Business | Opinion
How to clean up a company
It's 2013 and your company is paying the highest wages in your industry, affording you the ability to attract and retain the best talent. Yet you have the lowest cost structure, so you have huge flexibility in pricing your competitors out of the market.
- By Verne Harnish, Special to Gulf News
- Published: 00:02 November 27, 2008
It's 2013 and your company is paying the highest wages in your industry, affording you the ability to attract and retain the best talent. Yet you have the lowest cost structure, so you have huge flexibility in pricing your competitors out of the market.
Revenues have quadrupled while gross margins have increased almost 50 per cent, generating record profits as a reward for all your hard work and, by the way, you're now dominating your industry.
This is precisely what Simon Lim, CEO of Kuala Lumpur-based Maclean Services, achieved in the past five years. And he did it in one of the toughest industries in the world - janitorial services.
By focusing on improving productivity by almost 40 per cent, as measured by square feet cleaned in a nine hour shift; and raising overall wages by 25 per cent (15 per cent for frontline; almost 30 per cent for supervisors), he was able to become the number player in his industry in five years.
People
After attending a hiring workshop - Geoff Smart's Topgrading programme, Lim launched a series of investigations:
1. HR ran a background check on all their employees searching for a personality profile of their best performing operations staff.
2. Operations conducted a survey asking their staff two questions. "How do you wish to be rewarded?" and "What do you think you can contribute above your current role & responsibilities?"
3. Marketing and Operations determined the productivity of the operators and that of their competitors as measured by head count per area.
4. Management went down to the floor to chat with the operators on their well-being, problems and obstacles preventing them from getting their jobs done.
5. HR and Operations compared the roles and responsibilities of the janitors, team leaders, supervisors, and managers with the Job Description sheets in their respective appointment letters.
What these investigations found were clear pattern of attributes that distinguished their best performing operations people from the rest of the team.
These included being the sole bread winner in their family; a Mr or Mrs Fix-It at home; having a positive approach towards life; and having participated in some form of disciplinary group or team activity like boy scouts, cheerleading, football, or a police force - attributes any firm can discern about their own best performing people.
In turn, they discovered from their operations people a desire for:
Higher income - over 80 per cent said that their current compensation system is not driving performance, and 100 per cent were not satisfied with the current income.
Respect - they wished that the management team would step forward to protect them against unreasonably demanding or abusive customers.
Appreciation - a simple thank you note or some recognition - for being the "hero".
Training - work knowledge to understanding why certain processes are in place.
Social Activities - company sponsored employee events, quarterly get-togethers and an annual family day.
The writer is author of Mastering the Rockefeller Habits, founder and CEO of Gazelles Inc, an outsourced corporate university with a faculty of top business experts.
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