XPO | Culture Matters


http://www.landesassociates.com/get...oyee-engagement-business-fable-by-les-landes/

So what changed in Con-Way over the years? How have we morphed into a Theory X culture? Training Within Industry, the roots of Lean directly aligns the supervisors with the work force, reinforcing the concept of a participative culture. Les Landes writes this "business fable" identifying exactly what is being discussed on this site. I'm not a book of the month kinda guy... heck in school I would read the first and last ten pages of the required reading and then submit my book report. Worked out to a passing grade for me. Anyway, this book is not written as a text book and is available as an e-book. It held my interest through most chapters as I found many connections to our company's culture and lack of employee engagement.
The Lean Department has had "required reading" for managers and Lean members during our Lean Journey. Why do we not require these teams and the VVT department to research employee engagement in the way they have furthered their knowledge of the Lean Principles? The homepage on the portal for VVT talks to discretionary effort of the employee that supports the company. But over the past year the goals of engagement for service centers has become completing two or three community service events. Nothing against community service but these events should be spontaneous on the part of the employees not a requirement of the scorecard.
The authors McGregor and Landes present facts backing your opinions for discussions with management regarding where we should chart the destination of every ship in our fleet.
One year from now we all know things will change regarding the structure of our pay and benefits as we further align with XPO. If we spend the next twelve months with a "business as usual" approach to employee relations, change will be met with huge challenges (similar to Laredo and Los Angeles). As I stated when I started this soapbox series... I want to work for a great company ONCE AGAIN.
 
The thing about LEAN that I did like was "listening to the voice of the customer". The problem is management never listens to drivers. The collective wisdom and knowledge of the drivers for out weighs that of management and yet what we think is not important to management,especially upper management. We had the VP of ops come through our barn during the past union scare and you should have heard him dance around our questions and suggestions. He is representative of our past leadership, I am not sure if he is still with us our not, I know whats best and your thoughts and opinions will not change the course we are on. We need to invest all of our money in equipment, facilities, pay, and benefits. We need to handle freight less and haul as much of it as possible with our own people. We need to set our city drivers up for success everyday so that they can take of our customers. Thats it in my opinion. That will take us to the top and forget about the driver shortage because if we do that drivers will be lined up to come and work here.
 
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So many bad apples. I hear about dock workers being laid off. Well these newer drivers have never loaded a trailer.

And how does LEAN help a company like this ? How does turning Bs into As help to better the numbers ?

People see that being lazy and useless gets you treated like royalty. We might be dumb, not that dumb.

I can be every bit as horrible as the worst guy you got. I can even make a competition out of it. Worser than worse.

On here, we have repeatedly referred to Con-way as a rudderless ship. I am hoping that XPO taking the helm gives us a course, a direction. And that they maintain it. And that it is in a positive way. And that they do go after the people not pulling their weight. And tell them to keep up or ship off. It would be beneficial to moral and the company. And the ones that don't like it. GOOD.
Starting in 2017, employees will be given an annual review that will assess, among other things I would presume, work performance and productivity. "Raises will not be automatic, but rather be based in part on individual merit," according to info on the XPO employee portal. So hopefully this info will motivate some of the dead wood to pick it up, get engaged, and really begin to start earning their pay checks by actually doing something...like work... for a change.
 
How do we achieve it? I don't have an instruction manual to offer but I do offer an idea or two. The new leadership of the company needs to identify which type of culture they want within XPO Freight... directive or participative. The company values seem to better align with a participative culture. Next, senior management should solicit the general population to determine how our local managements currently align with the company's vision of culture. Douglas McGregor popularized the human relations approach to management in the 1960s. He published "Theory X" and "Theory Y". So let's quickly determine the local culture. Take the following two lists, present them to the employees and ask them one simple question, which type best describes your local management
Theory X managers believe employees
  • need to be controlled
  • don't like work
  • need to be pushed to be more productive
  • need incentive schemes
  • have to be directed to do things that they don't enjoy
Theory Y managers believe employees
  • want to be involved
  • can think for themselves and make decisions
  • share ownership of tasks
  • will find work more rewarding if given responsibility and a variety of task
  • have good ideas
  • can engage in some level of self-management
and for the old-timers discussing the way things used to be... when did we go from a Y to an X?
A lot of management people would never "empower" or give their employees the freedom to make decisions for themselves, because once those employees have accepted the empowerment and responsibilities of getting the job done efficiently and correctly.........the management are no longer needed. So some of those mgt. types micro-manage their employees to make themselves feel like they're actually doing something constructive, when in all actuality, they're getting in the way and making themselves look stupid for micro-managing.
 
