Home City Ice is a company based in Cincinnati, Ohio. Home City Ice delivers fresh ice to over 9 states. Operating a number of plants from its headquarters in Cincinnati, to a branch plant in Pittsburgh, the corporation uses blue ice chests at local stores. Its bagging plant in Pittsburgh is one of the largest in the region with head bagging operator Anthony Antonace overseeing the vast stock of ice shipped out of the plant on a regular basis.
The Home City Ice Company was involved in a "cartel"[1]of large ice companies who conspired to eliminate smaller competition and keep retail prices higher than the market should have dictated. The Home City Ice Company pled guilty to violations of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act in 2007 as a result of these actions. Home City, along with two other large ice companies in the United States, colluded to artificially inflate retail ice prices by agreeing to not compete against one another in the Southeastern region of the state of Michigan. This violation may cost Home City up to $100 million dollars and a term of probation to be determined by the federal government.[2] No active officials within the company will be charged with any criminal charges as the violations were blamed on a now deceased former vice president.
Home City Ice does not allow its employees to unionize nor wear any type of facial hair. Most employees are seasonal.
1890s Home City Ice's origins begin with William Ruskamp, who first located the business on South Side Avenue in Riverside in 1896. By 1900, he moved the company to Mississippi Avenue in Riverside. In that same year, William J. Holthingrichs bought the company from Ruskamp and named it the Riverside Ice Company.
1910s In 1910, Holthingrichs renamed the company The Home City Ice and Coal Company, taking the name of a nearby neighborhood, Home City, OH (which is today Saylor Park). In 1911, Gottlieb Hartweg bought the business and moved it to Ivanhoe Avenue in H ome City, OH the next year. Harweg's son Fred inherited the business upon his father's death in 1924.
1920s Beginning in the early 1920s, Frank Sedler, a self-taught engineer who sold cooling machinery for the York Refrigeration Company, began making sales calls to the Home City Ice Company, Determined to convert the company's machinery from steam-powered cooling equipment to electric.
1924 Sedler purchased capital stock in Home City Ice when it incorporated in 1924. He sold his home and invested $4,000 in the Home City Ice Company. He was elected president in 1924 because of his vast technical knowledge. Frank proceeded to modernize the company and changed the focus of the company to concentrate solely on ice production and delivery.
Workers at Microsoft get grocery delivery. And valet parking. Free. Employees at Anheuser-Busch enjoy a monthly two-case beer allowance. No charge.
The folks at Google get homemade French toast in the morning with ginger-infused maple syrup and caramelized apples. Gratis.
We could go on, but we already know what you’re saying. And it likely includes the word “squat.”
That’s because most of us will never see the kind of perks that are handed out at some U.S. companies in the name of employee retention.
Each year, Fortune magazine comes out with a list of the best places to work. Each year, most of the companies on the list offer extras that go beyond free coffee and complimentary fanny packs emblazoned with the company logo.
Some of the examples will make you spit your Cheerios (or other leading brand):
Blockbuster offers health insurance for employees’ pets.
Amgen Biotechnology Co. has a staff florist.
Sun Microsystems has lactation rooms for nursing mothers.
The Container Store in Dallas has a staff yoga instructor.
The experts say such benefits help achieve something called “work/life balance.”
A healthy work/life balance, it seems, will lower a company’s turnover rate and save money that would otherwise be spent to recruit, relocate and train new workers.
The phrase dates back to 2005, when Spherion Corp., a Florida staffing and recruiting company, did a huge study that focused on the “troubling gap” between what workers want and what bosses think they want.
Employers that blow off work/life balance issues “expose themselves to a greater chance of employee burnout, lower productivity and eventual turnover,” Spherion Chief Executive Officer Roy Krause said.
That’s probably why S.C. Johnson & Son -- No. 7 on the Fortune list -- built an employee recreation complex and opened a child care center where photos of the kids are e-mailed to the parents throughout the workday.
