www.viewpoint.net.nz - NZ Transport, Aviation, Logistics & Supply Chain Blog

Generation Y

OK I admit it; I have been more than a little bit sceptical of the Generation Y buzz that has been around for the last few years. I have openly wondered if it is all just an excuse for a lack of discipline and hard work.

To be honest I didn’t really understand the link between the baby boomers, Gen X (of which I am a member) and Gen Y. My view changed somewhat when I saw this graph from Bernard Salt at The Knowledge Gym.

click to picture to enlarge

It shows the net growth in the working aged population over a 100 year period. Bascially there is a decline in people joining the work force over the next 20 years as the Baby Boomers retire. Less people joining the work force and a growing economy simply don’t go together.

Bernard says that Gen Y’s are experiential, ethicists, uncommitted to career and consumerists. They have matured in prosperous times which means they have often received most of what they asked for.

Characteristics of Generation Y
   - Born 1976-1991 … now aged 16-31
   - Matured to adulthood in prosperous times
   - Many live at home with mum & dad
   - Very loyal to friends, to workmates, not to employers
   - Prefer ‘deals’ not contracts and ‘mentors’ not bosses
   - Will Inherit boomer wealth
   - Technology savvy; global thinking
   - They are the most educated generation to date.

So what does this mean to the Logistics industry in New Zealand?

Get used to immigrants.
Firstly we had better get used to immigrants filling the gaps. Most developed nations, except India, are going to have a labour shortage. A lot of our young talent will move off shore as huge Multinationals do recruitment drives down under. We will be able to attract people to NZ for lifestyle, but that means immigrants from countries where English is a second language.

I think that a lot of logistics and warehousing businesses understand this already, whereas transport companies seem a lot more reluctant to employ immigrants.

Get creative to attract Gen Y
Our industry will need to be a lot more creative about attracting Gen Y’s. They are not generally going to want to drive a truck for 60 hours a week. They will find pick/pack work dead boring. Most of all they will change jobs often and we may not been seen as edgey enough. The majority will head to Uni which will make it hard to attract them into a semi-skilled job.

We can no longer afford to just impose our current standards of employment on them. If we do they simply will not come.

There are a difficult few decades for the Gen X’s, like myself, to adapt and retain and lead the Gen Y’s. We need to take action now or we may not stand a chance.

People Matter

“Is this Mr Nicol”, asked the telesales person who interrupted my life shortly after I arrived home tonight. I answered “Yep”, which was followed by a very ungenuine “How are you?” I know it was ungenuine because I never actually got the chance to answer before she launched into her sales talk.

She talked for a full 90 secs and all the time I just stood there thinking about how she doesn’t give a toss about me, or for that fact, if I am interested in her product. She just wants to get her job done. Nothing wrong with that most people would say.

I thought afterwards about how easy it is for our staff to do the same thing. To answer a call, handle the call, take the order, track the delivery or resolve the complaint. But they can do it, we can do it, without showing that we actually care.

I am passionate about building a company that “Lives People Matter”, which means I want my team to continually remember that they are dealing with a real live person. A person who deserves honesty and authenticity and time.

We do this by encourageing our team to LISTEN first, CLARIFY by asking questions, EMPATHISE by putting themselves in the person shoes, then and only then to RESOLVE the issue.

It is so easy to think that we hear our clients’ problem and jump straight to resolve. The result is the person, the real living person, doesn’t leave the conversation feeling like they matter.

If they don't feel like they matter, we are just like the telesales person who interrupts our dinner.

Getting the best people

So you have a goal to build a strong employer brand. Great idea, but as you know that is easier said than done.

How does a medium sized company in the transport and logistics industry compete for great people against what can be seen as more sexy and edgy industries?

Well I am reading Jack Welch's book at the moment "Winning: The Answers". In the book Jack details the six critical factors for getting the best people.

1. Preferred employers demonstrate a real commitment to continuous learning.
2. Preferred employers are meritocracies. Pay and promotions are tightly linked performance, and rigorous appraisal systems consistently make people aware of where they stand.
3. Preferred employers not only allow people to take risks but also celebrate those who do. And they don't shoot those who try but fail.
4. Preferred employers understand that what is good for society is also good for business.
5. Preferred employers keep their hiring standards tight.  They make candidates work hard to join the ranks by meeting strict criteria that centre around intelligence and previous experience and by undergoing an arduous interview process.
6. Preferred companies are profitable and growing.

It's that easy! Well maybe? Interestingly enough though, this checklist could be applied to warehouse staff, truck drivers and senior managers. Have another look.

Oh, by the way he says it will take years, if not decades.

If you are interested you can listen to a podcast from Jack & Suzy on the same topic here.

Is customer facing technology worth it?

Freightways Group announced their six monthly result yesterday and had 11% growth, reaching $144.3 million in trading revenue. It would seem that the growth of their core express/couriers business is neutral at best, which is what a few of us suspected.

One of the comments in the NZ Herald article was "A key initiative had been the initial implementation of a data service providing customers with access to real time service information."  Only in the last 12 months have Freightways started to truly provide this technology. Express Couriers, who own CourierPost, have had Track & Trace since 1991.

Track & Trace was always going to be the key to CourierPost's success. It was to be their competitive advantage and reduce their costs to make them more profitable. For 15 years they held this advantage. 15 years is a long time for any competitor in any market to be behind in IT, let alone a time sensitive market. The interesting thing is it never really seemed to make a dent in Freightways.

An insiders view
So, as an ex-insider to both groups, here is I think the key. In the initial years CourierPost focused all of it's energy on building customer facing systems, track & trace, real time scanners etc. All the while they had really poor back end systems, couldn't drive profitability (and therefore ownership) to branch level, had bad stock systems and worst of all couldn't manage their customer inquiries well.

Freightways on the other hand, had very established back office systems, albeit very archaic. But the up side is they have always had profitability to branch level, great stock management, and manual but effective processes for customer inquiries.

Freightways were clearly the market leader 15 years ago and Express Couriers have grown to be the largest, but they never took out Freightways, rather they absorbed many of the smaller players.

So, was CourierPost's 15 years of technology and millions upon millions of dollars worth it?

My conclusion
At the time I was passionate about the advantage that scanners would bring to CourierPost. But given time to reflect I would take strong robust back office systems, any day, over a customer facing system.

Back office systems allow you to manage the business easily and free up people to focus on providing real human service to customers. It also gives you a better platform to build customer facing systems.

I want (& need) both. I now know back office is the most important!

Driver Check fails to stop disqualified driver!

"You employ a new driver who has declared that he has no demerit points, you have checked driver check and his license is valid. Everything thing checks out and you send him to Wellington for an overnighter. At the Ohakea weighbridge the driver is stopped and the CVIU check his license. They find he has 115 demerit points and immediately suspend his license. Your truck and load are at the other end of the country without a driver"

Under the current demerit points system a driver does not lose their license until the Police catch up with the driver and disqualify him from driving. For your business this means you could employ a driver that is about to lose their license while driving your truck!

As a recent article in the Truck and Driver magazine indicated the Driver Check service offer by LTNZ does alert employers when an employee's license has expired or suspended. It offers no help at all to find out if the drivers demerit points are high or even exceeding the limit. The Road Transport Forum are working with LTNZ to resolve this.

In the meantime you can have prospective employees call 0800 822 422 and check how many demerit points they have while they are in your office. One of my team did this recently and found the driver had 115 points. He obviously doesn't drive for us.

Don't think it wont happen to you.