Category: Archive

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Why Ted Jones Didnt Take Edward Jones Public

Ted Jones–the son of Edward D. Jones Sr., founder of the financial-services firm that bears his name–wrote the following response when questioned why he was not interested in taking Edward Jones public and becoming a multi-millionaire.



    His rationale is a symbol of the company’s culture that still exists today.

  • I am the richest man in America.

  • I have a wife who loves me in spite of my faults.

  • I have four dogs. Two love only me. One loves everybody. One loves no one, but still is very loyal and follows me everywhere I go on the farm.

  • I have a horse I love to ride around the farm, and best of all she comes to me when I call her.

  • I have too much to eat and a dry place to sleep.

  • I enjoy my business.

  • I love my farm and my home.

  • I have a few close friends, and money has never been my God.

Edward “Ted” Jones
1925-1990

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Changes in Behavioral Benefits

You aren’t imagining things. A 1997 Hay Group report showed that behavioral-health-care benefits have become much more limited since the advent of antidepressants and managed care. In 1988, 38 percent of behavioral plans imposed a limit on the number of days that depressed and/or suicidal patients could spend in the hospital. By 1997, deadlines were imposed by 57 percent of plans. The number of plans imposing any mandatory checkout date for inpatient psychiatric care rose from 63 percent in 1990 to 68 percent in 1997.



    Limits on traditional “talk therapy” also have changed. Twenty-six percent of these plans imposed a limit on annual visits in 1988. In 1997, restrictions on Woody Allen-type treatments were imposed by 48 percent of plans. In addition to an increase in the number of plans imposing a limit, the limit has decreased. In 1988, 46 percent of plans restricting trips to the couch allowed a maximum of 50 visits. In 1997, the most prevalent cutoff was 20 visits.


    In addition to annual-visit limits, many plans imposed monetary ceilings. In 1988, 45 percent of plans did so. By 1997, the percentage of plans imposing these had decreased to 40 percent. However, the dollar amounts allowed by plans didn’t keep pace with inflation. Most plans imposed a limit of $2,500 or less in 1988 and in 1997. To keep pace with inflation, that $2,500 in 1988 would have had to be increased to $4,993 in 1997.


    Since then, with the advent of disease management, hospitalization and outpatient benefits have dropped even further. And, in sync with the current economic slowdown, about 10 percent of health plans don’t include behavioral-health coverage at all.


Workforce Management, September 2003, p. 58 — Subscribe Now!

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Clueless Inc. Invites Trouble

Workforce-management terrain is littered with big financial judgments againstcompanies that thought they were doing the right thing butignored warning signs that they could be a target of lawsuits, legal expertssay. During a recent conference in Palm Springs on human resources and the law,a consensus emerged about some common mistakes. What follows is a composite of acompany, call it Clueless Inc., heading for trouble. If you recognize yourcompany here, you may want to review your policies. Orpossibly line up a good legal team.

  • Clueless Inc. likely is in retailing, food services, or manufacturing–industriesthat draw a disproportionate share of discriminationcharges. It probably has strong consumer identity. Coca-Cola’s fear that itscustomers might be lining up to buy Pepsi-Cola is said to have figured in thesettlement of a discrimination suit for $192 million. But small companies aren’toff the hook, either, because they may not have human resources departmentsor staff attorneys to guide them through constantly changing legal requirements.The small company boss likes to hire on the basis of a handshake. He doesn’tkeep records.


  •  Clueless engages in employee profiling, a smoking gun in anydiscrimination suit. Management might think, “This is man’s work,” andrequire a physical-fitness test such as lifting a weight so heavy that womencouldn’t do the job.


  • The lawsuit-ripe company doesn’t like whistle-blowers. Complaints aregiven superficial investigations, then forgotten. The complaining worker isisolated, given an empty office with nothing to do, and harassed in other ways.


  • Hiring and promotion policies at Clueless result in instances of whatAtlanta attorney Douglas Towns calls the “inexorable zero.” This means that,either company-wide or within divisions or management ranks, there are zerowomen, or no African-Americans, or older workers, or disabled workers.


  • Unknown to management, plaintiffs’ attorneys use computers and insidesources to study hiring and promotion practices at Clueless until they know thecompany better than the CEO does. Management is asleep at the switch, thinkingClueless has a top-notch diversity program. They don’t realize that thecompany has such high turnover and movement up and down the ranks that it’snot the company they think it is. Plaintiffs’ attorneys realize thatAfrican-American middle managers are being blocked from further promotion. Whenthe suit ultimately is filed against Clueless, attorneys arrive with such amassive amount of evidence that corporate officers run for cover–and a costlysettlement.


