Pat Perry is fed up. Sitting in an airy office conference room, the usually genial president of the Employers Resource Council, Northeast Ohio’s largest employer’s association, is uncharacteristically ticked-off. He leans forward, his voice gets louder, his cheeks flush, his hand strikes the table.
“It isn’t the weather that sends people out of Northeast Ohio,” Perry exclaims. “Where we hurt is our business community competitiveness. We should become the model in the United States in saying Northeast Ohio understands how to develop terrific places to work, that’s how they’re attracting talent to the region and keeping it.”
But that doesn’t appear to be the case. Perry has just reviewed the results of the 2002 Workplace Practices Survey the ERC performs every year in partnership with SBN Magazine. The survey looks at human resources issues including wages, benefits, screening, information disclosure and hiring. This year’s response was the largest in the survey’s three-year history, with the 243 respondents more than doubling last year’s return.
Companies from small tool and die shops to publicly traded corporations with more than a $1 billion in revenue responded to the ERC/SBN Workplace Practices survey. The average respondent had 185 employees and annual sales of $62 million, double the size of last year’s average company. The bulk of this year’s respondents, 124, were manufacturers, but 43 other industries also participated, including distribution, nonprofit and retail.
Even with a much larger sample, the results mirror last year’s numbers. The similar results are surprising in light of the economic changes between August 2001 and 2002, but disappointing, Perry says, because many Northeast Ohio employers still say they’re battling the same problem: Attracting and retaining qualified employees.
“There is some irony in these results,” Perry says. “The irony is we put retention at the top, but as organizations in Northeast Ohio, we’re not doing all we can in terms of some basic meat-and-potatoes practices to help retain people.”
The ERC/SBN Workplace Practices Survey is voluntarily filled out by employers and ERC members, so not all the same companies respond each year. The questions, however, remain the same. Although unscientific, the survey still points to trends in Northeast Ohio workplaces.
“You’ve got to have a leader in there that sees the big picture and how developing a much better workplace is going to correlate into increased sales, reduced expenses and yielding enhanced profitability,” Perry says. “And not all leaders in Northeast Ohio get it. The sooner that they make change to become a great organization, the sooner they’re going to be able to effectively compete in this global economy and more effectively compete in Northeast Ohio.”
A key to retention is communication with employees, but only half of respondents indicated that people in the organization know its mission statement. Only 62 percent review financial information quarterly and more than 25 percent don’t distribute job descriptions.
“Organizations who intend to retain high-caliber employees need to overcommunicate,” Perry says. “You do that by ensuring that you know what the mission of the company is, that they understand where the company stands from a financial perspective, that they have written job descriptions.”
Along with attracting and retaining good employees, employers say they’re struggling increasing revenue and profits, according to the survey. Many respondents expressed concern about encroaching foreign competition and containing benefit costs.
One manufacturer which has figured out how to keep employee morale high while improving productivity is Fairlawn-based Bioproducts Inc. The 75-year-old pet food flavor and vitamin manufacturer cut its voluntary turnover rate in half, from 18 percent in 1998 to 9 percent last year. The company also had no layoffs last year and reduced its recruitment costs by 40 percent.
“It starts at the top with the CEO, and the values that he brings to the organization that trickle down through the organization,” says Robert Adamov, Bioproducts vice president–human resources. “We make our share of mistakes, but you’ll see people walking into each other people’s office and apologizing when they blow it.”
Adamov says part of Bioproducts’ employee satisfaction secret is its incentive plan, which includes informal performance bonuses from a thank you note or free lunch to more extravagant perks like airline tickets or company-sponsored trips. There are also standard formal incentives like promotions and pay raises based on seniority.
It’s not just extra cash and gifts that help boost employee satisfaction and performance. After an employee survey showed a demand for skill and executive development, Bioproducts launched its CareerBuilder and LeaderBuilder programs. CareerBuilder is a Web-based system to help employees form their career goals and chart what they need to do to get there. Adamov says it also enhances communication between supervisors and employees, and contributes to reducing employee turnover. (See a demonstration at www.cdteam.com. Click on the “Development Works” logo.)
LeaderBuilder is a management development program culled from the expertise of the University of Michigan, Northwestern University and M.I.T.
“Employees who want the organization to succeed will consistently go the extra mile to help the organization achieve its goals,” Adamov says. “(Bioproducts) is very good at sharing the wealth with all of its employees.”
In a recession year, Bioproducts reached 94 percent of its profit goal, even when all employees were awarded bonuses. How to reach: Employers Resource Council, (216) 696-3636
