Monitor progress
When you find someone who can be a leader, you have to make sure that the person is progressing.
“Once we’ve identified someone that we think potentially could be a supervisor or a manager, generally, we will move them along and increase their responsibilities as management as they go,” Rumpke Jr. says. “They may start as a lower-level lead driver or lead foreman, and as they progress and continue to produce and do a good job managing people and managing that function, they can get an opportunity to move forward to a larger role. And eventually progress within the organization.”
Rumpke has leaders ranging from district managers to front-line supervisors. Just because someone has moved to a position where he or she oversees employees, doesn’t mean the employee doesn’t need supervision.
“I will meet and the regional vice presidents will meet with lower-level managers on a monthly basis to evaluate the performance of particular lines of business or particular management groups,” Rumpke Jr. says. “We’ve established what’s called different scorecards that manages the production of each individual or each line of business, whether it be our hauling line of business, our landfill line of business, our recycling line of business.
“We’ll measure certain performance metrics that we want them to measure and strive to improve upon. If they improve upon those specific metrics, then the performance of our company will improve.”
In order to monitor your employees’ abilities to manage, it’s best to create a uniform system of measuring progress. You need to set metrics, make sure employees understand the metrics and have consistent follow-up conversations.
First, identify the key metrics that drive your business and improve your business. Rumpke focuses mainly on financial and customer-service-related metrics. For instance, customer service metrics might be the number of customer complaints, missed collections or the number of yards collected per hour.
“You need to make sure the information that you’re gathering is the important information,” Rumpke Jr. says. “If it doesn’t drive your company, there’s no sense in even paying attention to it.”
Once you’ve determined the parameters of measurement, you need to implement a tracking and communication system. Rumpke uses a computer software system that gathers information on its metrics and allows managers to pull up accurate information on the company’s progress in reaching its objectives. More importantly though, the firm has consistent communication with employees on the importance of each metric and whether they’re meeting their targets.
Meeting on a monthly basis to discuss metrics with your direct reports helps ensure that your employees understand and concentrate on the significant areas of business and allows you to provide employees with consistent feedback.
For Rumpke Jr., using metrics also gives him a sense that he can delegate certain duties to employees, and then step aside trusting they can get the job done.
“I try not to dig down too deep into their business, but the monthly or quarterly reviews that we do gives me a feel for if they’re getting the job done properly,” Rumpke Jr. says.
If you study the hard numbers and monitor employee progress through conversation, the dots will connect for continual promotion.
Rumpke Sr. collected garbage, drove routes and sold waste collection services at the beginning of his climb to the top. And Rumpke Jr. even had to prove himself as a driver, route manager and district manager before he received the title of chief operating officer.
“We’re very focused on promoting from within,” Rumpke Jr. says. “As long as that individual achieves and continues to perform, they get the opportunity to move up within the organization.”
How to reach: Rumpke Consolidated Cos. Inc., (800) 582-3107 or www.rumpke.com
