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

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

Back to top

RELATED LINKS
http://www.unifirst.com

In the first episode Larry O’Donnell, the CEO of Waste Management, poses as “Randy Lawrence,” a construction worker supposedly being filmed for a story about down-on-their-luck Americans in search of entry-level employment. O’Donnell, who earns nearly $3 million a year according to company filings, experiences the backbreaking work of the company’s frontline employees. He’s even fired during his seven-day stint after failing to fill a trash bag.

During his undercover week O’Donnell sees an employee stretched impossibly thin by performing eight different jobs and also finds that he can’t keep up sorting cardboard and recyclables. “I’m going to approach the whole way I do my job differently,” he says on the show. “I don’t want to be doing things that are going to cause disruption. The things I’ve learned could change the way we do business forever … and make things better for our frontline employees.”

His experience shows why leaders who focus solely on the balance sheet can’t succeed. If executives look only at numbers, they can’t make the most of honest feedback, recognize the limits of their knowledge or avoid repeating mistakes. When leaders see their shortcomings as a chance to learn and grow, they gain the ability–and credibility–to help others do the same.

…

It will take a while to see if any of the leaders featured onUndercover Boss fulfill the promises they’ve made on the show, but that the program is on at all illustrates that CEOs are beginning to understand that they’ve got to change if they’re going to truly succeed in a postrecession world.

Read the full story on Forbes

1. Ideas for efficiency come from the floor, not the HQ, if you want to know how to make things work better, ask the employees – especially those that are new(er) not “so-called” experts.
2. Attitude, and aptitude, needs to be the key qualities you look for in employees. A good attitude can be contagious, but so can a bad one. Hire wisely.
3. Don’t get so focused on growth that you lose track of cultivating what allowed you to grow in the first place.
4. Hold employee’s to a high standard, be understanding, but also realize when they are simply compromising company values. It takes just one bad employee to make a great company look not as good.
5. Life is so much bigger than business. Don’t think that development has to be professional only, improving yourself at a personal level is just as beneficial. Always be looking at those around you to see what you can learn from them that can help you be a better person?
6. Rewards and recognition don’t always have to be direct, you can support an employee by supporting something they feel is important. Get creative and acknowledge them individually. Sure it may be more work but it will also gain you a lot more loyalty. People notice when you care about things that are important to them.

At Hooters the CEO saw a manager abuse the serving staff, and at White Castle, the CEO observed the lack of teamwork that existed at many of the restaurants. Additionally, White Castle CEO David Rite saw how policies and procedures imposed by his top staff just did not work in practice.

The lesson is that for the CEO, your perception of the business is vastly different from that of your employees. Further, the problems you think staff is having are a whole lot different than their actual problems. In one case, a manager at Hooters thought he was doing a great job because he was making his sales numbers, but his staff despised him and morale was in decline.

It is amazing to me to see entrepreneurs who conduct their regular visits to various parts of their operation, see everything looking great and staff appearing so happy, then leave thinking everything is going well. However, management knew the owner was going to visit, so of course the place was cleaned up and everyone was on their best behavior.

“It resembled a one-hour commercial,” the chief executive said.
The two companies are remarkably dissimilar, he continued. At the end of the show, several employees were given opportunities within the company — in the marketing department or ownership of a new store — that they didn’t think were available.
“Our employees are taught about the opportunities on their very first day with the company,” Brown said. “We promote our operations management staff from within. The positions with the most responsibility are occupied by men and women who started with the company working in stores, including me.”

Read more: on NewSok.com

Why would the head of the uber-successful White Castle burger chain risk public humiliation by going on the hit CBS TV show Undercover Boss, and possibly bungling even the simplest tasks?

“I wanted to get an honest look at what happens on the front lines,” says Dave Rife, the oldest member of the fourth generation of the family that originated White Castle, the world’s first fast-food hamburger chain, started by Rife’s great grandfather back in 1921.

Among the things Rife learned? That the individual restaurants could be managed better — there were incidents where too many employees had nothing to do and just stood around idly. He learned that even the simplest tasks, like taking a drive-through order, can be difficult.

But most important, he learned that many Americans truly care about their employers and are happy and dedicated to their jobs. They told him some very poignant stories about their lives when he was undercover. One woman who had been with White Castle more than 20 years confessed that she was concerned about her weight and health, and said it was the happiest day of her life, when, after the reveal, Rife set up a healthy living program for her. Another employee who was interested in food science had the initiative to concoct a burger sauce and let undercover Rife sample it. His resourcefulness was later rewarded with a scholarship. And a very engaging and supportive manager was given financial support for the special needs of his beloved son. Viewers find it almost impossible to watch this show with dry eyes.

Read the full story on AOL.