserved. |