J.J. Stangel's seamless approach

Mentorship settles new hires with less customer disruption

By -- Industrial Distribution, 8/1/2000

It's easy to remember your first day on a new job. New faces and coworkers' names are as unfamiliar to you as the physical landmarks you secretly cite to find your work area.

John J. Zimmer, president of Manitowic, Wis.-based J.J. Stangel Co., empathizes with new employees feeling momentarily out of place. To combat those new-job jitters, management at the 83-year-old company put into play a mentoring program. New hires shadow an established employee, learning the ropes of a new job that much quicker.

J.J. Stangel's approach to training new employees centers on the customer's needs as much as it does the new employee's. The company doesn't want to put new employees in the awkward position of fielding questions they cannot yet answer.

"We really don't want customers to know there's been a personnel change. We want things to go as smooth as they've gone all along," says Randy Wagner, warehouse manager.

"We pick people who are outgoing," Zimmer, grandson of company founder J.J. Stangel, says of the mentors. "They're there to answer any questions. It gives them another person to talk with, to make sure the [new associate] gets the proper start. They act as a friend."

In selecting J.J. Stangel Co. as a top distributor to work for, ID editors noted this mentoring policy. The mentor is a Stangel employee other than the new hire's supervisor. The mentor contacts the new employee and answers any questions he or she may have. The goal is to orient the new employee to all aspects of the company so he or she can do their best work.

Stangel also offers 100 percent tuition reimbursement for all employees. Employees are eligible for reimbursment after working one year or less at Stangel.

Other benefits and compensation pushing Stangel to the top of our 23-point benefits/compensation list were its relocation services, flexible spending plans for child and elder care needs, flexible hours, stock options, profit sharing, a 401K program and health club/fitness programs.

Covering the Wisconsin and Upper Michigan territories since 1917, Stangel sells abrasives, adhesives and the gamut of MRO supplies to more than 2,500 customers. Those customers include paper mills, foundries and commercial facilities, to name a few. Stangel employees use a bin location system to pick items quickly when an order is received. Stangel stocks numerous items from the 350-plus industrial suppliers it represents. Other upgrades over recent years, all designed to provide superior order fulfillment, include its own fleet of delivery vehicles and computer programs.

But without the will and focus of employees to perform these duties, industrial amenities only go so far. That's where the company's spirit, a tribute to the Midwestern work ethic, comes in. Stangel relies on employees to recognize other employees' positive attitudes and work ethic. The Stangel Spirit Award, presented since 1994 during a service award dinner, honors the company's philosophy. The Stangel SPIRIT is about: being Service oriented; People caring; I'm the solution; Responsibility; Ideas for improvement and being Team-oriented.

And on the corporate management side, employees' job performance is evaluated once a year. Promotion from within is the norm, with 90 percent of Stangel's top management team rising through the ranks. Nearly half-44 percent-of Stangel's crew has worked for more than 10 years at the publicly traded Wisconsin company. Eleven years is the average tenure of employees, with less than five percent of total employees leaving Stangel in the first five years of employment. Along gender lines, employees are nearly equally split: 58 percent of Stangel's 39 employees are men, while 42 percent of that same group are women.

A second spoke of J.J. Stangel-Northern Tool in Kingsford, Mich.-employs 29 people.

Communication between all employees, regardless of the title they hold, is encouraged. For example, every employee is asked to submit a 5-15 report per quarter. The report is named "5-15" because "it takes 15 minutes to write, five minutes to read," Zimmer says, and develops employees' management perspectives. The triplicate form allows employees to suggest ideas to improve service to customers or to reduce customers' business costs.

All of this points to the company's motto: "People working hard to help reduce your costs." The customer is kept in the forefront of employees' minds, fueling an already blazing Stangel work ethic.

Wagner, a 14-year Stangel veteran, cites employees' willingness to work together and to work hard as a reason he enjoys his job.

Economically, the area of Wisconsin where J.J. Stangel is located is chugging along at full steam, according to Zimmer. Tourism in the area is on the rise, with visitors heading to the Wisconsin Maritime Museum, art museums and the like. Manitowic, Stangel's headquarters, is near Lake Michigan. A natural draw for boating, fishing and outdoor enthusiasts, the lake draws more visitors, which heightens the need for more services such as restaurants, which creates the need for construction projects.

"It feeds on itself," Zimmer says of the push and pull of supply and demand precepts.

J.J. Stangel joined eight other industrial distributorships in 1997 to form the Industrial Distribution Group. This move placed J.J. Stangel in a New York Stock Exchange-traded company (IDG) and enabled it, and other IDG distributorships, to tap into an array of operational and human resources. IDG was formed to create a nationwide supplier of cost-effective solutions for manufacturers and other users of MRO products, according to J.J. Stangel's Web site, www.jjstangel.com.

Still, it's the people who work for Stangel, or any company, that determine if a business will thrive. Stangel accounts payable clerk Debbie Sharping explains why she's worked at the company for 12 years.

"People are very nice, down-to-earth," Sharping says. "It's a very moral company."

Sharping began working at J.J. Stangel as a filing clerk. Her on-the-job experience plus additional training offered by the distributor gave her the skills to advance professionally. By making an investment in Sharping, Stangel ultimately made an investment in itself.

"People, it's all about people," Zimmer says. "Without them, we wouldn't produce a product."

Zimmer notes all of the company's employees are "service-oriented and very conscientious."

"We're blessed with that," he says of his employees' high productivity. "We want to attract them and reward them."