Employee Retention of FedEx : FedEx Corporation (NYSE: FDX), originally known as FDX Corporation, is a logistics services company, based in the United States with headquarters in Memphis, Tennessee.[1] The name "FedEx" is a syllabic abbreviation of the name of the company's original air division, Federal Express, which was used from 1973 until 2000.
FedEx Corporation is a Delaware corporation, incorporated October 2, 1997.[2] FDX Corporation was founded in January 1998 with the acquisition of Caliber System Inc. by Federal Express. With the purchase of Caliber, FedEx started offering other services besides express shipping. Caliber subsidiaries included RPS, a small-package ground service; Roberts Express, an expedited shipping provider; Viking Freight, a regional, less than truckload freight carrier serving the Western United States; Caribbean Transportation Services, a provider of airfreight forwarding between the United States and the Caribbean; and Caliber Logistics and Caliber Technology, providers of logistics and technology solutions. FDX Corporation was founded to oversee all of the operations of those companies and its original air division, Federal Express.[3]
In January 2000, FDX Corporation changed its name to FedEx Corporation and re-branded all of its subsidiaries. Federal Express became FedEx Express, RPS became FedEx Ground, Roberts Express became FedEx Custom Critical, and Caliber Logistics and Caliber Technology were combined to make up FedEx Global Logistics. A new subsidiary called FedEx Corporate Services was formed to centralize the sales, marketing, customer service for all of the subsidiaries. In February 2000, FedEx acquired Tower Group International, an international logistics company. FedEx also acquired WorldTariff, a customs duty and tax information company, TowerGroup and WorldTariff were re-branded to form FedEx Trade Networks.
To say that employee retention is big business at the moment would be something of an understatement. The war for talent and the shift it is creating for recruiters and jobseekers alike is everywhere you look, and it’s sadly no longer commonplace to hear of an employee that has stayed with the same organization for more than, say, 20 years. But then, FedEx isn’t your average employer, and Judith Edge isn’t your average employee.
FedEx, which already ranks in Fortune’s 100 Best Places to Work is currently 68 th on the Fortune 500 and was also, in 1983, the first US company to reach revenues of $1 billion within 10 years of start-up without a merger or acquisition. It was in that same year that Edge joined the firm. At that time, FedEx was just a US express company, but today the firm operates in 222 countries and territories across the globe. And Edge, who began her FedEx career as a call center representative is today Corporate Vice President of Human Resources. “Back in ’83 you didn’t have the technology that you have today,” she says, remembering how the organization looked when she started out there. ‘When I think back, it doesn’t seem that long ago, but when I look at how much has changed, it feels like an eternity.”
What used to be the case was that HR tended to focus on administrative tasks, but today, that’s totally different. The focus now is much more technical and analytical. Edge realizes that it is the role of HR today to be more collaborative and more proactive in its processes. “We live in a very litigious society, we have to protect the company and look out for our employees,” she says. “The way we do that is by working closely with our legal, operations and finance teams, that we’re analyzing data, that we’re noticing trends and are identifying risks and opportunities for the company and taking action to address those items.”
HR has become much more of a strategic partner to the business than it perhaps was in the past. It can be a driver of profits, and is something that really sets the tone for the wider organization. “HR today has the capabilities to be that strategic partner whether it’s in recruiting, talent development, performance management, employee relations or compensation,” adds Edge, “all of those functional areas have the opportunity to really help the business achieve strategic objectives.”
As the company has grown over the last two decades, so that growth has been mirrored by Edge’s steady rise through the ranks. “The experience has been great,” she says about her time at the firm. “I started here while I was finishing up my undergraduate degree and used the FedEx tuition assistance programs to help with that. And, since FedEx has a promote from within philosophy, I was able to move around the company and advance my career. Then, later on in life the company paid for my MBA.” Edge goes on to state that, “at one point or other”, she has been accountable for almost all of the functional areas of HR – from designing sales incentive plans to establishing the infrastructure for a new company, to overhauling existing programs and processes that drive a change in culture and the change management that comes with that. It is in her current role that she not only reports directly to the chairman and CEO, Frederick W. Smith, but is also part of the firm’s strategic management committee. “We focus on the strategic initiatives of the company,” she explains. “We have a corporate strategy of compete collectively, operate independently, and manage collaboratively.”
