CBS to Air Mack Trucks Episode of Undercover Boss
CBS announced that the episode of Undercover Boss featuring Mack Trucks, Inc. and its President & CEO, Denny Slagle, will be broadcast Sunday, Feb. 20 (9:00-10:00 PM ET/PT).
In production of the episode, Slagle worked side-by-side with employees at the Macungie, PA, plant that assembles every Mack truck sold in North America; the Hagerstown, MD, plant that produces every Mack engine sold in North America; and the Baltimore, MD, distribution center that provides parts to Mack dealers and customers.
“I came away from this experience with a deeper understanding of the challenges faced by our front-line employees,” Slagle said. “Mack people live up to the brand’s reputation – they’re tough, genuine, dedicated, and reliable. The future truly is bright for this 111-year-old American icon.”
Source: for construction pros
UniFirst CEO Puts ‘Undercover Boss’ Lessons into Practice
WILMINGTON, Mass., Feb. 1, 2011 /PRNewswire/ — CEO Ronald Croatti of UniFirst (NYSE: UNF), a leading provider of uniformsand related business services throughout North America, was recently featured on the hit CBS reality TV series, Undercover Boss, and has wasted no time implementing corporate policy and procedure changes as a result.
Going “undercover,” Croatti donned a 1960′s era retro look to work in disguise alongside his employees in some of the company’s receiving, washing, processing, sewing, and garment personalization operations. During the process, he gained valuable insights which have already led to important changes at the billion dollar company.
For example, Mr. Croatti recently mandated a new company-wide program dubbed “EARS,” which stands for Executives Assessing Real Situations. In the spirit of the Undercover Boss experience, this “continuous improvement” initiative requires all operational Vice Presidents to roll up their sleeves (or “put on the greens” as Mr. Croatti puts it) and perform various floor level jobs they are ultimately responsible for overseeing.
“It became clear to me during our ‘Undercover Boss’ experience that too often we establish rules, protocols, and training programs by simply ‘observing’ various jobs rather than actually ‘doing’ them,” Croatti said. “We need to become more informed by ‘doing’ the tasks prior to developing or refining job requirements, policies, and new service offerings. That’s the purpose ofEARS.”
As an illustration of how direct experience brings valuable insights, Croatti pointed to his “undercover” job of receiving full laundry bags, emptying them, and sorting through soiled wiping towels. “The job specifications for sorting towels included the use of a sorting table developed for 25-pound bags of product. In practice, the bags actually weigh 75 to 125 pounds or more, and the contents cannot fit on the table. That’s a significant difference that impacts how the sorting job can and should be done. This particular set of tasks needs to be modified to make processing more efficient and to better safeguard our employee-Team Partners doing the job.” To that end the CEO has asked his engineering department to work directly with floor level workers doing these tasks, including those featured on the Undercover Boss episode, to reevaluate and redesign the process, as well as other production processes. “From now on,” he says, “this will be a routine part of all our operational assessments.”
Another instance of “hands on” learning occurred in the pressing department, where Mr. Croatti experienced great difficulty trying to button the collars on damp cotton shirts prior to pressing them. “We press all of our shirts at no additional charge because we feel that’s important for our customers’ professional image,” he explained. “I’ve asked for a test of snaps to replace the top buttons on some of our 100% cotton shirts to make the pressing job easier. Snapping is much faster than buttoning when it comes to wet garments and such a change should speed up the pressing line considerably. Ultimately that’s good for our production employees and good for our customers.” UniFirst’s EARS initiative will be looking at all production jobs in a similar manner hoping to better ensure continuous improvement in the quality of all its textile products and customer services.
UniFirst maintains employee communication and suggestion programs on both the local and corporate levels, and theUndercover Boss experience shed additional light in these areas as well. “I discovered instances where our Team Partners had great ideas for improvements, but the ideas were not reaching the people who could drive change. They were not moving beyond the supervisor level, to line management, and up to corporate, where they could be acted upon.” Croatti has since directed the UniFirst Human Resources department to revisit and revamp the company’s programs that are geared toward maintaining and facilitating direct, two-way communications with all its 10,000 employee Team Partners.
