Precast Inc. - November/December 2008 - (Page 50) “The company not only thanked him for his work, but is now want to go home.” also moving him up to become a core person in the Another thing to consider is the overall qualities of a good establishment of the company’s training program,” she adds. In supervisor and manager. For executives who have been in sum, when you see examples of this, which Guy calls business for more than a couple of decades, it is important to “moments of brilliance,” grab onto them. realize that these requirements have changed, according to As noted earlier by Guy, it is usually not a good idea to Buys. That is, the qualities that used to make good supervisors consider your most productive employees to move into and managers have changed significantly over the years, mostly management. So how can you reward such individuals? “One because of the changes in the attitudes of hourly employees, way to take full advantage of these people is to have them from the X generation and now to the Y generation. Years ago, become mentors and coaches for new employees,” suggests according to Buys, a supervisor or manager would say “Jump!” Contacos-Sawyer. “This also provides more satisfaction to the and the employee would respond, “How high?” “This doesn’t people who become mentors and coaches.” work anymore,” he says. According to Buys, supervisors and Scott Ditcher, operations manager for Atlantic Precast managers need better people skills these days. “They need to Concrete Inc., Tullytown, Pa., agrees with Guy and Contacosunderstand people,” he says. People skills are important for more than just reducing turnover among Generation X and Y workers, though. Such skills encourage the best from employees. Example: “So many organizations lose out on a lot of great ideas that can save money and improve productivity,” says Buys. “These are ideas that employees have.” However, because of the way – RANDY LINDSAY-BRISBIN, FIREBAUGH PRECAST INC. their supervisors or managers are, the employees may not bother to Sawyer that great employees don’t necessarily make great mention these ideas to the supervisors and managers. managers. “You have to look beyond just how good the person In selecting potential candidates for advancement, Guy is in his current job,” says Ditcher. “A lot of times, someone suggests looking for the “constructive informal leaders” in the work groups. The term “constructive” is important. All work does a great job, even goes above and beyond. However, if you groups have informal leaders – the people who seem to have try to move him up, he may not do as well.” In considering people for advancement, Atlantic Precast focuses more on the attention of all the other workers. Some organizations, looking at individual effort, dedication to the company, though, have destructive informal leaders – people who enjoy punctuality, what the person is like to talk to, and how he or she feelings of personal power. These are the people who focus on deals with everyday frustrations. “When we find someone like creating dissention. Instead, identify the ones who focus on this, we keep our eye on that person as someone we might creating positive atmospheres. want to move up through the organization,” says Ditcher. Next, groom these constructive informal leaders. “They have Firebaugh Precast Inc., Colorado Springs, Colo., also puts a lot already shown that people listen to them and pay attention to them,” explains Guy. “They have the ability to see the of effort into identifying the best candidates. The company has a lot of opportunities for promotion. Examples include laborer to organization’s vision and assist others in achieving success.” group leader, group leader to foreman, forklift driver to yard In addition, according to Guy, most of these leaders are manager, and production manager to general manager. “We people who tend to be happy sharing credit. “They will tell you always try to have at least one person in mind to step into every that the group did it, but you know that they were the ones in position in the company,” says Randy Lindsay-Brisbin, vice the background encouraging everyone and moving the plan president and general manager. He admits, though, that this is forward,” she explains. “You don’t want someone who is always taking credit for ideas to move up in the organization.” not always easy. “However, one of the assignments that all of Another place to look for candidates for advancement: the general managers have is to be thinking about who could replace them,” he says. The first thing that executives look at is Identify employees who have gone above and beyond the call whether a potential candidate for advancement has bought into of duty. “We were at a client office recently, and the president the company’s philosophy of production and how it runs its showed us two hardbound comprehensive training manuals and business. “We also look at the quality of their work,” he adds. standard operating procedures,” says Guy. The president went on to say that they were created by an employee who was frustrated that such manuals didn’t exist in the company. As a Approaching potential candidates result, he took it upon himself to write them, put them together, According to Buys, one way to begin discussions with bind them and then have them printed at his own expense. employees for possible advancement is during the annual “We always try to have at least one person in mind to step into every position in the company. However, one of the assignments that all of the general managers have is to be thinking about who could replace them.” 50 NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2008 | PRECAST INC.
For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.