AMonline Blog

According to a new study by Leadership IQ, 47% of high performers are actively looking for other jobs (they’re posting and submitting resumes, and even going on interviews).  

While it’s terrible that almost half of high performers are thinking about quitting, what’s perhaps even worse is that low performers want to stay.  Only 18% of low performing employees are actively seeking other jobs, and 25% of middle performers are actively looking around.  (DHM note: why would they be seeking other jobs; they’ve found a home! They have figured out how to stay below the radar and collect a check for minimal contribution.  How long can you afford non revenue producing employees that usually make up 80% of your total workforce?). 

 Leadership IQ surveyed 16,237 employees on a range of workforce and retention issues, and then divided them into high, middle and low performer categories based on their annual performance appraisal scores.  There were 3,896 employees identified as high performers, 8,607 identified as middle performers, and 3,734 low performers. “High performers keep companies in business,” says Mark Murphy, CEO of Leadership IQ, “so every company is at risk if these people leave.  If you lose some low performers, you might actually be better off.  But when your best people quit, revenue drops, quality suffers, and snafus increase.  Even large companies can take a big hit with the departure of just a few key employees.” 

Murphy continues “The worst part of this is that we typically cause our high performers to quit by how we treat them.  Frankly, we treat our high performers worse than any other employee.  When a manager has a tough project upon which the whole company depends, to whom do they turn?  Who gets the late hours and the stress?  It’s not the low performers, because managers want the project done right.  Instead managers turn to their handful of high performers.  Over and over we ask our high performers to go above and beyond, making their jobs tough and burning them out at a terrible pace.  Meanwhile, low performers often get easier jobs because their bosses dread dealing with them and may avoid them altogether.”

So what can you do to keep your top performers happy?  Make sure you know WHY they are your top performers, not just that they are….because of sales or collections or new business. 

If you understand WHY your top performers do what they do, you can improve performance of your middle and lower groups, reducing strain on top performers while improving profitability and reducing turnover. 

The old adage…..”you cannot manage what you cannot measure”….has never been so true as it is when talking about improving performance.  There ARE tools available to help you make sure you retain your top performers and improve the rest of your team at costs FAR less than replacing a top performer…or paying a full salary to a low performer that is a non-revenue expense. 

Your employees are your company’s single most important asset: are you investing in them as much as your other assets?  If you want to be around tomorrow, investing in employees today is a good bet!

Dear Tom Britten:

Gosh, I didn’t mean to demean the mom & pops of the vending industry. I try to choose words carefully, but maybe I bungled it by using the words of the vendor this particular time.
I think his larger point was that he believes it is unfair competition when some vendors don’t get their businesses licensed and insured.  It is overhead they don’t pay, which he does. Also, lacking insurance can have devastating consequences for a lot of people if something goes wrong. This can happen in any business.

It might be easier to skip these costly legalities if the business operates “under the radar,” say from a garage. That doesn’t mean that every garage-based vendor does this.
Thanks for sending me your counterpoint. It made me think hard. I think it will make be a better reporter. And, thanks for reading,
Laura L. Ruane
Business reporter
The News-Press
Voice (239) 335-0392
Fax (239) 335-0265
Visit us on the Web at www.news-press.com 

A portion of a recent article in the Fort Meyers, Florida News-Press described Garage Vendors as the unlicensed, uninsured, unaffiliated “bane” of the vending machine industry. To portray these hard working men and women in this way is unfair and in the vast majority of instances entirely unwarranted.

The term Garage Vendor is a vending industry term used to describe a small vending company that operates out of their garage or a small rental storage facility.  Other industries often use the term “mom & pop” operation.

Most of these companies are family businesses with only 1 or 2 maybe 3 people working long, hard hours desperately trying to compete with larger vending companies who have advantages that they don’t have or may never have.  They have their life savings wrapped up in their fledgling companies and are struggling to stay afloat.  I know lots of Garage Vendors; they are some of my favorite people.  I help them whenever I can, usually at no cost. 

Many of the largest and most respected companies in the vending industry started as lowly Garage Vendors.  Nathanial Leverone (Canteen’s founder) and Davry Davidson (one of Aramark’s founders) both started as Garage Vendors in the 1930’s.  The prosperous dot com companies existing today that were started in garages are legendary.

Let’s be sporting. Give these folks the respect they deserve for risking their capital and making the effort to build something from nothing, it’s the American way.

Tom Britten
 Analyst . Intermediary . Consultant 
Phone 813.469.5437
E-Mail tombritten@msn.com

You’ve tried everything else……….. Try lowering your prices

Before you accuse me of being totally off my rocker, read on:

Mr. Client, I know you have read all the same stuff that I have about employers helping their employees’ cope with the dramatic rise in prices at the gas pump.  Some employers are giving stipends based on commuter mileage, offering work at home Fridays and company sponsored car polls. I was wondering if there was a way I could help you help your people and I came up with an idea I would like to explore with you.   What if you agreed to a reduction in commissions and I agreed to a corresponding reduction in the retail price of vended food and beverages?

Not everywhere, but, at some accounts this could be a win-win. 

As same store sales continue to slide most folks I talk to blame lack of discretionary dollars.  This is only part of the cause of lost sales.  Consumer resistance to higher prices is a big factor here.  Even if the amount of the commission reduction is exactly equal to your drop in the price, I am betting that the vending operator will experience increased sales as consumers return to lower priced products.

Tom Britten
Analyst . Intermediary . Consultant
3922 Bubba Drive, Zephyrhills FL 33541
Phone 813.469.5437
Fax 813.783.7908
E-Mail tombritten@msn.com