Getting Past 'Desperation Management'

A while ago I saw that the annual convention of the Ohio Grocers Association included a workshop on "Desperation Management."

An intriguing term?describing the Clinton administration??and a few phone calls got me to training analyst Marc Beattie of ProActive Consulting Services in Grand Rapids, Mich., who made the presentation.

"The reason we came up with that term is that the stores today are desperate for help," Beattie says, "and this lack of applicants is causing them to manage a little differently than most would like to. For example, they get people in there now and they're just happy to have a warm body."

The "warm body" syndrome, according to Beattie, can compound itself into further personnel problems. Many managers, feeling that a warm body is better than no body at all, bend over too far backward to keep that body on the premises.

"And what managers don't realize now," Beattie says, "is that lack of discipline and standards causes good employees to go bad. You just can't ignore certain things because, in effect, what you're doing is telling the other people, 'That's OK,' and that they can do it, too."

Beattie feels that managers must have a starting point in dealing with new hires that includes defining standards and expectations. "We put emphasis on the company handbook," he says. "I use the analogy that the handbook is like the playing field, and you want all the people to be on the playing field. So you define those expectations for everybody."



Expectations can be defined, according to Beattie, by answering the following employee-oriented questions: What do you want me to do? How do I fit into the big picture? Where do I go if I need help? What kind of training will I receive? What are your immediate expectations of my performance? How long will I be given to achieve the required standard? How will I know if I'm doing a good job?

Also, he says, taking care in matching people to jobs, as well as to the company's culture, goals and values, will go a long way toward keeping new employees past the crucial, initial 90-day period when they are most likely to leave. A mentoring system matching the rookie with an "old head" pays dividends, too, as well as remaining flexible when employees need to balance work, school and family.

If an employee falls off the so-called playing field, Beattie says, it is the manager's responsibility to bring him or her back onto it through either coaching/counseling or discipline. The criteria he lists for effective discipline are: correcting the problem versus punishing the offender; attacking the problem, not the person; maintaining dignity and self-respect; and providing progressive steps.

Beattie and ProActive also believe that understanding today's employment market is a vital first step in attracting candidates for the long term. "Money alone is not the answer," he says. "There really is no one magic bullet. You have to be in the ballpark wage-wise, but then you must meet needs like flexible scheduling and positive and corrective feedback so that they feel a part of the team."

And, strange as it might sound to traditional supermarketers, Beattie says, "The other thing we're stressing is that work has to be fun, especially for Generation X and Generation Y. If work is not fun, if they don't feel they like the people they're working with and it's a good place to be, they're going to leave and find it someplace else.

"Generation X and Generation Y are the kids who grew up with computers since they were in the second or third grade. The kids coming out today look at the job and say, 'If I can find a better or faster way, I want to do it.' They don't necessarily want to do it your way. It's a totally different age group, and you can't manage them today the way you managed a group 10 or 15 years ago; it won't work."

He feels that most companies are coming to realize this paradigm shift "very slowly." And while it's hard for them to accept it, the longer the shortage of workers lasts, the more they will realize that the old ways just won't cut it and will change accordingly.



In addition to making work more fun, Beattie says, savvy managers will keep this new, Generation X/Y work force learning through seminars and workshops. "Help them to achieve," he says, "and then find ways to show appreciation and recognition."

Attracting workers to begin with is harder today, too. Beattie says ProActive recently went to a new store that was opening in its area to help with hiring; 125 people were needed. After two days of taking applications, they came up with a grand total of 45.

He tells ProActive's clients that in the not-so-long-ago old days, supermarkets only had to be competitive, job-wise, with the supermarket up the street, but in today's environment of McDonald's, Burger King, Target, Kmart, Wal-Mart, etc., the entry-level worker is putting in applications all over town.

To snare this elusive creature, he says, some companies are going so far as offering incentives like drawings for prizes just to get applicants in the door, while others are offering help with college tuition.

And the prognosis? "If you look at the economic forecasts," Beattie points out, "the count of the number of kids coming out of high school does not increase until 2002 or 2003. Plus, the unemployment rate is down."

Admittedly, it doesn't look good, which is all the more reason to select, orient, train and nurture new employees like the scarce and valuable resources they are.