THE DREAM MANAGER

Hyperion

Chapter One

Just Another Day

Something was wrong and Simon Roberts knew it. Meandering slowly through traffic on another cloudy morning, he started wondering where his life was going, and his thoughts quickly wandered to his job. It seemed so transactional now, and that left him feeling flat and unmotivated. Simon wasn't a lazy person; he loved a good challenge. But lately he'd found himself disengaging from his work, and that bothered him. Something needed to change-he just wasn't sure what it was, or where to start.

He had joined Admiral Janitorial Services four years earlier because solving problems and working with people were the two things Simon was passionate about.

His business card read "General Manager," but as Simon reflected on the past four years, it seemed he had spent most of his time dealing with recruiting issues. "Lead Recruiter" seemed more accurate since, truth be told, 75 percent of his time was spent dealing with issues directly related to the "T" word.

"Turnover," that is. But at Admiral, you didn't speak that word.

Sure, plenty of companies have turnover problems nowadays, and building a team has perhaps never been more difficult. But if you think your company has a turnover problem, try getting people to clean toilets. That's what Simon had spent most of his time working on over the past four years. Admiral Janitorial Services had just over four hundred employees and an annual turnover rate of 400 percent, just above the industry average. Needless to say, team spirit and employee morale were low.

Pulling into his parking space at Admiral's headquarters, Simon felt his energy plummet and wondered how he would face another day. All he could hear was a Winnie-the-Pooh tape his son used to listen to as a child playing over and over in his mind, and it was stuck on the line, "If you do what you've always done, you'll get what you've always gotten."

How Much Is Turnover Costing Us?

"It's costing me a fortune," Greg said as he charged through the door. He never had learned to knock, but then again, he owns the company.

Greg founded Admiral when he was just seventeen and, over the past twenty-five years, he has grown the business from a one-man operation to a small army of around four hundred employees.

Today, he is a successful and wealthy businessman, but whenever people ask him what he does, he always replies, "I'm a janitor." From time to time, he will attend a black-tie affair and people will laugh at his answer, thinking he is joking. But discovering he is serious, their laughter quickly diminishes into embarrassment.

Greg is an entrepreneur-he can sell anything to anyone and has an uncanny ability to see trends and opportunities long before anybody else. But he can also be a little scattered and a bit of a hothead, and that's why Simon was hired as general manager four years ago.

"What's costing you a fortune?" Simon volleyed, though he knew exactly what Greg was talking about.

"Turnover!" Greg said, visibly exasperated.

On Friday afternoon, Simon had left the month-end reports on Greg's desk. Among those reports were the quarterly turnover numbers. Over the last three months, Admiral's turnover had been 107 percent. That's right. In the past ninety days, 428 employees had left Admiral.

"It's hard to know how much this is costing us," Simon said. "We are having to hire for some positions three times a quarter. And it's not just recruitment costs. Turnover affects morale, efficiency, and customer relationships. I've been telling you for twelve months that it's a big problem."

Greg nodded. "I know, I know. It's just that now we're starting to lose clients over it. I had a call from Charlie down at P & G today, telling me we're getting a warning letter putting us on a ninety-day probationary period. He says our work has been sloppy and they've noticed a constant flow of new faces, and they feel like things are falling between the cracks."

Simon just sat there, staring at Greg in a bit of a daze.

Greg continued, "So you've got my attention. Give them a pay raise, won't that make them stay?"

"I wish it would, but I'm not sure," Simon replied. "I don't want to just throw money at the problem. Let's find out what's causing the turnover. Let's find out why they're leaving."

"How will we find that out?" Greg asked.

"We'll ask them," said Simon.

"Huh!" grunted Greg. Clearly, this idea had never occurred to him.

Ask Your Employees

The next morning, Simon and Greg met at First Watch to talk more about their turnover problem. It was a relaxed environment, the food and service were great, and that made it Simon's favorite place for breakfast meetings.

"So you're just going to go around and ask them why people are leaving?" inquired Greg, half serious and half sarcastic.

"Let's remember, Greg, they know things about our business that we don't know. I read an article last month about the president of American Airlines. Refueling costs were killing them, especially at airports where they had to contract other airlines to refuel their planes. One day he was pondering the problem after a meeting with his executive team that went nowhere. So he drove out to Fort Worth from his office in downtown Dallas, went down to maintenance, got a couple of crews together, told them the problem, and asked them what they thought the solution was.

"They just looked at each other. Some smiled, some just shook their heads. They all knew the answer. Put enough fuel in the planes while they are in Dallas to fly to and from Los Angeles. The plane will use a little more fuel, and if delayed you may need a top-up in LA, but it will still be cheaper than contracting a third party to refuel the planes in LA. In the next twelve months, American Airlines saved millions of dollars because of this single idea ... even with the rising cost of fuel."