Looking For Balance
Chason Hecht, said the quest for work/life balance represents a “social evolution,” especially among young workers who “don’t view their jobs as a way to simply put food on the table.”
Hecht is president of Retensa, a New York City firm that helps clients hang on to their best workers.
“Work is no longer a way to sustain yourself or your family,” he explained. “It’s all about personal fulfillment now.”
That’s why we set out to find the biggest bennie, the greatest gob of gravy, the most perfect perk in all of Perkland.
We found it at U.S. Cellular, where a honcho banned the use of interoffice e-mail on Fridays to combat what he called “cyber indigestion.”
Jodi Valenta, who works in the company’s Cedar Rapids, Iowa, office, told the Associated Press that she loves the new policy and that Fridays have become the most productive day of the week: “I can go out of the office and spend my time visiting associates across Iowa and not worry about my e-mail backing up.”
Think about it for a moment. No e-mail at work.
No more missives from human resources about “how to assess support measures for the development of integration skills.”
No more chain letters from your sister-in-law warning about parking lot attackers.
No more lengthy announcements about how Donna, whose dad, Bob, is the head of purchasing, finally had her baby (and it has a “thick head of black hair, just like his Grandpa!”)
No more corrupt attachments. No more ccs. No more exiled Costa Ricans with caches of hidden gold.
And, most important, no more of that guy in every office who sends an e-mail and then immediately walks across the room to ask the recipient: “Did you get my message?”
We know nothing about communication technology (it takes us 25 minutes to erase a text message), but when we heard about U.S. Cellular’s policy, we were tempted to dust off the ol’ resume.
Walker Information has been an Indiana based ADVISA client for more than 10 years and a successful international consulting company since its founding more than 70 years ago. We’re partnering with them on a marketing and sales effort for their employee loyalty program. It’s a natural match as Walker has unique tools to measure where problems exist within organizations and we have tools to help organizations fix those problems. We believe these efforts will bring benefit to our clients in those areas that are most important to both Walker and ADVISA – employee engagement, work satisfaction and ultimately, improved balanced scorecard metrics.
Our efforts will utilize a research study performed by Walker in partnership with Inside INdiana Business and the Indiana Business Council. The study sheds significant light on the current situation business environment in Indiana. Here are a couple of key statistics from the data:
58% of CEOs see morale improving while only 37% of their employees do
22% of staff say they’ll be looking for a new job in 2011
What’s my take-away, especially viewing other research that confirms top talent loyalty has dropped 20%?
In the recent recession, businesses have cut staff - leaving fewer people to do more work. While things are starting to look up, they’ve been reluctant to hire until it’s clear that both their business and the economy are over the hump. At the same time, some of their best employees are saying, “As soon as I can find another job, I’m outta here.” Companies have to start worrying now about keeping their best folks. If they don’t, when the economy turns they’ll have to replace their top talent as well as build new staff. That would be a disaster.
Hiring is the core activity for any company with more than one employee. Retention, on the other hand, can be viewed as a non-core activity or something that occurs organically (as if by magic from the managers). Leadership comments such as “people should be happy to just have a job,” or “we are so busy working with our customers,” or “we need to reach profitability” are focus-stealing excuses diverting leaders from the activities to retain wonderful team members recruited so diligently by the company.
Simply put, retention is securing your talent for the long term and advancement of the company. The depth and quality of your retention practices today will distinguish you as a talent winner from the talent losers when the economic recovery begins.
It is not unusual to have a talent and recruitment shuffle during recovery as team members seek a more fulfilling opportunity. When you consider the high cost of finding the right team member, it is surprising to see companies not spend more time and effort on retention.
If you want to understand what it is really costing your company to lose employees, examine your turnover rates for the last five years. Put a number on the cost of lost intellectual company knowledge, talent and reduced productivity and then you might reconsider what it really costs to retain great team members. The numbers can be staggering.
