Ford

Ford is very community, family, and environmentally centered while running a successful company.

Pay is not up to current standards. They will bring in retirees and pay them more than the standard, but not promote within unless you are in the clique.

Current instability means no one knows if they truly have a job, and everyone is stressed.

Additionally, with all of the people retiring, resigning, and being laid off, many smaller groups in Mfg Eng (VOME) are short-handed. This leaves remaining employees working a lot of extra hours for free.

The company will not allow hiring to fill these short-handed groups, and many employees were blocked from transferring to other areas.

One group near ours was so short-handed that the supervisor was doing the work of others whose positions were vacated.

While working towards a Smart Redesign, make sure you try and keep employees that are valuable. Instead of leaving groups so short-handed that the remaining employees are overloaded and stressed, you risk losing employees when you can't afford to lose any more. In one of the groups we supported, the group was down to three people, with only one specializing in each area.

Also, instead of promoting based on a manager's favorites and clichés, start promoting those who work hard. Promoting those that don't perform as well only creates more friction.