Starting in 2017, employees will be given an annual review that will assess, among other things I would presume, work performance and productivity. "Raises will not be automatic, but rather be based in part on individual merit," according to info on the XPO employee portal. So hopefully this info will motivate some of the dead wood to pick it up, get engaged, and really begin to start earning their pay checks by actually doing something...like work... for a change.


That has interesting consequences. Like people fighting over work or routes. I wonder how he intends to implement something like that ? And if the monetary reward will be enough to alter behavior ?

I have a route that makes me look like a hero. I live where I peddle. So I know a lot of these people. I can call them. And so much of my route is U-line and farms that if someone else were to do it for a period of time, they would look like a zero.

But what's stopping someone from going into a jealous fit and bumping me off of it, just so I don't get a raise ?

I fear that this would motivate the slugs to turn into thugs and bully people out of doing well. We have to many of the " lowest common denominator " types that would do nothing but attack anyone doing better than them. It's the " knock that guy down a peg " philosophy. The whole " bring him back down to our level " type of thinking.

Am I the only who sees this ?
 
I see it that way too. It allows for favoritism and politics to be brought into the picture, especially since poor management people don't have the skills to defend against a butt kisser, and would allow pressure from a butt kisser to sway their judgment for a merit raise.
 
I see it that way too. It allows for favoritism and politics to be brought into the picture, especially since poor management people don't have the skills to defend against a butt kisser, and would allow pressure from a butt kisser to sway their judgment for a merit raise.

And are there consequences for the management not hitting their goals ? That would put pressure on them to keep the strongest people on the assignments the do the best. If me making my money is how the dispatcher makes his money then it might work out alright. But then this might also have something to do with dispatchers leaving. If they feel that the drivers won't do the work then they really have no choice but to bail.
 
Merit pay is not going to work with drivers. Way too complicated to come up with metrics to judge performance. How do you judge linedrivers? How do you judge a guy on a liftgate route with lots of residentials or inside deliveries against another who has got a van in a industrial area that bumps docks all day? Its impossible, I think too much is being read into it, that sounds like how management gets raises or somebody in a wharehouse who picks orders. I wouldn't worry about it.
 
Imma still give him :::shit::: for being a proud Kool-Aid-aholic. But we are much better with him than we are without.

broad shoulders and stain resistant!

Let's dig a little deeper into culture and employee engagement
For a city driver many post their frustrations regarding the culture of their facility. Applying McGregor's work, when within the terminal, working and interacting with management, are you treated as a Theory X or Theory Y? Once you mount up and ride out that gate to the land of your customers which type of employee are you, an X or a Y? How can a person be both an X and a Y? Why do you get treated as an X in the building but are trusted to perform as a Y outside of the building? It's not that I'm willing to drink the kool-aid, it's more about who's mixing the kool-aid that's being served. The local beverage leaves a terrible taste in my mouth

Now regarding Les Landes and his take on employee engagement. If it's discretionary effort on the part of the employee, effort towards who? The management, co-workers, or customers? To learn the truth regarding employee engagement of a facility I believe you have to ask the right people the right questions to find out where their engagement aligns with the company. A city driver with a bid area can and does become an extension of the customer. With the knowledge and trust learned and earned over time from that customer the driver applies discretionary effort that supports the customer! Many of our drivers create a role that can be described as an un-paid employee of our customers due to the amount of service they are willing to perform everyday. Every day drivers excel with power and purpose to make decisions supporting safety and service, the definition of empowerment. BUT, while in our company facilities, they are only enabled, stripped of power and purpose, expected to follow, not lead, and perform with a compliance to "standard work". Where is the continuous improvement and respect for the individual in this formula?
 