Attract, develop and retain
Most of the Best Places to Work company owners will readily tell you, their greatest assets go home every night. Creating and maintaining high employee morale is mission critical to retention and more often than not a measure of the ultimate health of an organization. Retaining your best employees ensures customer satisfaction, product sales, satisfied co-workers, effective succession planning and deeply imbedded organizational knowledge and learning.
The same goes for attracting great employees. Applicants often ask about a company’s culture and professional development opportunities as well as inquire about the support of management. Speaking directly about the company retention program and sharing retention successes reassures the applicant that the company is a fit for them.
Jonna Greene, vice president of human resources with La Tortilla Factory in Santa Rosa stated: “First and foremost, you have to be the organization that you present to the applicant. If ongoing training and professional development are selling points offered by your company, you better deliver on your promises. A key factor in employee motivation and retention is the opportunity to grow and develop career-enhancing skills. In fact, this is one of the most important factors stated in an applicant’s decision-making process.”
Best practice for retention
So, what are the components of a strong employee retention program? Start by hiring the best for company fit, then orientate to the company culture, policies and procedures. Outline expectations for performance and goals. Demonstrate the company values through respect, inclusion and providing a work/life balance. These three allow you to walk your talk. Provide regular feedback and recognition, which allows the team member to understand his or her contribution and value to the company’s success. Grow your team through training, development and succession opportunities to demonstrate your commitment to them through relevant growth activities.
Finally, all work and no play a dull company does make. Have fun and engage the team socially. The key is not extravagance, but quality social interactions. (See sidebar).
Putting retention into practice
If you are ready to change the company culture and become a best place to work, establish your retention program. Start with the aforementioned recommendations for each of the areas that you want to focus on over the next year. Identify activity leaders (a great way to develop your management team), delegate development and implementation of the activities and hold team members accountable through goals and timelines.
For example, if your recognition process lacks impact (or does not exist), develop a recognition tool kit that includes gift cards, note cards, certificates of appreciation, sample letters of commendation and even a “How to” book on recognition. Help your team members be creative to recognize accomplishments. Make it fun and engaging.
Retention should not just happen. It should be a well-thought out and priority activity of the company. Leaving retention to chance will prepare you for the talent-draining musical chairs of a post-recession economy and impact your prospects of being a best place to work.
The Home City Ice Company was involved in a "cartel"[1]of large ice companies who conspired to eliminate smaller competition and keep retail prices higher than the market should have dictated. The Home City Ice Company pled guilty to violations of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act in 2007 as a result of these actions. Home City, along with two other large ice companies in the United States, colluded to artificially inflate retail ice prices by agreeing to not compete against one another in the Southeastern region of the state of Michigan. This violation may cost Home City up to $100 million dollars and a term of probation to be determined by the federal government.[2] No active officials within the company will be charged with any criminal charges as the violations were blamed on a now deceased former vice president.
Home City Ice does not allow its employees to unionize nor wear any type of facial hair. Most employees are seasonal.
1890s Home City Ice's origins begin with William Ruskamp, who first located the business on South Side Avenue in Riverside in 1896. By 1900, he moved the company to Mississippi Avenue in Riverside. In that same year, William J. Holthingrichs bought the company from Ruskamp and named it the Riverside Ice Company.
1910s In 1910, Holthingrichs renamed the company The Home City Ice and Coal Company, taking the name of a nearby neighborhood, Home City, OH (which is today Saylor Park). In 1911, Gottlieb Hartweg bought the business and moved it to Ivanhoe Avenue in H ome City, OH the next year. Harweg's son Fred inherited the business upon his father's death in 1924.
1920s Beginning in the early 1920s, Frank Sedler, a self-taught engineer who sold cooling machinery for the York Refrigeration Company, began making sales calls to the Home City Ice Company, Determined to convert the company's machinery from steam-powered cooling equipment to electric.
1924 Sedler purchased capital stock in Home City Ice when it incorporated in 1924. He sold his home and invested $4,000 in the Home City Ice Company. He was elected president in 1924 because of his vast technical knowledge. Frank proceeded to modernize the company and changed the focus of the company to concentrate solely on ice production and delivery.
