Thank you for your help.
Carol Sexton

Let me explain – There’s one investment brokerage firm that continuously boasts and touts its rankings by JD POWERS as being ‘Top in Customer Service and Satisfaction’.

This while it was steering my family in purchasing lackluster funds that were later being investigated (Fortunately I was smart enough to not listen and limit my investment).

Another regularly promotes the fact it receives high rankings as ‘Among the Top Ten Best Places To Work.’ in various publications.

Ironically, just as one of these articles was being featured last year, several individuals from several offices of that same company complained to me (I get to hear things some priests don’t even hear in confessionals) of the work conditions, lack of support, training, etc. causing them to make a move. I placed two of them the month the article was printed.

In the first case – That company that touted its ‘JD Powers’ ranking was cited the following year by the SEC for ‘Steering customers to revenue sharing funds and investments that might not have been in the customer’s best financial interest’.

For me – I’m already working for the best company in the entire world: That which I created on my own. Working for Frank has been great for 20 years and I promise to never fire myself. I can take off any day I like at any time I desire.

As I’ve said before all these awards, rankings, praise, boastings mean little in the great American landscape as they fail to take into account 85% of American Workers who work for small companies with less than 500 employees who never are included in such rankings, ratings, surveys, etc. etc.

It’s all different ways for the companies to generate free P.R. – and little of anything else.

We have serious, serious problems in this country. some 42% of American workers have no health insurance (I do but pay for it on my own). Those that do are being pressed to pay more and more out of pocket. I personally pay just under $15,000.00 out of pocket to provide family coverage for the Risalvato family. While I’m fortunate to be able to afford good coverage … I’m in the minority.

Most could not pay that amount on their own. The average coverage is now about $12,500.00 for a family of four.

That my fellow recruiting colleagues, is what everyone here at ERE should be working on.

As John Lennon once said:

IMAGINE.

Imagine if this forum became the impetus and momentum for correcting the health insurance crisis.

49% is a staggering figure. It means everyone of us knows a friend, co-worker or relative that is somehow surviving with no insurance.

It is one of the most disgraceful and abysmal failures of our society.

The heck with JD Powers, ‘Best Company to Work’ rankings, and all that meaningless bragadoccio.

Instead of daily bickering over little inconsequential minutia, this ERE forum holds potential to do great good.

Health Insurance should be our next national fix.
And no – it should not be a burden imposed upon companies. Companies began providing insurance as an incentive in the 1940s … its was never intended nor should it be a requirement that companies dish out the cost.

However companies (and the executives reading this forum) have clout with their bosses … congress and the senate and when large companies speak senators listen.

No one should have to sell their house and live in a box or trailer under a bridge to take care of their daughter’s cancer. I don’t have the solution … but I know the status quo is unacceptable.

Cheers,

The first item Doc John lists is an ‘assumption’ that ‘small organizations have no advantage’.

This can only be a statement made from the hubris and arrogant perspective of a large Fortune company soldier – not necessarily a widely-perceived assumption.

According to National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) … which is one of the nation’s most powerful lobbying groups up along with the AFL-CIO, NARP, etc. Some ’85% of Americans work for small companies’. A small company is defined as one having ‘less than 500 employees’ at which point as a company approaches 1,000 it becomes ‘medium sized’.

With 85% of all Americans working for small companies .. who ever said large companies have any advantage?

What Large companies have are huge egos. Egos that cost them tens of millions regularly (read the book Egonomics – its terrific).

Secondly – Every large corporation today was once a small company. Many millionaires exist who joined those small companies. Back in the 1980′s my wife was offered a job by Sam Walton while his company was ‘quite small’. Many hired back then became multi-millionaires – even truck drives.

Microsoft, HP, Disney, Apple were all one or two person start-ups. If you want to compare millionaires created – I’d say many more were created by small companies than those created once the company became a Fortune 500.

Once companies become Fortune 500 – they are hamstrung by their very largesse. SEC rulings, regulatory oversight, EEO issues, etc. etc. require micro-managing every process to the point the entrepreneurial spirit that got them there is squashed and obliterated.

I see it in our own recruiting practice every decade.
Companies that were lean, hard working, resourceful and entrepreneurial – become Fortune 500. Soon thereafter, egomania, hubris, corporate arrogance rules the day to day operation than the skills that go them there. It completes the life cycle. Creates a plateau – and if left unchecked – harms the company culture.

Also, the average company only lasts 12.5 years according to many statistics by government agencies. There is no such thing as ‘security’ unless you are a college professor.

I’ve interviewed tens of thousands since 1987. I’ve met many that have obtained great wealth (Millions) from joining the right small company at the right time.

Conservative? (item two) I know of no small company that is conservative. By sheer laws of survival they must be resourceful and flexible to succeed and thrive.

I have one question for you Doc – when was the last time you worked for a small company and actually contributed to the bottom line?