.:RIMproInsider:.

Andrews Records Management (ARM) announced the appointment of Jim Johnson to the position of President and COO. Formerly Vice President and General Manager of Andrews’ Columbus operation, Jim will oversee the day to day management of Columbus and Cleveland facilities.

Lee Miller, ARM President since 1983, will continue as CEO for Andrews Records Management, Andrews Destruction Services and Andrews Software, Inc.

“Jim has a wealth of experience. Over the past 20 years, he has held several key positions within the industry including vice president, president, and COO,” says Miller. “From my perspective, his leadership is essential to the continued growth and success of Andrews. Additionally, Jim and his management team have the leadership skills and philosophy that align with our core values.”

This management team includes the following new appointments:
Lee Hall, formerly Operations Manager for ARM-Columbus, assumes the position of General Manager for Columbus. Rob Heyd, formerly Sales Manager for ARM-Cleveland, has been appointed (Director Sales and Marketing) for Andrews’ Cleveland and Columbus facilities. Jon Smyrl, formerly Operations Manager for ARM-Cleveland assumes the role of Finance and Facilities Manager for both Cleveland and Columbus. Mark Miller, General Manager of Andrews Destruction Services and ARM-Cleveland.

Keeping morale and motivation high in a labor intensive setting is in itself a full time job. But to save on the costs of disgruntled and transitory employees here are some ideas from Bob Nelson, the dean of employee motivation ideas.

Personally thank employees for doing a good job-one on one-verbally, in writing or both. Do it in a timely manner, often and sincerely.

Be willing to take the time to meet with and listen to employees-as much as they need or want.

Provide specific feedback about performance of the person, the department and the organization.

Strive to create a work environment that is open, trusting and fun. Encourage new ideas and initiative.

Provide information about how the company makes and loses money, upcoming products, strategies for competing in the marketplace and how the person fits in with the overall plan.

Involve employees in decisions, especially when those decisions affect them.

Provide employees with a sense of ownership in their work and the work environment.

Recognize, reward and promote people based on their performance. Deal with low and marginal performers so they either improve or leave.

Give people a chance to grow and learn new skills. Show them how you can help them meet their goals within the context of meeting the organization’s goals. Create a partnership with each employee.

Celebrate successes-of the company, of the department and of individuals in it. Take time for team- and morale-building meetings and activities.

Try a couple of theses this week, especially with your drivers, vault, destruction or warehouse staff.

Some interesting statistics…

Number of birds killed by flying into glass windows in the US each year.
1 Billion

Number of birds killed by hunters in the US each year.
121 million
(Source Time Magazine)

So, do we need to control guns or glass?

The question that I then raise is one of how we assess problems. Our tendancy is to look at the small culprit that is more easily managed instead of focusing our attention on the more obvious large one, which is often difficult to deal with.

Is this something that should alarm us as record centers? Last week my bottled water delivery guy arrived with 4 replacement bottles for our cooler. In his hand he has the latest mobile PC technology that tells him the stop, how many bottles I have, last visit to me, and best time to deliver. He asks me to sign off on the screen and with a quick couple of clicks a print off of the receipt with my signature already embedded is printed off for me. He informs me that within seconds of getting back in the truck the information from our transaction will be uploaded to the water suppliers head office. And this is water delivery! No barcodes on the bottles, no important corporate information included, just simple water. It makes me think that we might be lagging behind the water delivery companies in our use of available technology. If they can do it, why can’t we? And they are not even the cutting edge yet. Forget about what the UPS, Fedex and other overnight delivery companies are doing. The water guys are trying to keep up with them. Let’s not get too complacent.

Very few companies in the CRC space are merley offering records storage. In fact, it is very evident that most of the companies represented in PRISM are offering a suite of services to their clients that assist the company in the stability of long term revenue, mutliple streams of income and leveraging of opportunites to cross sell other service offerings. In a lot of instances I found that my record center clients were using me for storage but not for destruction or vice versa. My dilemma seemed to be that I tended to default to the new client acquisiton process instead of leveraging the existing relationships to build new revenue potential.

Yet, in my own limiited reality checks I discovered this. To obtain a new client cost me a lot of money. From my own lead generation strategies, cold calls, website development, print and direct mail peices, as well as using the services of a Marketsearch, the cost of acquisition was high. Was it worthi it, of course it was. But there always seemed to be a propensity towards activity related to new clients versus existing clients. When I began to realize this I changed my approach. I looked at my own facts and figures and discovered that my existing client base was one phone call away. No real costs to picking up the phone with clients we talked to regurlarly and asking if we could get their office waste destruction, or their ongoing purges. Or to ensure that the boxes they were buying to store their files in were mine. I had a better box at a better price. I just had to let them know.

What I discovered in this transition of thinking was this… my clients wanted to do more business with me, they just didn’t know we offered it. My clients loved single source billing. They loved the fact that there was already a high security relationship. They just didn’t know we did it.

One piece of advice today. Spend 15 minutes today calling 3-4 clients and letting them know what else you do, and who you should talk to if they aren’t the one. If 3 almost free calls generate one new additonal revenue stream from a client, it will have been worth it, and it might lead into the habit of spending a small portion of your sales focus on the highly profitable approach of getting new revenue from existing clients.

I have just finished reading this great book, Coaching for Improved Performance by Ferdinand F. Fournies. I was quite impressed with the approach taken in it. This is the most precise and helpful book on managing the performance of employees that I have ever read. I wish I had read it years ago. He has a underlying belief that people management is a series of interventions that have a cause-effect relationship on employees. Essentially management is “getting things done through others” As a manager, I only get paid for what my staff does, not what I do. So a major paradigm shift is in order. I need them more than they need me. Enough said. Read it if you can get it. It’s GOOD!

The question is not, “Do you back-up your data?” it is “Can you recover your data?” If you are not backing up and you lose it all, I can’t really say I am sorry. You have been warned enough. The critical issue is… do you test to ensure that you can restore your data form your back-up. In this business the data is critical. So, take 5 minutes today and check your last backup. Can you do a restore on it? Does it work? Or is it corrupt somehow?
By the way, did you take your own advice to customers and store the backup offsite? Hope so.
While you are at it confirm your accounting stuff, your email history, my documents and other critical data is also a part of your back-up and recovery testing process.
Just thought I should remind you.