The Job Swappers
Karen Becker had only been working at All American Window & Door for eight months when her husband passed away. The Germantown, Wis.-based home remodeling company was supportive during this difficult period, giving her the time she needed to cope with her loss. "Understandably, my head wasn't in the right place at the time, and they let me take the time I needed to deal with things," says Becker, the company's office manager. All American Window & Door is a small company of 22 people (16 permanent and six contractors), so the absence of any employee hurts, especially someone as integral to their day-to-day operations as Becker. The company specializes in the sales and installation of windows and doors, and Becker performs the crucial roles of overseeing its customer service and office operations, including invoicing and contract preparation. Co-owner Terri Lodwick, among others, pitched in to fill the void left by Becker's absence, and business was able to proceed as usual.
In recent years, the company has put a number of practices in place that allows the company to better absorb the absence of key personnel, whether due to an emergency or merely attending to more routine personal matters. Key among these practices is a job swap program. Every month Lodwick pairs office staff with field personnel and vice versa, allowing everyone to gain an understanding of each other's roles. For example, Becker recently accompanied one of the company's installation workers on a job. The program, which was first put in place about five years ago, has proven to be an important cross-training tool. "What this does is twofold: It teaches everyone what each other does, and it gives everyone a sense of how they contribute to the company's success," says Lodwick.
In addition, the job swaps provide her employees with a fresh perspective on their own jobs, leading to valuable process improvements. "Sometimes a second person will point out that it takes a really long time to do a certain task and ask why there are so many steps involved," says Lodwick. "Then we have to step back and evaluate the process. If we can't change it right away or can't analyze it, we put it on the calendar for a future date to know that it is something that needs to be worked on." Becker says that the job swap program has helped her and others anticipate customers' concerns and ask the right questions when dealing with suppliers.
The company also places a heavy emphasis on general training. Twice a month employees are assigned topics such as customer service or time management to teach to others on the staff. All employees must attend at least one of these two classes. The topics are not assigned based on an individual employee's strengths but at random. This ensures that the classes touch upon all of the salient points, and the instructor develops new skills and confidence from the experience, explains Lodwick. In addition, the company provides everyone with a $200 dollar self-improvement budget, which they can spend on any kind of training they want.
The company's emphasis on learning and development comes from Lodwick's belief in the balanced scorecard approach to management. This model stresses a systems-driven operation with measurable outcomes in which everyone knows their roles. Thus, Lodwick is continually evaluating and fine-tuning the company's processes, drawing heavily upon the advice of her employees. Every month All American Window & Door holds a companywide meeting where each employee is given a chance to discuss successes and concerns. Lodwick has tried to foster an open environment in these meetings – one where people are not afraid to divulge mistakes – so everyone from upper management to front-line staff are asked to share errors and what they learned from them. In addition, she meets with her employees individually on an annual basis to hear their concerns. These meetings have led to many valuable improvements in their practices. For example, the job swaps used to occur twice a year, but the employees found cramming so much information into a couple of sessions to be overwhelming and switched to conducting the program on a monthly basis.
Perhaps the greatest benefit of this inclusive approach to the business's operation is the high level of employee satisfaction the company enjoys. Only two people have left the company in the last two years and several members of the staff have tenures of more than five years. Lodwick believes the key to her employees' loyalty lies in the fact that everyone knows their role in the company and feels empowered to make decisions about how to satisfy customers. "In a sense, everyone's a manager here," says Lodwick.
Company: All American Window & Door Co., Inc.
Web site: www.allamericanwindow.com
Industry: Home Remodeling
Location: Germantown, Wis.
Number of Employees: 22
Sales: N/A