Edge, who herself has clearly reaped the benefits of the company’s attitude toward developing business leaders, says that this is something employees across the company take advantage of – with Smith in particular being highly supportive of the company’s emphasis on leadership development. Edge explains that every manager is required to complete a leadership principles and diversity course. “And we have some very unique programs,” she goes on, detailing the ‘Purple Pipeline’ as one major example. For the first six months of this program, managers who aspire to the next level of leadership are immersed in different leadership environments. During the next six months participants swap jobs to put their new leadership skills to the test. She pinpoints another program “Leading from Every Chair” that was developed with the Memphis Symphony Orchestra to help participants realize they are part of a bigger team. “They each played a crucial role,” remembers Edge, “but unless they all came together as a team, the music they produced wasn’t very good.”
At FedEx, two-way communication between the management and the employees was encouraged. The employees were allowed to freely express their opinions about management's policies.
The company also devised mechanism to address and resolve employee grievances, apart from employing a formal communication system to inform employees about the major events taking place in the company. The employee communication programs implemented by FedEx included the SFA program, Guaranteed Fair Treatment Procedure (GFTP) and Open Door Policy (ODP).
Employee retention was a significant aspect of FedEx's HR policy. Commenting on the significance of retaining the employees, McMahan said, "In our competitive marketplace, employee loyalty tends to be low. If employees don't like their jobs, they simply walk across the street and find a new one. It's important to keep your people happy and to create an environment where they want to stay."...
The Benefits Reaped
Over the years, FedEx developed several innovative HR programs that served as a benchmark for many organizations, particularly in the service industry. These programs not only yielded financial benefits for FedEx (through improved employee productivity levels), they also enhanced the reputation of the company as an employee-friendly, service-oriented organization. FedEx's employee-friendly policies resulted in very low turnover rate. In 2000, the turnover rate was estimated to be below 6%, while the industry average was 20%
J. Michael Cueria wanted a part-time job to work his way through the University of Memphis 14 years ago when he stumbled on Federal Express's "handler" position, where he toiled from 11 P.M. to 4 A.M. unloading packages from planes. Cueria expected the job to be grinding and exhausting, which it was, but he was surprised to also find it enjoyable and satisfying. "Management went out of its way to make us feel appreciated, to show us how our little tasks were adding up to the company's goals," Cueria says. By the time he graduated with an electrical engineering degree three years later - his final semester paid for by FedEx, no strings attached, after his grant money ran out - he had decided that any company that treated its grunt workers so well would be a wonderful place to launch his professional career.
Cueria has since become one of the legion of "purple-blooded" employees at the $13 billion company, who now wouldn't think of going elsewhere. FedEx is an example of how even a behemoth with 145,000 employees can keep them from feeling like little more than one overnight letter on a massive conveyer belt, especially important in Cueria's case now that he works on its intranet site and is regularly wooed by outsiders.
How does the company keep its full-timer turnover rate to a minuscule 3 percent, especially given all the manual laborers it employs? Cueria points to Federal Express's famous employee-focused philosophies, including its no-layoff orientation and its "People-Service-Profit" objective, which focuses on satisfying employees so they'll provide the good service that helps the company prosper. The firm's ability to listen to employees also plays a major role. A "Guaranteed Fair Treatment" policy, for example, offers employees an appeals process for grievances, all the way to the "Supreme Court of FedEx," staffed by senior executives - and often Chairman Fred Smith.
