* Follow the Solution Wherever It Leads. Several years ago -- no one's quite sure when -- Granite Rock realized that many problems occurred after the product left its trucks. Contractors had ordered the wrong kind of aggregate for the job at hand. They hadn't put in the right expansion joints, and their concrete cracked. The customer's problem? Yes -- but also Granite Rock's, because customers tended to blame the supplier. So the company began offering educational seminars to its customers. Today division managers are evaluated partly by how many such seminars they sponsor. One recent session -- on matters ranging from the use of chemical additives to proper installation of expansion joints -- attracted more than 100 customers and cost about $6,000. Expensive? Not to Clark. "That's nothing!" he says, laughing. "I can blow $6,000 like that on a messed-up job. Concrete is very expensive to pull out and replace."
You might have predicted it: Granite Rock distributes evaluation cards at each seminar. Rate each speaker. Rate each topic. Tell us what you'd like to see next time. More information for the mill.
Get Everyone Involved
How many psychiatrists does it take to change a light bulb? Only one, runs the joke -- but the light bulb must want to change. And how many CEOs try to wrench their companies into the 1990s, introducing quality systems and teams and whatever, only to find that employees keep on doing things the way they always did? Union workers in particular are notorious for resisting changes in job descriptions and work expectations. Yet Granite Rock's union and white-collar employees alike willingly learn new jobs, take part in quality teams, and come up with ideas for improvement on their own. It's not because of any equity ownership or large-scale incentive-compensation plan -- hourly employees earn the wages and overtime spelled out in union contracts, and most managers are on straight salary. Rather, it's because working at Granite Rock provides everyone with three unusual benefits.
* Training. and More Training. "Tuesday Facts," the weekly newsletter that the company faxes to all locations, announced last fall's Graniterock University Training Schedule in its October 15, 1991 issue. Dave Franceschi and another instructor were offering four different courses in statistical process control. A customer was giving a seminar in plastering. The Frontline Leadership Series, taught by various senior managers, was continuing. Appended to that list was a schedule of industry training courses -- weeklong sessions given by the Portland Cement Association (PCA), for example, and the National Asphalt Pavement Association. Want to sign up? Go ahead. Your time will be on the company. If you have to travel, your expenses will be paid by the company. Last year Granite Rock sent 21 people, 5% of its work force, to the PCA basic concrete session in Illinois. This year another 21 people will go.
Then again, maybe you just want to take some courses at the local college. The company will pay for them, too. Or broaden your technical skills by attending an in-house seminar on mobile-equipment hydraulic systems. Call up Dave McAuley at the quarry.
Ray Morgan, who worked for 20 years as a union employee and is now the quarry's shipping and production supervisor, still seems a little incredulous at the training Woolpert has made available to workers of all ranks. "I've gone back to Georgia, to supervisory school training. I've gone to several -- probably a dozen -- seminars now, on different subjects, from safety to quality to whatever. All at the company's expense. I'll be going to Dale Carnegie classes for 15 to 17 weeks, company expense, after hours, in Santa Clara.
"I think Bruce wants us all to get a little smarter. We're allowed to learn anything we can."
Training obviously makes for smarter, more well-rounded employees. It provides another benefit, too: it undermines the us-against-them mentality characteristic of both employees and management in many union shops. White-collar and blue-collar workers attend the same sessions, hear the same ideas, live in the same lodgings when they travel. It's that much easier for them to see their problems as common.
* Opportunities. Rita Alves, the CFO, started her Granite Rock career as an accountant. Mike Marheineke, who runs the transportation division, started as weighmaster at the quarry. Nearly every manager at Granite Rock, even those who came from the outside, has put in stints in asphalt, concrete, transportation, or other divisions. Nor is this kind of cross-training and intracompany mobility limited to managers. Hourly employees are typically trained to fill in at other jobs. Inside candidates get preference in hiring (and are even allowed to try a job out for a day before they apply), so many move laterally or upward within the company.
The twin benefits -- training and opportunities for advancement -- are institutionalized in what may be Granite Rock's most novel contribution to human-resources management. Called the Individual Professional Development Plan (IPDP), the system replaces both conventional job descriptions and conventional performance reviews. Every year a worker sits down with his or her supervisor and maps out a series of goals -- for skill development, training, advancement, and on-the-job accomplishments. A concrete-plant operator's list might include, "Know how to develop and implement an improved maintenance plan for the plant; gain knowledge of basic concrete-sales techniques." The IPDP includes a how-I'll-get-there section ("attend a seminar on maintenance requirements and maintenance tracking; spend approximately eight hours per quarter working with sales manager to learn basic selling techniques"), along with target dates. Every quarter, employees review their progress toward the goals.
