Hold people accountable
Listening to and rewarding employees can lead to success, butyou also need an environment where people are held accountable.
If data shows there is a problem, Shear will first sit down with hisleadership team to discuss if they, as leaders, set up roadblocksthat caused the problem. As soon as they remedy where they fellshort or found there weren’t any roadblocks caused by the leadership, the employee who is in charge of the department is shownthe data and is responsible for fixing it.
“The way our structure i
s,
we have about 100 different facilitieslocated throughout the U.S. and Canada,” Shear says. “So, if wehave a problem at a particular facility, there’s a customer servicevice president that is responsible for that facility, and they get allthese metrics. So, it’s really their responsibility to get the issuefixed. So we just monitor it more from a senior level that the issuesare getting fixed.”
Letting employees know where they stand is an important partof creating a culture that wants to grow.
“I once heard a speaker say, and it resonated with me, that people come to work, and they are kind of lethargic at work,” Shearsays. “Then, after work, they go to their bowling league, and theyroll the ball down and they get a strike or something, and you seethem jumping up and down with excitement. He basically said,‘Why don’t a lot of companies get that at work?’ He said the reasonis, ‘Because at work, you tend to put a sheet up over the pins.When you roll the ball down, you hear the pins crack, but younever know how many went down.’ So, we’ve tried to create anenvironment where everybody always knows where they stand allthe time.”
That includes sharing the high-end financials with workers toshow them how the company is doing.
“Especially on the financial side, I think that companies think thatif their employees know that they’re making money, that they’regoing to say, ‘Why can’t I get more?’ I actually find that generally people think the company makes 10 times more than it actually makesif you don’t give them any information and that they actually like tohave something they can judge how well they’re doing. Financialsuccess is certainly one metric of how well a company is doing.”
According to the numbers, GENCO is doing well. The companyhad revenue of $514 million in 2005, $577 million in 2006 and $712million in 2007.
He says, if the company didn’t use data to measure the company’s strengths and weaknesses, then GENCO wouldn’t be as big asit is today.
“I think the company would still be here,” he says. “We wouldn’thave the growth rates that we have, and I think we’d be putting outa lot more fires. So, I think it would be a lot smaller companyalways struggling to put out fires.”
GENCO has been in business for more than 100 years, and Shearwants a culture that will take them to 200 years in business.
“We’re creating an environment for the long term,” he says. “I’veseen all kinds of management styles and all kinds of success withall kinds of management styles, but I think you have to look at thecompanies that stay around for the long term. I think those companies that stay around for the long term have a focus on the company, on their missions and what’s important is the long-term success of the company.”
HOW TO REACH: GENCO Supply Chain Solutions, (800) 677-3110 or www.genco.com