There is an interesting term I have heard over the years about people who do the actual direct store delivery job. It goes something like, “If you are smart enough to do the job you may be too smart to take it.” The implication is that to do a really good job you need to have a kind of personal discipline and commitment to success as well as skill with people and sales that are not often found in industries where there is such a physical component. I have had the pleasure of working with and meeting many superstars in this industry; they are truly one of a kind individuals and are very talented. There is a true disconnect between the incentives put in place for many of these talents and a kind of regimented distrust that is prevalent in the DSD industry.
This brings us to the topic du jour. Much of the incentive in the industry is sometimes based around a relative distrust of the workforce. This can be demotivating in many cases. One of the most interesting strategies I have seen is by taking the normal performance metrics and including the route people in a kind of daily planning. The route supervisor meets each route man at the end of every day with a pile of reports: sales, returns, missed stops, time reports etc. and having a daily meeting. You change this meeting from being a performance meeting to being a planning meeting to go over what went right and what went wrong. Out of that, you develop strategies to improve tomorrow. Then you pay the route people on performance improvements.
Posting any great ideas or trends on a weekly board creates a kind of buzz around improving the sales. The people on the road are often quite bright and often underutilized. This experience can be used for the good of the company as long as you just ask. Of course there are exceptions. By and large, the biggest improvements in your very particular world are sitting at your fingertips for the asking. Often the man on the street simply feels no one would listen if they suggested something. What great opportunities lie out there. Our mobile delivery customers that have done this are getting spectacular results. Just a thought: turn the punitive controls into positive affirmation and change the culture.
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