  • The settlement seems almost painless at first, since Clueless is rakingin big profits. Top management figures that the payoff to underrepresentedworkers will hardly affect its bottom line. What they don’t realize is thattheir problems are only beginning. The company may be forced to give power overpay and promotions to a third party, institute consciousness-raising sessions,set up hot lines, and change the makeup of its board of directors.


Workforce, May 2003, p. 30 — Subscribe Now!

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Targeted Training Puts NASWA on the Map

 
Name: NASWA (National Association of State Workforce Agencies)
Location: Washington, D.C.
Type of organization: Trade association for state workforce agencies
Number of employees 10

Several years ago, the Department of Labor began building O*Net, an onlinedatabase of occupational information and labor-market research. The tool can beused by public and private employers, recruiters, and job seekers to define jobskills and competencies, track wages, and research employment data, saysKathleen Cashen, executive director of NASWA, the trade association in charge oftraining for O*Net users. “It helps employers make more educated hiringdecisions and it helps job seekers make better career choices.”


    O*Net was designed to replace the paper-based dictionary of occupationaltitles (DOT), which workforce personnel have used since the 1930s as the primarysource of labor-market information, says Mary Sue Vickers, research director forNASWA. But the Department of Labor struggled to raise awareness and get buy-infor the new tool. “It’s like replacing the dictionary or the Bible,”Vickers says. “Employers used the DOT for 70 years, and old habits die hard.”


    To help people make the switch, the NASWA team was contracted in 2001 tocreate training and build support for O*Net. They began by deliveringface-to-face train the- trainer courses to workforce agency personnel. Over ayear and a half, NASWA trainers traveled to 38 states and trained 732 people oneverything there was to know about O*Net with the hope that they would take thatinformation back to their peers, Cashen says. But it was an expensive andtime-consuming process. Budgets were tight and travel became an issue afterSeptember 11, so NASWA turned to e-learning. In conjunction with Maher andMaher, they built O*Net Academy (www.onetacademy.com), an online community whereanyone anywhere can take free self-paced or live training on the value of anduses for O*Net.


    The first courses focused on the value and benefits of O*Net, to reduceapprehension about switching from the paper-based DOT to an online tool. To makethe training more attractive to skeptical users, NASWA designed several shorterlive courses to meet the specific needs of various groups. “Some people needto know very little about the database to use it, while others need to knoweverything,” says Vickers. “Instead of putting them all through aneight-hour course, we take 45 minutes and give them what they need when theyneed it.”


    The courses are delivered through live scheduled “Webinars” and covereverything from application overviews to HR planning to employee retraining andretention. The Webinar leaders use WebEx software and phone lines to deliverinteractive online presentations and field questions from participants. Forindividuals who can’t attend the live sessions, the Webinars are recorded andstored at the site for reuse, and are supported by self-paced tutorials forthose who need follow-up or performance support training while using thedatabase.


    “People love the sessions particularly because they are convenient andaddress their specific needs in a short amount of time,” Cashen says. The factthat users can complete training over a lunch hour also gives it considerablevalue. It’s a big payoff for a small investment of time, she says.


    NASWA markets the training through e-mail notifications to its members andprevious O*Net users. It also delivers talks at conferences and places links tocourse schedules at the academy and the O*Net Web sites. But the heart of thecampaign strategy is word of mouth. It’s a community that grows as news of thetraining spreads, Vickers says. For example, from August to November of 2002,the number of participants in Webinars increased by 50 percent. Also, there were23,356 user sessions at O*Net sites in the last six months, and 40 percent werereturn users.


    But the best indicator of the academy’s success is the reaction from thegovernment agencies themselves. “The e-learning program for O*Net put NASWA onthe map,” Cashen says. “The other agencies see that they can get informationout so much faster using e-learning and they are coming to us for guidance onhow to do it.”


Workforce, March 2003, p. 62 — Subscribe Now!

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Banking on Future Talent

Brian Fishel, senior vice president for development and recruiting at Bank of America, doesn’t warm to the subject, but when pressed, he admits that, yes, he does have some nominees to take the place of CEO Ken Lewis should the unthinkable happen.



    “Clearly, the board has the say at the top,” Fishel says. But he has several candidates waiting in the wings to replace not just Lewis but all senior management, should any or all of them depart. “Our theory is the more the better [in terms of promotion candidates]. We want to be deep.”


