Lessons from P&G – Favorite places to work

For many years, Procter & Gamble has been one of the favorite places to work.  It was renowned for its training.  The quality of the people and the quality of the CPG brands made it an ideal environment.  Last year world-wide there were more than two million applications for less than one thousand entry positions in Marketing.  Many other CPG companies tried to duplicate the P&G culture, including Clorox an ex-P&G company here in the Bay Area.

There are many CPG companies of varying sizes here in the Bay Area.  However, based on a survey done by “The Business Times” they are not appearing as favored places to work.

Here is the summary of the survey by industry.

The criteria for this survey were:

·       Trust top execs (honest, capable of leading the organization to prosper, integrity in dealing with all stakeholders)

·       Trust other employees (loyalty to each other, camaraderie and teamwork, integrity)

·       Longevity (Employee length of service, invite friends to apply)

·       Satisfaction with what the employee does each day (feeling challenged and engaged, feeling positive about the company and the other employees)

·       Feeling Valued (talents noticed and cultivated, seen as essential contributors)

Having spent several decades at P&G and been at the Executive level and now consulting in the Bay Area, the differences for CPG are obvious.  Most of the larger ranked companies value training and work environment.  They take advantage of senior management and have them serve as teachers and mentors to the more junior managers.  With the significant cost of replacing and recruiting talent, providing this development support is not only prudent but very cost effective.

You may know that P&G has a strong promote from within policy and therefore the impetus was on each layer of management to develop those below them since they will be associated with them and their abilities for years to come.  Their personal performance was going to be influenced by the productivity and expertise of those who report to them.

But in the Bay Area, given the exigencies of business and the heavy workloads being carried by senior management, from where should this expertise come in companies who are not a promote from within?  The obvious answer is to take advantage of either consulting senior executives who have the experience or bring in on a temporary basis retired executives from other companies.  Both are going to have significant cost benefits and higher overall productivity.  

As you can see from the chart, most of the companies are in industries that have strong startup or growth phases.  The founders are in constant contact with the employees. This helps support the favorite company status.  For those other industries like CPG, the message is clear.  If you want the top performers and you want to keep them, provide the mentoring and development support.

Thanks

John 

John Maver
Founder and Managing Director of Moon & Stars Consulting
President Maver Management Group
(925) 648-7561
Maver Management