On a related note, while filming the Undercover Boss episode, Croatti was pleased to see that his company’s prized “family culture” was firmly rooted throughout his many facilities. At one recently acquired laundry operation, however, he learned that important information concerning employee benefits had not been effectively communicated to some employees. In response, he assigned a UniFirst “CARE” team (Conversations, Answers, Respect, Education), which is also part of the corporate Human Resources department, to visit that location, meet with all levels of staff, and determine how to best integrate these and other important corporate communications going forward. “We dispatch the CARE team whenever and wherever necessary to help our family culture thrive at all our locations,” Mr. Croatti said. Under this program, employees get to speak openly with CARE team members, one-on-one, and all discussions are kept confidential to allow UniFirst to more quickly determine the best courses of action for change.
Croatti recommends that all CEOs do whatever they can to meet and work alongside their employees in non-threatening, real work environments and to be receptive to their suggestions for improvement. “It doesn’t necessarily require going ‘undercover,’” this ‘boss’ says, “just use your ‘EARS.’”
UniFirst is a North American leader in the supply and servicing of uniforms, workwear, and protective clothing, currently outfitting more than 1.5 million workers each business day and helping to enhance the professional image of more than 225,000 businesses throughout the U.S. and Canada. The Company offers managed uniform and apparel service programs with rent, lease, and purchase options. As part of its image- and brand-enhancing services for businesses, UniFirst also offers Facility Service programs including floor mats, mops, and restroom products such as hand soaps, paper towels, and sanitary tissues. For more information, contact UniFirst at 800-455-7654 or visit http://www.unifirst.com.
SOURCE UniFirst Corporation
RELATED LINKS
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How Will ‘Undercover Boss’ Stay Undercover?
Will CBS be able to keep “Undercover Boss” undercover next season?
CBS entertainment president Nina Tassler told TheWrap the crew has some new tricks up its sleeve — but she won’t spill the beans until taping is completed.
“I’m not going to give away any secrets,” she told The Wrap.
At first she said the average employee in the field is too busy to be looking over their shoulder to see if the chief executive of the company has infiltrated their ranks. And then she said even if a camera is following a new employee, “If you hear hoof beats, you don’t necessarily see the horse.”
Then adding to the intrigue, she said, “The show has a very smart production team. I don’t think the employees will realize.”
When asked point blank if that meant hidden cameras, she paused and said, “I don’t want to give any secrets away, but it will be smartly done.”
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1 800 Flowers – Undercover Boss Draws Wrong Conclusions
The Productivity Goal
Chris McCann mentions that he wants to increase productivity in the plant from ten million pounds to 16 – 20 million pounds. Goals are set by management and the machines speed up. Contact centers are managed in much the same way by management coming up with targets for the number of calls taken in a day.
The whole idea of a prescription of how many calls a contact center should take, the allotted AHT per call, and the service level given are rooted in how contact centers can reduce costs. This prescription seems logical enough and most contact centers subscribe to this approach. The problem is that focusing on costs always increases costs.
This isn’t a matter of making workers part of setting the productivity goal as Chris McCann concludes. This is a matter of understanding targets drive dysfunctional behavior.
Incentives Will Make Things Worse
Chris McCann concludes not only that the problem is that of workers being involved in setting goals, but decides incentives will make employees happier and more productive. None of these things are true.
Working together on understanding customer purpose and demand and getting rid of systemic failure demand should be the appropriate response. New measures emerge that are associated with what customers want from service as these drive the lagging financial and productivity measures up.
Read the full story on Customer Management IQ
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‘Undercover Boss’ tribute race part of Arlington Park opening
Since becoming a jockey valet in 1988, Kenny Rice has spent a lot of time in the Arlington Park winner’s circle.