    The reason why Fishel has a roster of folks on his replacement charts is that Lewis “is driving the process. He meets with all his top line executives for two hours during the summer, and that’s when they do their organizational assessments, talent reviews and succession planning. It really is Ken Lewis driving the commitment, the discussions and the execution.”


    The candidates emerge naturally, Fishel says, because the company has “a very organized, thorough and disciplined approach to what we call talent planning” that links compensation to performance. In a leadership model similar to GE’s, candidates are constantly evaluated and reassigned according to how well they meet the targets and goals that are set for them.


    Fishel concedes that human resources executives can’t do good succession planning unless they have the support of a company’s chief executives. But human resources personnel also have to bring something to the table that the executives can’t ignore: a deep grasp of the company’s finances, goals and growth projections that enables them to offer ideal solutions.


    When dealing with the top brass, “you’d better know your numbers cold and what the drivers and levers of their business are in order to be credible. A good personnel partner should be anticipating their needs and offer them options,” Fishel says.


But just how does one approach the indelicate subject of succession planning with top managers who, in their own minds, see themselves as forever young?


    “I personally don’t come out and ask that question of a leader–‘When you’re not here…?’ ” Instead, Fishel says, he initiates a discussion about which subordinates might be candidates for cross-training, new assignments or promotion. He will also suggest candidates to assume subordinates’ positions from the replacement charts “and lead them through a conversation,” requesting feedback. After credibility has been established, Fishel says, the subject of the leader’s own position may emerge naturally.


Workforce Management, August 2003, p. 49 — Subscribe Now!

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Six Sigma Is a Way of Life

 
Name: MCKESSON CORPORATION
Location: SAN FRANCISCO
Business: PROVIDER OF HEALTH-CARE SUPPLIES AND SOFTWARE
Employees: 22,000

McKesson executives see Six Sigma as a fundamental change in the way they dobusiness. “It’s not an additional step or certification system,” says JeffReinke, McKesson’s vice president of Six Sigma. “It’s how we operate.”

    Before 1999, McKesson Corporation had never thought to implement a qualityinitiative. “Until the late ’90s, quality was an issue for manufacturingcompanies, not transactional ones,” Reinke says. But as health-care costsskyrocketed, McKesson executives realized that the only way they could staycompetitive was to drive costs out of the supply chain.


    At the time, companies using Six Sigma were getting a lot of press abouttheir results, so McKesson’s leadership team met with Six Sigma Academy to seeif the process could transfer to the health-care-supply arena.


    In 1999 they launched Six Sigma, using what Reinke calls “a traditionalapproach.” They identified exceptional employees for a four-week black-belttraining course, pulling them out of the business for two years to work solelyon Six Sigma projects. Beginning with the health-supplies and pharmaceuticaldivision, they trained 15 to 20 black belts and then reassigned them to theiroriginal business units as their teams’ Six Sigma representatives.


    Each wave of training since then has targeted a different business group, andslowly the Six Sigma philosophy has infiltrated McKesson’s business philosophy,Reinke says. The company has since trained more than 120 black belts, 80 of whomare still active.


    When the two-year commitment ends, black belts return to the business athigher positions, helping to spread the approach throughout the organization andensuring that key leaders are committed to the philosophy. “The black-beltassignment is like a succession-planning effort at McKesson,” Reinke says. Thestrongest performers are chosen for the training, and they are promotedaccordingly when it’s over. “Associates know that if they want to grow inthe company, they need to be selected for black-belt training.”


    But Six Sigma training doesn’t end with black belts. In most divisions ofthe company it is mandated that all senior vice presidents go through “basictraining,” which introduces the Six Sigma concept and details how to identifyand scope a Six Sigma project. Across the company every manager and director isexpected to attend basic training and green-belt training, which gives them ahigh-level working knowledge of Six Sigma methodologies and why it’s importantto follow them. “They understand Six Sigma well enough to identify potentialprojects, discuss them using unique Six Sigma vocabulary, and participate on SixSigma projects led by black belts,” Reinke says.


    The mandatory training also raises awareness of the company’s commitment tothe new fact-based approach to business. “In the past, requests were grantedon the basis of seniority or past experience,” Reinke says. “Now,decision-makers know that every project must be supported by hard data before itcan be implemented.”


    Six Sigma training also has no end-date at McKesson. The company now has fourmaster black belts who conduct all of the Six Sigma training in-house, andReinke expects the training to remain an integral part of theemployee-development process. Eventually, all teams will have a dedicated blackbelt, just as they have vice presidents and associates, he says, and everyone inthe company will embrace Six Sigma as a way of conducting business.