Greg sat there pondering as Simon continued. "The employees know things about our business that we don't. We should do a survey and ask them why they think so many people come and go."

"A survey? How much will that cost?" Greg asked, always obsessed with the bottom line.

Shrugging his shoulders, Simon said, "I don't know yet, but I know it will be worth it. You'll be amazed at what they'll tell us. Nobody knows the business like those who work in the trenches of it every single day. Ask your employees. They know more than you think."

The Initial Survey

Simon spent the next week working up a few simple questions for the survey. He had just one goal in mind: to discover why so many employees came and went at Admiral.

The following Monday morning, the surveys were distributed to each of Admiral's 407 employees.

At first, the employees were resistant. Some were cynical, others were skeptical, and most of them were just plain cautious. Who could blame them? It was out of left field. It was just so different from what they were used to.

"Why are they asking me why people are leaving? Why don't they ask the people who left?" Simon overheard one employee saying in the lunchroom.

A few brave shift managers came by Simon's office to ask him straight out what he was trying to get at. Simon set them at ease, asked them to be sincere, and asked them to encourage their direct reports to do the same.

"They don't have to put their names on the surveys. They can just fill them out and hand them back," he explained. "Like I said in my letter on the front page of the survey, we can't go on like this, month after month, hiring dozens and dozens of people. We want to find a new way, and we figured nobody knows the reasons people are leaving like our employees."

It wasn't long before the surveys started coming back. In the next two weeks, 187 of Admiral's employees returned the survey. The response was much greater than anyone had thought it would be. And what did Simon's employees tell him?

Simon started reading through the surveys one by one at 4:30 on Thursday afternoon. An hour later, he stopped and sat back. A smile crossed his face. "It's so obvious-and yet we didn't see it," he said to himself.

The Initiative

The number one reason people didn't stay at Admiral: transportation. Not money. Not benefits. Transportation. The resounding reason that the surveys cited was difficulties created by lack of transportation.

"We never would have worked this out on our own, Greg," Simon said. "And the reason is because we take our cars for granted as part of our everyday lives.

"They don't live near where they work. Many don't have cars or even a driver's license, and they're often working at hours when public transportation is either not available or just too dangerous. Would you want to stand around waiting for a bus in some parts of town?" Simon explained to a disbelieving Greg.

"It's never what you think it would be," Greg exclaimed. "I thought they'd just say 'money.'"

Simon smiled. "Don't get me wrong, they'd like more money, too. But the transportation dilemma was mentioned twice as often as financial compensation."

"Okay, so what do we do now?" Greg asked. "You're not suggesting we buy them all cars, are you?"

Simon ignored the sarcasm and explained, "My team has thrown around a few ideas, including coordinating a carpooling system, but it's too unpredictable. What we need to do is put together a shuttle system to bus our employees from their neighborhoods to the job sites."

Greg just looked at him for a moment. "You've gone too far now, Simon. You're either on drugs or you need to be on drugs."

"You said you wanted to solve the turnover problem, Greg. You can throw more money at them, but money won't have a real impact. If you're serious about tackling this turnover issue, transportation is the one thing that will impact this situation the most. The employees have told us that. Now we can do something about it, and in the process, win their trust and increase morale, which are bound to have an impact on efficiency and productivity. Or we can ignore what they've told us and the problem will continue to perpetuate itself."

"I'm scared to ask the next question," Greg commented.

"Then don't ask it," Simon said, interrupting. "It's the wrong question anyway. The question is not, how much is this going to cost us? The question is, how much is this going to save us? Depending on who you listen to, the cost of turnover is anywhere from 25 to 150 percent of an employee's annual compensation. In the case of a manager or executive, the estimate ranges from 100 to 225 percent. This means, based on our current payroll, turnover is conservatively costing us two million dollars a year. That's almost $170,000 a month, or $40,000 a week!"

Greg just glared at him, but Simon wasn't finished.

"I asked my team to work up a couple of scenarios and price them out, and I think we can pilot a shuttle bus program for between twelve and fifteen thousand dollars a month, and I think it will decrease turnover by at least 20 percent. Do the math, Greg. Give it three months. By then you'll know. In fact, you'll probably know long before then."

"All right," Greg agreed reluctantly, "but if you're wrong ..."

Simon cut him off again. "No more threats, Greg, because the truth is, I'm miserable the way things are. If we can't get at this turnover issue, you won't have to fire me-I'll quit."