His job has him there often to help collect the riders’ equipment when they dismount their horses after each race.
But when Arlington Park opens its doors to start its 2010 meet today, Rice will be in the winner’s circle for a very special moment.
Thanks to an episode of the CBS television series “Undercover Boss,” there will be a race run today in honor of Rice’s daughter Meghan Samantha, who was born with a heart defect and died in March 2009 at the age of 20.
While going undercover to work with Rice on his job at Arlington Park last summer, Churchill Downs Chief Operating Officer Bill Carstanjen bonded with the valet’s story about his daughter during the taping of the show.
Carstanjen noticed the picture of Rice’s daughter and then realized it was in memoriam.
Read the full story on Daily Herald
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‘Undercover’ Boosts Brands?
YouGov’s BrandIndex examined three establishments featured on the hit program to learn if the exposure persuaded consumers that these were places they’d consider working for.
• 7-Eleven took a decent ride upward and has actually settled above where it was before the show aired.
• White Castle experienced a substantial leap over a three-week period, which has since tumbled close to pre-show levels.
• Hooters enjoyed a mild bump, only to settle back to its previous level.
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Undercover Boss Looks to Wall Street Firms
Undercover Boss, CBS’ unexpected reality hit, is heading to Wall Street, according to the Wall Street Journal. The show has reportedly begun calling financial firms hoping to find a senior executive willing to appear on the show, in which CEOs go “undercover” to see what it’s like to be an low-level employee at their firms.
Source: NY Magazine
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TV Ratings: Golf, ‘Undercover Boss’ give CBS a Sunday win
As so often happens, CBS coverage of a popular sporting event carried over into primetime through much of the country and both bumped and boosted the network’s entire primetime lineup. In this case, it was ending of the Masters, which pushed 15 minutes into primetime and added luster to what would have already been a solid Sunday win for the network.
In the 9 p.m. hour, CBS’ “Undercover Boss” (and a bit of “The Amazing Race” for much of the country) did an 8.3/13 and a 4.0 demo rating. The first hour of ABC’s two-hour “Brothers & Sisters” had a 5.8/9 for second. NBC’s “Celebrity Apprentice” finished third, beating the 3.5/6 for FOX’s “Family Guy” and “American Dad,” which were second for the hour in the demo with a 2.9 rating.
Source: HitFix
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‘Undercover Boss’ season finale recap: 1-800-Flowers wilts our sympathy
The season finale of Undercover Boss told us the thorny story of 1-800-Flowers. The show pumped up a rivalry between the two brothers who head up the company, Jim and Chris McCann. Jim (the CEO) asked Chris (the company president) to go undercover.
When we arrived at the show’s standard doling-out-the-rewards final segments, Undercover Boss seemed to address some of the criticisms that have aimed at the series. Instead of just giving Nciole, the employee lucky enough to come into contact with the (co-)boss, a raise, Chris announced an “incentive system” to be implemented for people throughout the company who exceed their goals.
Read the full recap on EW.
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- Brilliant PR Move for 1-800-FLOWERS.COM – Lessons from “Undercover Boss” (pamil-visions.net)
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Marist alumnus is ‘Undercover Boss’ on season finale
Chris McCann, president and CEO of 1-800-flowers.com and a 1983 graduate of Marist College, goes undercover during the season finale of the CBS television show “Undercover Boss” on Sunday.
McCann’s turn on the show features an unexpected twist when his true identity is discovered by one of his employees.
“I am so grateful for CBS providing me with this exceptional opportunity,” McCann said in a prepared statement. “The opportunity to experience our company at all levels makes me a stronger leader and enables 1-800-flowers.com to continue to be the best in the business. Also, the show reaffirmed my appreciation for all our employees and their hard work — they are invaluable to us in our mission to help deliver smiles every day.”
Read the full story on Poughkeepsie Journal
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