    And while the Six Sigma effort showed profits in the first year and eachsubsequent year, Reinke sees it as more than just a cost-cutting initiative. “Ithas helped us get better at our core competencies,” he says. “Six Sigma isour culture now.”


Workforce, May 2003, pp. 67-68 — Subscribe Now!

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Textron Turns to Consumer-Driven Health Care

With health-care costs soaring, something had to be done. So on January 1,2002, Textron Inc. rolled out a consumer-driven health plan for 1,600 of its36,000 U.S. workers. The multi-industry company, which is based in Providence,Rhode Island, extended the offering to 25,000 active and retired employees onJanuary 1, 2003.

    “Our employees and managers understood that it was prohibitively expensiveto continue to absorb double-digit increases in the cost of health care,” saysGeorge Metzger, vice president, human resources and benefits. “The typicalsolutions of decreasing benefits and increasing employee premiums were simplyunacceptable. Our research eventually brought us to consumer-driven health careas the `best-fit’ solution.”


    Textron chose consumer-driven health care because “we believe that apartnership between the company and our employees is the best way to slow risingcosts, while giving employees flexibility, financial incentives, and educationalsupport to help them make better-informed decisions about the type and qualityof the health care they elect,” Metzger says.


    Textron’s consumer-driven plan provides an annual personal account of $1,000for employee-only coverage, $1,500 for the employee plus one dependent, or$2,000 for the employee plus two or more dependents. When the account isexhausted, employees incur a deductible of $600, $900, or $1,200, depending onthe number of dependents covered. Once the annual deductible has been satisfied,insurance kicks in with 100 percent coverage for in-network services and 70percent for out-of-network services. Monthly premiums are $61 for an employee,$114 for an employee plus one dependent, and $160 for an employee plus two ormore dependents. Unused personal account balances roll over to the next year.


    To monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of the plan, “HR uses bothinternal and external resources to provide extensive retrospective dataanalysis, as well as predictive modeling,” Metzger says. “This analysis willenable us to forecast specific cost-drivers so that we can then develop focusedstrategies to address utilization.”


Workforce, February 2003, p. 38 — Subscribe Now!

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iWorkforce Optimas Awards-i 2003

Workforce management can be a breeze when times are good. You can fatten up the training budget. If a salary offer isn’t high enough to land a stellar recruit, there’s a chance that you can get her more. And if keeping the troops happy and productive means adding on some perks, you can do it–even if the ROI is a little sketchy.

    But in a bleak economy, all that changes. Perry Mason himself would have a hard time arguing some of the cases that executives have to make today, even for critical initiatives. Training has to show its value–right now. Recruiting requires special skills, not just the ability to write a big fat check. And maintaining a productive workforce has never been a greater challenge. Employees are dispirited, disengaged, and not disposed to give their all for boss and business.


    That’s why this year’s Optimas Awards are particularly meaningful. The organizations that Workforce selected have found creative ways to achieve such goals as lower turnover, a healthier workforce, greater profits, expanded markets, and even the ultimate test: the company’s very survival. 


    This month we launch a series of profiles of honorees, beginning with Internet search-engine Google, the winner for General Excellence. For the rest of the year, we will spotlight an honoree every month. Workforce is proud to introduce this year’s Optimas Award winners. Each demonstrates an approach to workforce management that is nothing short of inspirational.


 
General Excellence

Cathy Weatherford sums up her nonprofit association’s business issue succinctly. Five years ago, a 30 percent turnover rate “was killing us,” says Weatherford, executive vice president and CEO for the association, whose research supports the work of the chief insurance regulators from the 50 states, D.C., and four U.S. territories. The Kansas City-based association simply couldn’t meet the salary offers that for-profit companies were making to the computer professionals who make up 40 percent of its staff.


Surveys showed Weatherford that the association could compete if it retooled its workforce policies. By offering a wide variety of low-cost programs and policies, the association made itself an extremely attractive place to work. The elements include a four-day workweek, flextime, telecommuting, casual dress, a no-layoff policy, and a novel idea that brought national attention: employees are allowed to bring their infants up to the age of six months to work with them. Turnover dropped from 30 percent in early 1996 to below 9 percent currently.
FINANCIAL IMPACT
National City Corporation

You don’t have to be an investment banker to know that great customer service starts with well-trained and experienced bank employees. National City Corporation knew that this would be a difficult goal for a company that experienced more than 51 percent non-exempt employee turnover in 1999. Many employees left within 90 days of their hire dates.