Merdock, do you think they buy out will be a good thing or a bad thing? What are your thoughts on our new LTL president?
 
Merit pay is not going to work with drivers. Way too complicated to come up with metrics to judge performance. How do you judge linedrivers? How do you judge a guy on a liftgate route with lots of residentials or inside deliveries against another who has got a van in a industrial area that bumps docks all day? Its impossible, I think too much is being read into it, that sounds like how management gets raises or somebody in a wharehouse who picks orders. I wouldn't worry about it.

I hate getting the same raise as the lazy slugs. I run linehaul and bust my Hump most of the time. I don't do 10 motor moves an hour, but I load all freight to ride and make it to the customer undamaged. I fix a lot of lazy guys stuff etc. I don't spend half the night in the break room or b.s.'ing on the dock. I like to get my freight and service my inbound. I don't milk the clock. Any tm with eyes knows the guys that work and those that don't. I can see favoritism as an issue, as it is now with city runs and tractor assignments, but the dispatcher also sees who runs hard and who gets by. When I was in the city, my run was 150 miles a day with only 10-12 stops and a few pick ups, but again, I busted to get empty so I could hit my early closers for pick ups. Anyway, I would love to see some sort of merit increase for drivers and local management.
 
I hate getting the same raise as the lazy slugs. I run linehaul and bust my Hump most of the time. I don't do 10 motor moves an hour, but I load all freight to ride and make it to the customer undamaged. I fix a lot of lazy guys stuff etc. I don't spend half the night in the break room or b.s.'ing on the dock. I like to get my freight and service my inbound. I don't milk the clock. Any tm with eyes knows the guys that work and those that don't. I can see favoritism as an issue, as it is now with city runs and tractor assignments, but the dispatcher also sees who runs hard and who gets by. When I was in the city, my run was 150 miles a day with only 10-12 stops and a few pick ups, but again, I busted to get empty so I could hit my early closers for pick ups. Anyway, I would love to see some sort of merit increase for drivers and local management.
So your manager or dispatcher picks who gets raises and who doesn't? What if your a great driver but your mananger doesn't like you for other reasons? I am not arguing the merit of merit based pay. I work really hard and I would like to make more than the BDs but things can't be decided by the opinion of a manager. If that is the case then you open things up for favoritism.
 
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So your manager or dispatcher picks who gets raises and who doesn't? What if your a great driver but your mananger doesn't like you for other reasons? I am not arguing the merit of merit based pay. I work really hard and I would like to make more than the BDs but things can't be decided by the opinion of a manager. If that is the case then you open things up for favoritism.
I agree, con-way was so number based, I would not do well if my raise were based on some numbers. I don't have an answer, I think my tm would be fair, but I know all tm's are not the same.
 
Merdock, do you think they buy out will be a good thing or a bad thing? What are your thoughts on our new LTL president?

To soon to tell... town hall meeting attendees report the new LTL company will be all about profit and loss. How deep this methodology impacts the service centers is still a mystery. Will employees be an asset to the company or a cost of doing business in the LTL sector?
There are service center manages that would give up a kidney to have their scorecard top in their region at the end of this year. I think most of you would agree that the scorecard as we know it destroys employee engagement.
 
To soon to tell... town hall meeting attendees report the new LTL company will be all about profit and loss. How deep this methodology impacts the service centers is still a mystery. Will employees be an asset to the company or a cost of doing business in the LTL sector?
There are service center manages that would give up a kidney to have their scorecard top in their region at the end of this year. I think most of you would agree that the scorecard as we know it destroys employee engagement.
We used to have a board up in the breakroom that told us how much money our service center made the company month by month. Those were numbers we could all understand and get behind. The scorecard replaced that and no one understands that thing.
 
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