I understand that the upper echelon are trying to turn a sinking ship so to speak, but Univar will always be hypothetically sinking for a myriad of reasons unless they start making some real changes and not just to price:
1. Still hearing, "back in the ChemCentral days". It's still a Univar vs former ChemCentral employee's (to some). This needs to stop. It's been years, all of the new employees have no idea who or what ChemCentral is, nor do we care how many people you used to have in the office, took you to run it, etc.. Get on board with Salesforce, use MMQ, read/along with responding to your emails. It's called managing your time effectively.
2. Using the phrase, "This is how it's always been done" - Really? Thank goodness the Wright brothers, Mr. Ford, Thomas Edison...well you get the picture. Open your mind, be open to new ideas and not just open to them when other people are in the room or within ear shot. Embrace change, not just for the sake of change but to improve processes.
3. 'We really need to improve...... '- followed up with the response,, 'There is already a Six Sigma Project going for this'. Ahh excellent. Thank you for cutting me off, would you like to hear the rest of what I have to say or perhaps putting me in touch with the project leader? I may have something to contribute. Again, be open minded. I may do this work every day, I could be doing it completely different than someone on the east coast or mid-south. Project leaders need to pool at least 1 person from each region (preferably each district) from the job title who actually touches and/or processes what the leader is trying to improve upon. Good data has to be pulled, not just certain sections and then we have to force ALL locations to do it that way. This is when workarounds are created and then pretty soon people are so frustrated they go back to the old version anyway.
4. The awards, great idea but I have a question (obviously rhetorical). If we have black belt or PMP project leaders (regardless if those leaders are Univar employees or contractors), isn't their entire job function to find a way to better processes and save money? That would be like providing a driver an award for turning on his blinker to make a turn, giving an award to a CSR for entering an order properly or awarding someone in Payables for authorizing payment on time. It just does not make sense. Why are we giving them an award?
5. The strong arming has to stop from the top. Yep, the top 2-3ish have the reputation for hair trigger tempers, chair throwing, and 'it's my way or the highway' style of leadership. That type of leadership will only get you so far before the great people leave and you are left with a company that is barely limping along. Inspire loyalty, don't try to drive it out of people by intimidation.
6. One Univar, I do believe this can happen. I WANT it to happen. But in order for it to happen YOU (upper echelon) have to hold each branch (especially operations) to task. Univar HAS to operate like each branch is ISO, each branch NEEDS to be HELD ACCOUNTABLE for not conforming to these standards. I was on a call where someone in management actually said, "I put the quality training 3rd because it wasn't as important". In order for us to be ONE UNIVAR we have to OPERATE as One Univar. Why have a quality standard if we don't follow it? Why am I even training on CASES if quality is 3rd? Our quality is laughable. We need more QC's, and we sure as heck either need more Regional Quality Managers or more point people to get answers. I'm still waiting after 6 months and so is the customer. Have I followed up you ask? Yes I have many times, by phone and email. Bottom line, we need to back up this portion of our 'value added service'.
7. Attention Board, CEO, Presidents and VP's. Do you really want to know what's broken with Univar? Assemble a panel from all over this company, each and every district. Do NOT let the local management choose the employees as they will send the yes men and women, people that will never rock the boat and who will tell you what you want to hear. I really don't want to hear, 'But we sent out the survey and only 15% responded'. That's because all of the surveys were crap and it seems this one was too. Do you want real results? Real thoughts? Real feelings? Show the employees of Univar that you mean business. Select, 3-6 employees from each district with different job descriptions. Fly them somewhere......maybe over two days, doing it the old fashioned way, poll them using paper. It's all blind......test them....