The company turned things around by starting a series of workshops for entry-level employees. Hiring managers were taught how to prepare for the arrival of new employees and make their transition to a new job smoother. New employees were paired with experienced bank “sponsors” who had attended a half-day workshop on employee development.


The program paid off. New hires are now 50 percent less likely to quit within their first three months, which saves the company at least $1.35 million annually. Absenteeism among new employees is down 25 percent, for an annual savings of 306,000. And as new hires complete workshops, the improvement in sales and product referrals has led to a revenue jump of $3.7 million.
GLOBAL OUTLOOK
Novo Nordisk

Novo Nordisk, a Danish pharmaceutical company that specializes in the treatment of diabetes, operates in 68 countries and employs more than 18,000 people. Its “triple bottom line” approach, which tracks not only profits but also environmental and social impacts, has made it popular with socially conscious investors. Still, says Peter Moeller, vice president, business and organization, “when it comes to being an employer of choice, we are mostly ‘world’ famous in Denmark.”


The company is working hard to build its global markets, and its human resources strategy is viewed as a key to success. One approach is a “People Strategy,” aimed at improving five key areas: customer relations and competitive awareness; attraction and retention; development of people; building a winning culture; and equal opportunities. The same focus areas are being addressed in all of the company’s divisions, whether in Japan, Belgium, or the United States.


A 2002 handbook provides concrete goals, tools, and examples of success: How the company tripled its sales force in the United States. How Japanese employees shifted to a performance- based bonus system, instead of the country’s traditional bonuses-for-all approach. How the “Balanced Business Scorecard” measures performance against targets that affect all of top management’s compensation.

INNOVATION
SRA International

No one likes slashing benefits or shifting health-care costs to employees. SRA disliked the idea so much that it chose a different solution. In August 1999, the Fairfax, Virginia, provider of IT services opened an on-site medical clinic. Services include disease-management programs, blood-pressure screenings, and lunch-andlearn programs. Nurses—and the doctors who provide guidance—help employees manage complex chronic medical cases.


An SRA nurse visits first-time parents, providing instructions on newborn illnesses and other baby-care issues. This has led to a lower incidence of emergency- room and mental-health visits by new moms.


The nurses also help to resolve employee problems with medical and dental claims. The input allows employees to stay focused on work, and provides insight on claims issues to SRA. The Nurse Advocacy Program has helped control costs and has generated goodwill in the community. It also has served as a shot in the arm for the company’s recruiting and retention efforts.
MANAGING CHANGE
Designer Blinds

With profits in the tank and a turnover rate of more than 167 percent, Designer Blinds was in big trouble. The 170-employee company, located in Omaha, Nebraska, had to make dramatic changes or face a certain demise.


Top managers began by viewing recruiting and retention strategically and quantitatively. An entirely new approach to hiring was launched. One aspect was networking with representatives of various cultures, including the local Sudanese community, which had not been well represented in the workforce. Company supervisors and coworkers studied the culture and embraced it. The firm also identified Hispanics as the fastest-growing group in the area and made a sincere effort to welcome members of the community and to provide English as- a-second-language classes.


The diversification of the workplace has produced good results for several years, especially the last two. Employee efficiency and productivity is skyrocketing, quality is a benchmark for the industry, and turnover has plunged from stratospheric highs to 8 percent a year.
PARTNERSHIP
Ace Hardware Corporation

Ace Hardware Corporation faces a challenge that its competitors don’t. While Home Depot, Lowe’s, and Wal-Mart can require their stores to carry certain merchandise or follow a sales program set by corporate headquarters, Ace doesn’t always have that option. Based in Oak Brook, Illinois, it is one of the nation’s largest cooperatives, and its retailers make their own operational and financial decisions for their 5,100 stores. Ace’s field managers, who act as consultants to the retailers, can recommend changes, but compliance isn’t always mandatory. For Ace, dictates wouldn’t work. But collaboration would.


Working with Lake Forest Corporate Education, a strategic business unit of Lake Forest Graduate School of Management, Ace began in 1999 to train its field managers in the collaborative negotiating skills they would need to persuade retailers of the benefits of initiatives and programs. The retailers listened, and the partnership between them and Ace Hardware’s field managers is a demonstrable success. Ace has realized $8 million in cost savings, revenue earned, or increased productivity, all for direct and allocated costs of $312,545. That’s a $20 return for every dollar invested. And that’s how a successful partnership works.
QUALITY OF LIFE
Starbucks
As Starbucks continues to pour out profits grande from 4,798 company-operated and -licensed stores in North America and 1,443 internationally, it has become a corporate legend. Along with its spectacular growth in recent years, the Seattle coffee powerhouse also has earned a reputation for having one of the lowest turnover rates of any restaurant or fastfood company.

