By Milt Vine
I recently read an interesting Wall Street Journal column entitled "Career Choices Aren’t About the Money—Yeah, Right." In it, Hal Lancaster makes the case rather strongly that "Money has more influence on our career decisions than any of us would like to admit." He provides examples of BMW-driving executives who equate "wealth with self-worth" and asks how many of us would continue in our careers if we won the lottery.
Now, Lancaster may be right. Money—either the abundance or lack of it—is a vital fact of any existence. It takes money to acquire the basics we need and to purchase a few of those extras that most of us seem to want. And not many of us would work for f ree or if we had millions in the bank.
But Lancaster is forgetting that most of us don’t win the lottery and that we spend enough of our waking time at work to seriously affect our time elsewhere. So money can’t be the only reason we come into a particular place of work every day. I don’t t hink it’s even the main reason. After all, there are certainly more lucrative professions. I know of not one Hollywood star who’s dropped out of the movie biz and applied at a bindery. (Quick: imagine Jim Carrey on a finishing line.)
So it’s probably not a stretch to assume that we’re not in the graphic arts industry strictly for the money, though of course financial rewards matter. While there’s no doubt in my mind that reasonable wages are vital to employee satisfaction, surely t here’s more behind an exemplary worker’s performance than a paycheck.
Survey Results. To check out my theory I turned first to my stack of PIA Advisory Bulletins and found one from last year that discusses this topic head on.
Of the ten reasons listed to explain why employees resort to unionization, not one of them is straight pay, while benefits as an entire package comes in at number ten. Reasons of higher priority include deficient supervision, inconsistent treatment and lack of personal recognition, all management issues.
But do managers understand that? A NOVA Group study included in the bulletin suggests not. Supervisors and employees were asked to rank in importance five aspects of their job: feeling "in" on things, job security, interesting work, personal loyalty to workers and tactful discipline. The employees ranked the five in the order I’ve listed them. But the supervisors moved the employees’ top pick—feeling "in" on things—to the bottom of the list.
I’ve seen other surveys that relay the same information. Pay is usually somewhere near the bottom of the list, if it appears at all, while having a say consistently shows up near the top.
Empowering Employees. If we understand these dynamics of employee satisfaction, we can construct appealing compensation packages. And many of us are already doing so. I know of one printer who uses inter-departmental teams throughout the plant t o address issues brought up by the employees themselves.
For example, if an employee has an idea to increase efficiency in the shipping department, he or she can present it to the appropriate team, which will investigate its feasibility. If the idea proves to be a good one, the team will oversee implementati on of the new procedures and follow up to ensure results. Because impetus for the program came from the employees themselves, upper management now plays a merely supervisory role, approving implementation once solutions have been generated by the employee teams.
This work is done on company time, and I’m assured it is efficient. Departments with little contact now help each other, I’m told, and ideas race around the plant, everyone joining in to make individual jobs more successful and the customer happy.
At Seattle Bindery, we’ve used a similar process—though not as formalized—for hot-button issues. My favorite example is our implementation of a non-smoking policy several years ago. I picked a group of five employees, each from a different discipline a nd with different levels of experience, and gave them the assignment to figure out how we were going get buy-in on the new policy. I gave them time and a room. It took them almost a day, but they came up with excellent solutions to keep everyone happy. To this day, their policies are still in effect.
Additional Options. We also try to foster a culture in which accountability is shared. We tell each other that if a situation arises that requires us to act to solve a problem or make a customer happy, we need to give the issue due consideration , ask the appropriate questions, then go ahead and act. Sometimes, afterwards, other options will be discussed, but no one will ever be punished for acting.
Like many companies, we also have an Employee Assistance Program that offers confidential help for personal problems. We offer training and education—even in non-work-related areas—at the company’s expense, Craftsmen Club dues and dinner fees, flex tim e, split shifts and partial work weeks. In addition, there’s our small-time version of the lottery: a weekly bingo game based on employee numbers, the winner receiving a whopping twenty-five bucks.
That’s not enough money for anyone to consider retiring on, I guess, but it does get us all together and offer someone a Thursday morning perk. Our employees tend to stay with us for many years over half have been here five years or more. I’m confident money is not the primary reason.
Milt Vine is president of Seattle Bindery, a postpress house specializing in custom
tabs and presentation folders; folding and stitching; foil stamping, embossing and
diecutting; plastic spiral, Wire-O® and perfect binding. You can reach Milt at
206/682-2558.
© 1998, Seattle Bindery. Reprinted from Printing Journal, September 1998.