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
http://www.unifirst.com
‘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.
Related articles by Zemanta
- Brilliant PR Move for 1-800-FLOWERS.COM – Lessons from “Undercover Boss” (pamil-visions.net)
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=f98a2c59-ceb1-41d7-a978-3708d6e4b474)
Why More CEOs Need to Clean Toilets
Lessons in leadership from “Undercover Boss.”
In the new reality show, “Undercover Boss,” executive leaders go “undercover” as new hires in entry-level positions, to better understand how their organization works.
The first episode featured Larry O’Donnell, President of Waste Management, Inc. cleaning porta-potties along with one of his employees. After each show the executives reveal their true identity and talk about what they’ve learned.
To some people this is a revolutionary concept, but I have to ask, “Why doesn’t every manager, executive or CEO take time to understand what their employees actually do at work?”
I’ve conducted numerous organizational assessments and have spoken to several thousand employees, during my last twenty years as a consultant.” My clients include; hotels and restaurants, high tech, facilities and waste management, airlines, transportation, beverage bottling and distributing, public works, and call centers.
The most common complaint and question I hear is, “Why doesn’t my manager/ director/ CEO, try to do my job?” followed by, “ if he or she tried to do my work, they would understand what I have to deal with everyday.”
This is a big “DUH!” The common mantra these days is, “engaged employees are productive employees.” Employees who think you have no idea or empathy for them are not going to be engaged.
Read the full story on Fast Company.
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=86945b27-c711-4aaf-952c-b2f7395d6fba)
Undercover Boss – The Biggest New Hit
The biggest new hit on television is a reality show that did not get a head start in the summer, that remained dormant for half the television season, that seemed to have little chance to appeal to younger viewers, and that had to face formidable competition not only from “Desperate Housewives” on ABC, but also from three straight weeks of the Winter Olympics on NBC.
But the evidence is irrefutable: “Undercover Boss” on CBS is — so far at least — the breakout hit of the year, with the largest audience, the strongest appeal to younger viewers and the best performance against the toughest competition.
And it’s on CBS, the network that usually steers the conversation away from the young-viewer ratings that the other networks emphasize. With “Undercover Boss,” CBS is bragging about those numbers. The first thing that Kelly Kahl, the network’s top program scheduler, mentions about the show is how well it has done in the “young demos.”
As Mr. Kahl put it: “I can’t remember an audience profile like this. It has over a 3 rating with men between 18 and 34. When have you seen that on CBS?”
So how did it happen? Read the story on NY Times
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=aebcc6dd-fe8c-481d-ba06-b114c04b94d6)
CEO of Pepperjam Parent Company on Undercover Boss
Michael Rubin, the Founder, Chairman, and CEO of affiliate network Pepperjam’s parent company, GSI Commerce, will star in this Sunday’s episode of the CBS reality series “Undercover Boss.”
The episode will be broadcast on CBS at 9:00 PM EST on Sunday, March 21, 2010.
Source: Pepperjam Network
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=628b5a0f-bbf5-48be-833d-ba29d19f498b)
‘Undercover Boss’ Spurs Waste Management New-Customer Inquiries
Waste Management Inc.’s president is learning that reality-television shows may be one man’s trash TV and another’s public-relations treasure.
Hits to the Houston-based company’s new-customer and career Web links surged after Lawrence O’Donnell, who is also chief operating officer, appeared on the CBS Corp. program “Undercover Boss” following the Feb. 7 Super Bowl.
“We got new business from customers who’ve said, ‘Wow, that’s the kind of company we want to do business with,’” O’Donnell said in an interview. “And you know, at first I said there’s no way I would do it.”
Waste Management saw a more-than-threefold jump in hits on its online “Become a Customer” Web link in the four days after the broadcast, compared with recent daily averages, Lynn Brown, vice president of corporate communications, said in an e-mail. Traffic to the company Web site’s Careers page almost doubled and inbound e-mails climbed 112 percent, she said.
Read the full story on Business Week.