Formal recognition programs are also a way of life at FedEx. Cueria has received 20 "Bravo Zulu" awards - for effort beyond one's job description - which includes both management appreciation and gift certificates or theater tickets. He's also gotten two "Five Star Awards" worth hundreds of dollars each for his major accomplishment in creating the company's intranet.
FedEx Express (NYSE:FDX) was awarded the Institute for Corporate Productivity (i4cp) 2010 Productivity Pioneer Award today during a presentation at i4cp's 38th Annual Member Conference. This award is presented annually to an i4cp member company that has demonstrated unique and successful programs to increase workforce productivity within their organization. Dennis Reber, Manager of Organization Effectiveness Solutions at FedEx Express, received the award.
"FedEx Express is extremely proud to receive i4cp's Productivity Pioneer Award," said Reber. "Having seen tremendous results from our various employee initiatives, it's great to be honored by an organization such as the Institute for Corporate Productivity for our accomplishments and focus on high performance."
The Employee Loyalty Index (ELI) at FedEx Express complements i4cp's core focus of leveraging human capital as a driver for increased market performance. The ELI is a tool that gauges multiple indicators of employee loyalty - and other critical factors that drive this commitment - on an ongoing basis. The information is then used to develop proactive processes and forward-thinking initiatives. The index is not designed to simply measure loyalty for loyalties sake, but to act on the premise that loyal employees help to build customer loyalty, and, in turn, greater profits.
"I'm thrilled to present this year's award to FedEx Express, a longtime member of i4cp," said Kevin Oakes, CEO of i4cp, the world's largest vendor-free network of corporations focused on building and sustaining a highly productive, high-performance organization. "The Employee Loyalty Index is an extremely innovative and successful program that highlights all of the great work Dennis and his team are doing at FedEx Express."
The ELI has proven to be an effective tool in measuring employee loyalty, and the ongoing program aims to build deeper and more productive customer relationships, to encourage employee retention, to reduce customer churn and to increase financial returns.
The program is one of several reasons why FedEx Express was selected to receive i4cp's Productivity Pioneer Award. Its innovative use of human capital to drive business results embraces the concept of high-performance organizations.
FedEx Corporation is a Delaware corporation, incorporated October 2, 1997.[2] FDX Corporation was founded in January 1998 with the acquisition of Caliber System Inc. by Federal Express. With the purchase of Caliber, FedEx started offering other services besides express shipping. Caliber subsidiaries included RPS, a small-package ground service; Roberts Express, an expedited shipping provider; Viking Freight, a regional, less than truckload freight carrier serving the Western United States; Caribbean Transportation Services, a provider of airfreight forwarding between the United States and the Caribbean; and Caliber Logistics and Caliber Technology, providers of logistics and technology solutions. FDX Corporation was founded to oversee all of the operations of those companies and its original air division, Federal Express.[3]
In January 2000, FDX Corporation changed its name to FedEx Corporation and re-branded all of its subsidiaries. Federal Express became FedEx Express, RPS became FedEx Ground, Roberts Express became FedEx Custom Critical, and Caliber Logistics and Caliber Technology were combined to make up FedEx Global Logistics. A new subsidiary called FedEx Corporate Services was formed to centralize the sales, marketing, customer service for all of the subsidiaries. In February 2000, FedEx acquired Tower Group International, an international logistics company. FedEx also acquired WorldTariff, a customs duty and tax information company, TowerGroup and WorldTariff were re-branded to form FedEx Trade Networks.
To say that employee retention is big business at the moment would be something of an understatement. The war for talent and the shift it is creating for recruiters and jobseekers alike is everywhere you look, and it’s sadly no longer commonplace to hear of an employee that has stayed with the same organization for more than, say, 20 years. But then, FedEx isn’t your average employer, and Judith Edge isn’t your average employee.