Workers at Microsoft get grocery delivery. And valet parking. Free. Employees at Anheuser-Busch enjoy a monthly two-case beer allowance. No charge.
The folks at Google get homemade French toast in the morning with ginger-infused maple syrup and caramelized apples. Gratis.
We could go on, but we already know what you’re saying. And it likely includes the word “squat.”
That’s because most of us will never see the kind of perks that are handed out at some U.S. companies in the name of employee retention.
Each year, Fortune magazine comes out with a list of the best places to work. Each year, most of the companies on the list offer extras that go beyond free coffee and complimentary fanny packs emblazoned with the company logo.
Some of the examples will make you spit your Cheerios (or other leading brand):
Blockbuster offers health insurance for employees’ pets.
Amgen Biotechnology Co. has a staff florist.
Sun Microsystems has lactation rooms for nursing mothers.
The Container Store in Dallas has a staff yoga instructor.
The experts say such benefits help achieve something called “work/life balance.”
A healthy work/life balance, it seems, will lower a company’s turnover rate and save money that would otherwise be spent to recruit, relocate and train new workers.
The phrase dates back to 2005, when Spherion Corp., a Florida staffing and recruiting company, did a huge study that focused on the “troubling gap” between what workers want and what bosses think they want.
Employers that blow off work/life balance issues “expose themselves to a greater chance of employee burnout, lower productivity and eventual turnover,” Spherion Chief Executive Officer Roy Krause said.
That’s probably why S.C. Johnson & Son -- No. 7 on the Fortune list -- built an employee recreation complex and opened a child care center where photos of the kids are e-mailed to the parents throughout the workday.
Looking For Balance
Chason Hecht, said the quest for work/life balance represents a “social evolution,” especially among young workers who “don’t view their jobs as a way to simply put food on the table.”
Hecht is president of Retensa, a New York City firm that helps clients hang on to their best workers.
“Work is no longer a way to sustain yourself or your family,” he explained. “It’s all about personal fulfillment now.”
That’s why we set out to find the biggest bennie, the greatest gob of gravy, the most perfect perk in all of Perkland.
We found it at U.S. Cellular, where a honcho banned the use of interoffice e-mail on Fridays to combat what he called “cyber indigestion.”
Jodi Valenta, who works in the company’s Cedar Rapids, Iowa, office, told the Associated Press that she loves the new policy and that Fridays have become the most productive day of the week: “I can go out of the office and spend my time visiting associates across Iowa and not worry about my e-mail backing up.”
Think about it for a moment. No e-mail at work.
No more missives from human resources about “how to assess support measures for the development of integration skills.”
No more chain letters from your sister-in-law warning about parking lot attackers.
No more lengthy announcements about how Donna, whose dad, Bob, is the head of purchasing, finally had her baby (and it has a “thick head of black hair, just like his Grandpa!”)
No more corrupt attachments. No more ccs. No more exiled Costa Ricans with caches of hidden gold.
And, most important, no more of that guy in every office who sends an e-mail and then immediately walks across the room to ask the recipient: “Did you get my message?”
We know nothing about communication technology (it takes us 25 minutes to erase a text message), but when we heard about U.S. Cellular’s policy, we were tempted to dust off the ol’ resume.
Walker Information has been an Indiana based ADVISA client for more than 10 years and a successful international consulting company since its founding more than 70 years ago. We’re partnering with them on a marketing and sales effort for their employee loyalty program. It’s a natural match as Walker has unique tools to measure where problems exist within organizations and we have tools to help organizations fix those problems. We believe these efforts will bring benefit to our clients in those areas that are most important to both Walker and ADVISA – employee engagement, work satisfaction and ultimately, improved balanced scorecard metrics.
