Field of Dreams
Survey shows industrial distributors are, overall, happy with their jobs
By Susan L. P. Srikonda -- Industrial Distribution, 9/1/1999
Despite the pressures of shrinking margins, constant technology demands, and the rising tide of mergers and acquisitions facing the industry, on the whole industrial distributors love their jobs. "If you are looking for a field full of free enterprise opportunities, working hard in industrial distribution is very rewarding," one respondent wrote in a recent survey conducted by Industrial Distribution.In fact, a full 91 percent of the survey respondents report being at least somewhat satisfied with their jobs -- with approximately 55 percent reporting that they are "very satisfied." And if they had to start their careers fresh, 75 percent of the respondents say they would choose industrial distribution all over again.
Despite this overwhelmingly positive response, the results of this survey -- conducted in June -- point to weaknesses in compensation and training, wide variances in the satisfaction level of the industry's sales force, and insufficient opportunities for advancement.
Nearly 150 randomly selected subscribers responded to this survey and of those, the majority were corporate managers (president/CEO, vice president, COO, owners), followed by inside and outside salespersons, mid-level managers (sales, branch, warehouse, purchasing and inventory, and other managers) and finally miscellaneous employees (buyer, purchasing agent, office staff, quality administrator, engineer, and others). The majority of the respondents work for small companies with fewer than 30 employees (61.2 percent) -- with only 15.7 percent working for companies with more than 500 employees -- and most are between 41 and 60 years old (65.1 percent), with 18.5 percent falling in the 31 to 40-year-old category.
Who's satisfied?
Executive-level corporate managers expressed the most satisfaction of our respondents (66.7 percent "very satisfied"), but the survey indicates that there's some room for improvement even at that level: 27.8 percent report being only somewhat satisfied and 5.6 percent report not being satisfied at all with their jobs.
Management consultant Peter Land, of Peter A. Land Associates, Inc., says that's not surprising for an industry typified by family businesses. There's a built-in positive bias when someone drives into the parking lot at work and sees his or her name on the side of the building, he says.
While the majority of mid-level managers (56.7 percent) and other employees (75 percent) report being somewhat satisfied, few report not being satisfied at all (3.3 percent total).
Christine Sommers, a training and quality administrator with Motion Industries in Madison Heights, Mich., attributes her high degree of satisfaction to the opportunities she's had to move throughout the company. Her first job at Motion Industries was pulling orders in the warehouse and she subsequently worked in receiving, inventory control, customer counter service and purchasing, holding several supervisor positions within those departments.
"I feel the industry is well established and it's basically up to the individual to go for it and make it work," Sommers says. "I'm not worried [about industry consolidation] because the industry will always be around and I'm confident that I could go elsewhere and be successful if Motion Industries were to be acquired."
The salespeople report the greatest variance in satisfaction levels, with slightly more than half reporting being very satisfied, 25 percent somewhat satisfied and 22.5 percent unsatisfied. Land attributes that variance to the personality traits generally associated with salespeople.
"Salespeople, unless they own the company, tend to be ego-driven; they operate on a lot of personal confidence and good people skills; and they tend to be restless. It's hard to stabilize a sales force," Land says. Also, a sales team is often unsettled in the distribution industry when a star performer is moved into a sales manager position for which they're untrained and ill-suited, which can create dissatisfaction both for the manager and the sales team, Land says.
Top priorities
Of those respondents not satisfied with their jobs, 40 percent attribute their dissatisfaction to inadequate compensation. Other reasons include poor management and workloads that are either too stressful or not challenging enough.
One purchasing agent who works for a small family-owned distributorship has this to say: "One thing I'm not satisfied with is that sometimes I'm not as involved with the vendors as I think I should be. Sometimes there are higher up meetings that I'm not involved in and so they may run a promotion or something and forget to tell me. Then I can't stock up on the product and that makes me look like I'm not doing my job."
For those respondents who are satisfied with their jobs, the three top ways their employers keep them satisfied are: 1) providing satisfactory compensation and benefits; 2) creating a pleasant, supportive corporate atmosphere; and 3) allowing employees the ability to make decisions autonomously. Other ways include providing training opportunities and career challenges.
Dr. Kathy Newton of Purdue University's Industrial Distribution department says that distributor's need to heed the demand for market-value pay and benefits if they want to attract and keep quality employees in today's economy.
"In a market like this, you can't afford to pay less than competitive wages because then you're scraping the bottom of the barrel," Newton says. "If you're not going to pay a leadership wage, then you've better have a combination of good pay, benefits and management. It's not just the dollars that are speaking ... people really do care about the time that they get to spend with their families, for example, so flex time is important."
One common complaint respondents have is that industrial distribution lacks adequate opportunities for advancement. Thirty-eight percent of the respondents say that there are not adequate opportunities for advancement at their companies, and of those, 62 percent attribute that to family ownership.
For Paul Ahrendt, owner of The Tool House Inc. in Lincoln, Nebr., it's a tough challenge to keep his employees satisfied, but he says it should be a top priority for business owners.
"I believe that if you lose an employee who comes in [to your office] and says 'I just can't handle it anymore' and that comes as a surprise to you, then you haven't done your job. It means you're not up to speed with your people," Ahrendt says. "Part of a company's responsibility to their employees is to help them grow. The tough part is that if you help them grow, more than likely you may have helped them grow to a point that you may not have a slot for them.
"But what I've also found is that you build a family community within a company, that family community is what really keeps your people," Ahrendt says. "If the pay is fair, the family community will always win."
Although the majority of distributors reportedly provide the training and educational opportunities essential to that kind of growth, both Newton and Land express concern that 22 percent of the survey respondents say their companies do not provide such opportunities.
"I think it is significant that 22 percent don't provide training and education opportunities," Newton says. "That's terrible to do nothing and I think those companies are at great risk if they're not doing anything to train their employees."
The final red flag this survey sends up leads back to compensation. While 79 percent of the respondents say their job responsibilities have increased during the past three years, only 61 percent of those feel that they are being adequately compensated for the added responsibilities.
"That demonstrates a lack of recognition of what it takes to keep a workforce happy and a lack of management savvy," Newton says. "You can't just continue to pile on heavy responsibility without a requisite change in compensation and expect your employees to continue to be happy with it."
Are there adequate opportunities for advancement in your company?
Yes 61.9% No 38.1%
Does your employer provide training and educational opportunities?
Yes 78.1% No 21.9%
If you had it to do all over again, would you choose industrial distribution as a career?
Yes 74.6% No 25.4%
Advice to the new recruits...
Respondents to ID's job satisfaction survey give the following advice to young professionals entering industrial distribution:
- Align yourself with a major player; small distributors face a very uncertain future; larger companies offer more opportunity for advancement
- Be prepared to embrace a fast-paced, rapidly changing environment
- Be willing to start at the bottom and work your way up
- Gain product/application knowledge to stay current in your field; self educate if necessary
- Do not take a [sales] position in industrial distribution unless it is straight commission
- Have a second career potential
- Technical/computer training -- take all you can get
- Don't do it; too many people chasing less potential business
- If you're willing to work hard and to learn, you can be a star in the industry
- Make sure this is the field you want; work hard knowing your products and the rest should fall in place
- Catch the special and professional knowledge in a certain field. Be a specialist
- Focus on customer service! It's the one thing you can use to differentiate yourself from the competition
- Look for public/private, but not family-owned, companies
- Learn as many aspects of distribution as you can before you enter management: work in the warehouse, inside sales, outside sales, etc.
- If you don't enjoy it, don't do it
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