FedEx, which already ranks in Fortune’s 100 Best Places to Work is currently 68 th on the Fortune 500 and was also, in 1983, the first US company to reach revenues of $1 billion within 10 years of start-up without a merger or acquisition. It was in that same year that Edge joined the firm. At that time, FedEx was just a US express company, but today the firm operates in 222 countries and territories across the globe. And Edge, who began her FedEx career as a call center representative is today Corporate Vice President of Human Resources. “Back in ’83 you didn’t have the technology that you have today,” she says, remembering how the organization looked when she started out there. ‘When I think back, it doesn’t seem that long ago, but when I look at how much has changed, it feels like an eternity.”
What used to be the case was that HR tended to focus on administrative tasks, but today, that’s totally different. The focus now is much more technical and analytical. Edge realizes that it is the role of HR today to be more collaborative and more proactive in its processes. “We live in a very litigious society, we have to protect the company and look out for our employees,” she says. “The way we do that is by working closely with our legal, operations and finance teams, that we’re analyzing data, that we’re noticing trends and are identifying risks and opportunities for the company and taking action to address those items.”
HR has become much more of a strategic partner to the business than it perhaps was in the past. It can be a driver of profits, and is something that really sets the tone for the wider organization. “HR today has the capabilities to be that strategic partner whether it’s in recruiting, talent development, performance management, employee relations or compensation,” adds Edge, “all of those functional areas have the opportunity to really help the business achieve strategic objectives.”
As the company has grown over the last two decades, so that growth has been mirrored by Edge’s steady rise through the ranks. “The experience has been great,” she says about her time at the firm. “I started here while I was finishing up my undergraduate degree and used the FedEx tuition assistance programs to help with that. And, since FedEx has a promote from within philosophy, I was able to move around the company and advance my career. Then, later on in life the company paid for my MBA.” Edge goes on to state that, “at one point or other”, she has been accountable for almost all of the functional areas of HR – from designing sales incentive plans to establishing the infrastructure for a new company, to overhauling existing programs and processes that drive a change in culture and the change management that comes with that. It is in her current role that she not only reports directly to the chairman and CEO, Frederick W. Smith, but is also part of the firm’s strategic management committee. “We focus on the strategic initiatives of the company,” she explains. “We have a corporate strategy of compete collectively, operate independently, and manage collaboratively.”
Edge, who herself has clearly reaped the benefits of the company’s attitude toward developing business leaders, says that this is something employees across the company take advantage of – with Smith in particular being highly supportive of the company’s emphasis on leadership development. Edge explains that every manager is required to complete a leadership principles and diversity course. “And we have some very unique programs,” she goes on, detailing the ‘Purple Pipeline’ as one major example. For the first six months of this program, managers who aspire to the next level of leadership are immersed in different leadership environments. During the next six months participants swap jobs to put their new leadership skills to the test. She pinpoints another program “Leading from Every Chair” that was developed with the Memphis Symphony Orchestra to help participants realize they are part of a bigger team. “They each played a crucial role,” remembers Edge, “but unless they all came together as a team, the music they produced wasn’t very good.”
At FedEx, two-way communication between the management and the employees was encouraged. The employees were allowed to freely express their opinions about management's policies.
The company also devised mechanism to address and resolve employee grievances, apart from employing a formal communication system to inform employees about the major events taking place in the company. The employee communication programs implemented by FedEx included the SFA program, Guaranteed Fair Treatment Procedure (GFTP) and Open Door Policy (ODP).
Employee retention was a significant aspect of FedEx's HR policy. Commenting on the significance of retaining the employees, McMahan said, "In our competitive marketplace, employee loyalty tends to be low. If employees don't like their jobs, they simply walk across the street and find a new one. It's important to keep your people happy and to create an environment where they want to stay."...
