With out question the cost of fuel and the greening initiative is changing the way we live.
In our industry, we clearly see the effect of declining disposable income in our same store sales analysis. Now a new element threatens to take a bite out of revenue.
There is a rapidly growing movement underway to take a new the workweek. Employees all across the country are currently submitting petitions to employers in attempt to gain approval of four-day weeks and telecommuting. They are citing more the just gas savings, here are just a few points that are being laid out very convincingly.
The 4-Day Work Week would mean less traffic congestion.
The 4-Day Work Week would mean fewer auto accidents each year.
The 4-Day Work Week would mean a reduction in absenteeism
The 4-Day Work Week would give us more time for family
The 4-Day Work Week would decrease labor costs
The 4-Day Work Week would decrease operational costs
The 4-Day Work Week would mean a reduction in the cost of childcare
These employee proposals also stress the use of internet as a tool to scrap the antiquated notion we should all be at the office from eight to five on Monday through Friday.
The revenues in the business and industry channel for food service, vending and OCS will decline in direct proportion to the decreased time employees spend in their traditional work place. This is an iron-clad certainty. I suggest that you keep your ear to the ground at all accounts; you may have to adjust your revenue forecast and identify actions needed to protect the bottom line now.
This entry was posted
on Monday, June 16th, 2008 at 3:48 pm and is filed under Growth, profitability, acquisitions.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Biography of Tom Britten:
Analyst, Intermediary, Professional Consultant. A full service resource to large and small operators "Helping Vending, OCS and Food Service Operators to Grow and Profit" 813.469.5437 tombritten@msn.com
Featured Speaker: Business Meetings, Trade Associations, Fraternal Groups, and Government Agencies
Topics: Security, Loss Prevention, Acquisitions/Divestitures, 25 Things That Don’t Change, Time Management, Effective Sales Prospecting
Consultant: Establish strength in the market place, significantly improve profitability.
Areas of Interest: Systematic Sales Prospecting/Booking New Business, Account Retention, Expense Management, Acquisitions and Divestitures/Exit Strategy, Increased Productivity, Right Sizing, Loss Prevention, Improved Internal Controls, Security Analysis, Executive Recruiting
Career Synopsis & Credentials: Tom Britten has broad-based operations and marketing experience in food service, vending and distribution. The client base he has served and sold extends to business / industrial, education, government, health care, and corrections facilities. He has worked in key positions both domestically and internationally and was instrumental in the introduction of Canteen’s full line services in Japan and reorganization of operations in Spain.
He successively progressed through executive positions at Macke, Service America, and Canteen where he became Vice President. He also served for eight years as Vice President of Sales and Operations for the Haddonfield Group, Management Consultants. In this assignment, he designed and implemented profit improvement programs for clients in retail and service businesses. In 2003, Britten formed Britten Management Services LLC, a profit improvement firm.
Professional Associations: Mr. Britten was a member of the Board of Directors of the state vending councils in Florida, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Washington. He is a former recipient of the NAMA chairman’s award for legislative action and has been widely published in a number of trade journals. He published the popular “25 Things That Don’t Change” which has been adopted as essential reading by many food and vending companies. He now serves on the editorial advisory board of Automatic Merchandiser magazine and holds a certificate of appointment as a Federal Contracting Officer for the Veterans Administration, where he is an appointed representative of the American Federation of Government Employees. Britten is also a past Chairman of the Human Relations Board of Hillsborough County.
He can be reached at tombritten@msn.com
Leave a Reply
June 17th, 2008 at 10:53 am
Tom, as you likely know, normally accepted workplace information indicates within most companies, only 20% of the workforce are considered top performer while 80% (give or take a few) are performers that are average or less..
Given top perfomers are 32% more productive than average performers and 64% more than below average performers, companies might consider making sure they are hiring and training to reach full potential for every employee.
Another fact related to the ‘80% group’: most turnover comes from this group which means the investment the company made in that employee did not result in incremental revenue or profit.
Perhaps part of a company’s strategic direction should be directed toward increasing the % of top performers while decreasig the % of average or below performers, resulting in reduced turnover costs increased productity.
There are efficient, effective and affordable actions available that can protect a company’s bottom line by decreasing turnover and increasing productivity.
Regards to all,
Dave
June 17th, 2008 at 12:12 pm
[…] Get Ready Here Comes the Big One! - “Employees all across the country are currently submitting petitions to employers in attempt to gain approval of four-day weeks and telecommuting. They are citing more the just gas savings, here are just a few points that are being laid out very convincingly.” (added 6/17/08) […]
June 24th, 2008 at 6:44 pm
The four (4) day work week may in fact mean all those things that you listed, however have you considered the following:
The four day work week mean two extra hour per day to munch on snacks or eat smaller meals more often for those “healthy, wellness customers”. If you truly listen to our customers, you may not really have to adjust your numbers, just your product mix. We are actually not changing the actual hours workers are on site, we are just reorganizing them. I owned a restaurant once that was open seven days a week. One weekend I decided I would close on Sundays and stay open 2 additional hours a day on the other six days.I had signs printed and talked with customers about my decision. After 4 weeks my sales returned to the same level they were at when I was a 7 day operation. I was happy, the customers just purchased more baked goods on Saturdays. I did have more yardwork to do around my house though?
June 26th, 2008 at 8:55 am
[…] New. Comprehensive. Innovative.
August 28th, 2008 at 10:59 am
One of the downsides to a 4 day work week would be that “latchkey” kids would be home alone for 2 extra hours each day, studies have shone that these are the hours that kids use to get into trouble. While I’m in favor of 4 10-hour days, and have been for awhile, in some cases, parents are gonna have to weigh the consequences of leaving the kids home alone for this additional time. Thank You for the oppportunity to comment.