Our efforts will utilize a research study performed by Walker in partnership with Inside INdiana Business and the Indiana Business Council. The study sheds significant light on the current situation business environment in Indiana. Here are a couple of key statistics from the data:
58% of CEOs see morale improving while only 37% of their employees do
22% of staff say they’ll be looking for a new job in 2011
What’s my take-away, especially viewing other research that confirms top talent loyalty has dropped 20%?
In the recent recession, businesses have cut staff - leaving fewer people to do more work. While things are starting to look up, they’ve been reluctant to hire until it’s clear that both their business and the economy are over the hump. At the same time, some of their best employees are saying, “As soon as I can find another job, I’m outta here.” Companies have to start worrying now about keeping their best folks. If they don’t, when the economy turns they’ll have to replace their top talent as well as build new staff. That would be a disaster.
Hiring is the core activity for any company with more than one employee. Retention, on the other hand, can be viewed as a non-core activity or something that occurs organically (as if by magic from the managers). Leadership comments such as “people should be happy to just have a job,” or “we are so busy working with our customers,” or “we need to reach profitability” are focus-stealing excuses diverting leaders from the activities to retain wonderful team members recruited so diligently by the company.
Simply put, retention is securing your talent for the long term and advancement of the company. The depth and quality of your retention practices today will distinguish you as a talent winner from the talent losers when the economic recovery begins.
It is not unusual to have a talent and recruitment shuffle during recovery as team members seek a more fulfilling opportunity. When you consider the high cost of finding the right team member, it is surprising to see companies not spend more time and effort on retention.
If you want to understand what it is really costing your company to lose employees, examine your turnover rates for the last five years. Put a number on the cost of lost intellectual company knowledge, talent and reduced productivity and then you might reconsider what it really costs to retain great team members. The numbers can be staggering.
Attract, develop and retain
Most of the Best Places to Work company owners will readily tell you, their greatest assets go home every night. Creating and maintaining high employee morale is mission critical to retention and more often than not a measure of the ultimate health of an organization. Retaining your best employees ensures customer satisfaction, product sales, satisfied co-workers, effective succession planning and deeply imbedded organizational knowledge and learning.
The same goes for attracting great employees. Applicants often ask about a company’s culture and professional development opportunities as well as inquire about the support of management. Speaking directly about the company retention program and sharing retention successes reassures the applicant that the company is a fit for them.
Jonna Greene, vice president of human resources with La Tortilla Factory in Santa Rosa stated: “First and foremost, you have to be the organization that you present to the applicant. If ongoing training and professional development are selling points offered by your company, you better deliver on your promises. A key factor in employee motivation and retention is the opportunity to grow and develop career-enhancing skills. In fact, this is one of the most important factors stated in an applicant’s decision-making process.”
Best practice for retention
So, what are the components of a strong employee retention program? Start by hiring the best for company fit, then orientate to the company culture, policies and procedures. Outline expectations for performance and goals. Demonstrate the company values through respect, inclusion and providing a work/life balance. These three allow you to walk your talk. Provide regular feedback and recognition, which allows the team member to understand his or her contribution and value to the company’s success. Grow your team through training, development and succession opportunities to demonstrate your commitment to them through relevant growth activities.
Finally, all work and no play a dull company does make. Have fun and engage the team socially. The key is not extravagance, but quality social interactions. (See sidebar).
Putting retention into practice
If you are ready to change the company culture and become a best place to work, establish your retention program. Start with the aforementioned recommendations for each of the areas that you want to focus on over the next year. Identify activity leaders (a great way to develop your management team), delegate development and implementation of the activities and hold team members accountable through goals and timelines.
For example, if your recognition process lacks impact (or does not exist), develop a recognition tool kit that includes gift cards, note cards, certificates of appreciation, sample letters of commendation and even a “How to” book on recognition. Help your team members be creative to recognize accomplishments. Make it fun and engaging.
Retention should not just happen. It should be a well-thought out and priority activity of the company. Leaving retention to chance will prepare you for the talent-draining musical chairs of a post-recession economy and impact your prospects of being a best place to work.
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