The Benefits Reaped
Over the years, FedEx developed several innovative HR programs that served as a benchmark for many organizations, particularly in the service industry. These programs not only yielded financial benefits for FedEx (through improved employee productivity levels), they also enhanced the reputation of the company as an employee-friendly, service-oriented organization. FedEx's employee-friendly policies resulted in very low turnover rate. In 2000, the turnover rate was estimated to be below 6%, while the industry average was 20%
J. Michael Cueria wanted a part-time job to work his way through the University of Memphis 14 years ago when he stumbled on Federal Express's "handler" position, where he toiled from 11 P.M. to 4 A.M. unloading packages from planes. Cueria expected the job to be grinding and exhausting, which it was, but he was surprised to also find it enjoyable and satisfying. "Management went out of its way to make us feel appreciated, to show us how our little tasks were adding up to the company's goals," Cueria says. By the time he graduated with an electrical engineering degree three years later - his final semester paid for by FedEx, no strings attached, after his grant money ran out - he had decided that any company that treated its grunt workers so well would be a wonderful place to launch his professional career.
Cueria has since become one of the legion of "purple-blooded" employees at the $13 billion company, who now wouldn't think of going elsewhere. FedEx is an example of how even a behemoth with 145,000 employees can keep them from feeling like little more than one overnight letter on a massive conveyer belt, especially important in Cueria's case now that he works on its intranet site and is regularly wooed by outsiders.
How does the company keep its full-timer turnover rate to a minuscule 3 percent, especially given all the manual laborers it employs? Cueria points to Federal Express's famous employee-focused philosophies, including its no-layoff orientation and its "People-Service-Profit" objective, which focuses on satisfying employees so they'll provide the good service that helps the company prosper. The firm's ability to listen to employees also plays a major role. A "Guaranteed Fair Treatment" policy, for example, offers employees an appeals process for grievances, all the way to the "Supreme Court of FedEx," staffed by senior executives - and often Chairman Fred Smith.
Formal recognition programs are also a way of life at FedEx. Cueria has received 20 "Bravo Zulu" awards - for effort beyond one's job description - which includes both management appreciation and gift certificates or theater tickets. He's also gotten two "Five Star Awards" worth hundreds of dollars each for his major accomplishment in creating the company's intranet.
FedEx Express (NYSE:FDX) was awarded the Institute for Corporate Productivity (i4cp) 2010 Productivity Pioneer Award today during a presentation at i4cp's 38th Annual Member Conference. This award is presented annually to an i4cp member company that has demonstrated unique and successful programs to increase workforce productivity within their organization. Dennis Reber, Manager of Organization Effectiveness Solutions at FedEx Express, received the award.
"FedEx Express is extremely proud to receive i4cp's Productivity Pioneer Award," said Reber. "Having seen tremendous results from our various employee initiatives, it's great to be honored by an organization such as the Institute for Corporate Productivity for our accomplishments and focus on high performance."
The Employee Loyalty Index (ELI) at FedEx Express complements i4cp's core focus of leveraging human capital as a driver for increased market performance. The ELI is a tool that gauges multiple indicators of employee loyalty - and other critical factors that drive this commitment - on an ongoing basis. The information is then used to develop proactive processes and forward-thinking initiatives. The index is not designed to simply measure loyalty for loyalties sake, but to act on the premise that loyal employees help to build customer loyalty, and, in turn, greater profits.
"I'm thrilled to present this year's award to FedEx Express, a longtime member of i4cp," said Kevin Oakes, CEO of i4cp, the world's largest vendor-free network of corporations focused on building and sustaining a highly productive, high-performance organization. "The Employee Loyalty Index is an extremely innovative and successful program that highlights all of the great work Dennis and his team are doing at FedEx Express."
The ELI has proven to be an effective tool in measuring employee loyalty, and the ongoing program aims to build deeper and more productive customer relationships, to encourage employee retention, to reduce customer churn and to increase financial returns.
The program is one of several reasons why FedEx Express was selected to receive i4cp's Productivity Pioneer Award. Its innovative use of human capital to drive business results embraces the concept of high-performance organizations.
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