The following week, the shuttle bus system was announced. Three weeks later, it was fully operational. During the day, Admiral would bus employees to and from certain locations in four key neighborhoods, and at night they would bus them to and from their homes.

The results were almost immediate.

Attitude Shift

The first change was a new attitude among the employees. The managers pointed it out to Greg and Simon at the weekly managers' meeting.

"You have no idea how grateful some of these people are. Every day is a struggle for some of them. They want to work, they need to work, but for so long, they've believed that everyone's against them, including us," announced Brad, one of the four regional managers.

"I have to agree," said Juan, another of the regional managers. "It's a simple thing, but it has made their difficult lives just a little bit easier and they appreciate that. The fact that, as a company, we've bothered to try to understand part of their struggle really means something to them."

Not all of Admiral's employees were using the bus system, much less than half, in fact, but a powerful message had been sent.

In a very real and practical way, the lives of many Admiral employees had been touched, and Greg and Simon started to notice a change in the attitude of employees when they were asked to do something. There was a new spirit of cooperation ... you could see the adversarial spirit dissolving ...

One Year Later ...

Over the next year, employee turnover fell from around 400 percent to 224 percent. It had been a tough year, and turnover was still a serious problem and a top priority at Admiral, but real progress had been made. A record profit had been posted, and Simon and Greg both knew that the reduced turnover was the biggest contributing factor. And the other factors were all derivatives of having addressed the turnover crisis.

It was also interesting to note that sick days were down 31 percent from the previous year, and lateness had been reduced by 65 percent. The managers noted at their quarterly off-site review how much pressure this had taken off them and their teams.

Simon left a report outlining these results on Greg's desk, and left the office.

As he drove home that night, Simon had a genuine feeling of satisfaction. He knew he had not solved the problem entirely and he was still having to hire far too many people. But he knew he had begun something revolutionary, and that gave him a deep sense of fulfillment.

The next morning, Greg came into Simon's office with a bonus.

"I want you to know I doubted you at every turn, but the survey and the shuttle bus ideas were great. I actually see the reduced stress among people. It's more enjoyable for me to come to work, and even though at times I can be rude and impatient, I want you to know that I am grateful."

Simon could hardly believe his ears. It took a moment for him to shift into that gear with Greg, and by the time he did, it was over.

"I need you to do another survey!" Greg barked.

Simon just about fell off his chair. "You hate my surveys."

"I know. I know. But that was in the past. I hated your surveys when they were costing me money. Now they're making me money. Find out what's next on the list," Greg said.

"What list?" Simon asked, toying with him a little.

"The 'Why people leave Admiral' list!" Greg insisted. "And hire another assistant. You're going to need one. We are going to get to the bottom of this turnover thing and build an extraordinary team."

Chapter Two

The Obvious

Simon was determined not to lose the momentum. He called an executive meeting to ask the question ... again.

"We have made great strides, but we still have work to do if we're going to beat this turnover thing," Simon announced to his executive team. "I think we have to ask the question again. Why do so many people leave Admiral?"

Most just shrugged their shoulders and said, "If we could pay them more, they would stay."

Sometimes, when you get too close to something, you can't see it for what it really is.

When Sandra starting talking, every head in the room swiveled in her direction, and several of the team looked at her as if to say, "Who is this and why is she speaking?"

Sandra Anderson was Simon's new assistant and he had asked her to sit in on the meeting with him. Not easily intimidated, she spoke up, saying, "The problem is, they don't see any future in it."

Everybody in the room knew that. It was the obvious answer. But the leadership team had become immune to it. It had been overlooked because they believed they couldn't change it.

"Come on," said Jeff, Admiral's operations manager, "let's get honest with ourselves. It's a dead-end job. You know it and they know it."

"But does it have to be?" Sandra asked, baiting him.

Peter was the manager of region one, the team that cleans the stadiums and concert venues, and he came to Jeff's defense now.

"I think Jeff is right. We're not going to get around this one. Cleaning toilets, vacuuming offices, and picking up trash in stadiums is always going to be a dead-end job, isn't it? I mean, we might want to believe otherwise, but it is what it is. It isn't like people dream about being a janitor when they're in high school."

"I think you're wrong!" said Sandra. It may have been her first week, but Sandra wasn't afraid to speak up, maybe because it was her first week. Simon felt the muscles all over his body tighten. He feared Greg would just devour her with one of his moments-Greg was famous for them. He would throw things and scream. But he surprised Simon ... again ... by patiently asking, "What do you mean, Sandra?"

(Continues...)

Excerpted from THE DREAM MANAGER by Matthew Kelly Copyright © 2007 by Matthew Kelly. Excerpted by permission.
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