But in spite of all the perks— including a free pound of coffee per employee per week—keeping morale high and burnout low at any fast-food enterprise takes enormous human resources moxie. Much of its success is attributed to an almost unheardof policy of giving health benefits and modest stock options to full-time and part-time workers. Components of the total pay package include bonuses, savings (“Future Roast”), stock (“Bean Stock”) options, and benefits for all employees. The upscale java enterprise also continues to fine-tune its renowned 39.5-hours-per-employee-peryear training program.
SERVICE

As a new industry with selftaught, first-generation leaders, Electronic Arts, a $2 billion video and computer game company, faced this strategic imperative: how to develop two vital groups of leaders—”Suits” and “Creatives.” The Redwood City, California, firm was growing explosively, but didn’t have the leadership talent to capitalize on business opportunities.


Five years ago, human resources executives launched two initiatives. The Emerging Leaders curriculum for top executives is an extensive business- oriented program that also includes training in leadership skills and individualized development. The Creative Leaders program provides an environment designed to stretch thinking by offering opportunities for employees to meet regularly with internal and external partners. Participants might work with an MIT professor specializing in Shakespeare, for example, or with other media experts to learn about creative storytelling in a digital environment.


The business results have been impressive: 69 percent of the participants have been promoted from within, and the multi-year retention rate is 88 percent.

Workforce, March 2003, pp. 45-47 — Subscribe Now!

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Fast-Tracking Culture Change

 
Name: THE VANGUARD GROUP
Location: VALLEY FORGE, PENNSYLVANIA
Business: INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT COMPANY
Employees: 10,000

The Vanguard Group implemented Six Sigma two years ago to add rigor and discipline to its management style. Several years earlier, the company had seen rapid expansion, which resulted in some loss of accountability in the management team, says Rich Luzzi, principal of the Center for Excellence, Vanguard’s internal Six Sigma organization. “There was too much management by the seat of the pants,” he says. “We needed to add metrics and measurement to the process.”


    They decided to implement Six Sigma and created a custom approach, which they named “Vanguard Unmatchable Excellence.” At the heart of VUE are dashboards, computer-based tools that are used to collect and report data about vital customer requirements and business performance. All executives define dashboards for their core strategies and then broadcast them to the workstations of any workers whose performance affects that measurement, Luzzi says. The dashboards are constantly updated to show the results of the teams’ efforts. For example, the people who answer the phones can see the impact that their interactions with customers have on specific business drivers by monitoring their dashboards.


    In the beginning, Vanguard executives used dashboard metrics only at the management level, but by year two, they had disseminated them to the entire employee population in order to accelerate the culture-change process. “When people see the impact they have on the Six Sigma metrics, they know it’s not just management speak,” Luzzi says. “They understand the value of their performance, and that’s where it all comes together.”


    To help people understand the Six Sigma philosophy and how their efforts affect the dashboard measurements, Vanguard offers several levels of training, which is all conducted in-house by VUE masters (also known as master black belts). Employees–who are referred to as “crew members”–receive overview training that introduces them to VUE concepts and terminology. Once they have been chosen to participate on a VUE project, they receive team-member training. Training for VUE specialists (green belts) is given to anyone considered a leader, change agent, or influencer in the company. They learn how to identify and implement projects, build dashboards, and make use of VUE philosophies, Luzzi says. The training also teaches them how to communicate the message to their team members. This is critical to drive the VUE mentality into the leadership organization. Finally, those chosen to be VUE experts (black belts) receive the full four-week training program.


    At most other Six Sigma companies, black belts maintain their role for two or more years. VUE experts stay in the position for only 12 months. During that time they are expected to finish training, complete two projects, pass a certification exam, and then return to a leadership role in the company.


    By putting its brightest people through a rigorous fast track of Six Sigma training and experience, Vanguard is quickly filling its ranks with individuals who use Six Sigma’s measurement-based approach, and they are infusing the culture with the new management philosophy. “Our goal with Six Sigma is to change the way we manage,” Luzzi says. “We are creating better leaders through the use of Six Sigma.”


Workforce, May 2003, pp. 66-67 — Subscribe Now!