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=cdee2bcd-fab9-48b9-8f0a-fdc066a44266)
CBS RENEWS UNDERCOVER BOSS CONTRACT
Network Orders Second Cycle of UNDERCOVER BOSS, This Season’s # 1 New Series, For 2010/11 Season
CBS has ordered a second cycle of the hit reality series, UNDERCOVER BOSS, for the 2010/11 broadcast season.
UNDERCOVER BOSS, which follows high-level chief executives as they slip anonymously into the rank and file of their companies, is the number one new series of the 2009-2010 season, averaging 18.74 million viewers, 8.0/17 in adults 25-54 and 7.1/17 in adults 18-49.
The series premiered following the Super Bowl to 38.7 million viewers, the largest audience for a new series following the Super Bowl. It also ranks as the biggest new series premiere since 1987 and the most-watched premiere episode of any reality series.
“We are thrilled with the overwhelming response to the series and how audiences seem to connect to it on several levels,” said Jennifer Bresnan, Senior Vice President, CBS Alternative Programming. “The wish fulfillment of seeing the top boss perform jobs of the rank and file is universal, and the employees’ stories discovered at each company are often relatable and inspirational.”
Each week, UNDERCOVER BOSS follows a different executive as they leave the comfort of their corner office for an undercover mission to examine the inner workings of their companies. While working alongside their employees, they see the effects their decisions have on others, where the problems lie within their organizations and get an up-close look at both the good and the bad while discovering the unsung heroes who make their companies run.
Stephen Lambert and Eli Holzman are executive producers for Studio Lambert, Ltd.
Source: CBS
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=59c8d6ea-3785-4a13-9de0-3862897e74cc)
Producer has plan to keep ‘Undercover Boss’ going
- Image by Getty Images via Daylife
A lot of people who work in or write about the television industry were, to put it mildly, surprised when CBS scheduled the premiere of “Undercover Boss” after the Super Bowl.
Well, it turns out that the folks at CBS knew what they were doing. “Undercover Boss” is the surprise hit of the season.
On Sunday, the fourth episode was the second-most-watched show of the night, trailing only the final night of the Winter Olympics. And the second half-hour of “Boss” actually beat the Olympics among the all-important 18-49 demographic.
The biggest question at this point is: How will the producers be able to keep this going? Now that “Undercover Boss” is a hit, how will they be able to keep up the pretense?
Now that tens of millions of people have seen the show, you’d think it would be far more difficult for the boss to show up, trailed by a camera crew, and not be instantly identifiable.
“That will be something that we have to address,” said executive producer Stephen Lambert. “We’ve got a number of ideas how we’re going to deal with that, which aren’t necessarily ideas that I think are good for me to articulate now.”
Read the full story on Desert News.
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=88aeaaa7-ef97-4c6d-bc56-06d5f40ea812)
VIDEO: WHITE CASTLE OWNER BECOMES AN ‘UNDERCOVER BOSS’
Dave Rife, the owner of White Castle, is the latest head honcho to go undercover in his own company on “Undercover Boss,” and ET has your sneak peak!
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=28e7ce9b-30f5-4bc5-9b73-1d8f96df9eb4)
‘Undercover Boss’ works at Hamilton White Castle
Dave Rife found himself behind the counter of a White Castle restaurant for a second time. This time cameras were following him.
Rife, the executive of White Castle restaurants, was commissioned by the CBS reality television show, “Undercover Boss” and worked at multiple White Castle restaurants for 10 days in the month of June 2009. He said he had once worked at White Castle as an employee about 10 years prior to the filming.
“When I started my career with White Castle, I started behind that counter,” Rife said. “A lot of technology has changed but the basic job itself is the same.”
“I learned that there’s some opportunities for our company to capitalize on,” Rife said.
“I would call it an emotional roller coaster,” Rife said. “We have long days. I worked all three shifts, met some remarkable people. We covered a lot of ground.”
Read the full story on Middletown Journal
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=51ebedef-cade-4846-aceb-df03cdf5d426)
