20
MiMfg Magazine
November 2017
“
Our goal is to have people
retire from here, well off.
And the only way we can
do that is with everyone’s
ideas and input to make
Rapid-Line better.
— Rick VanDis
President, Rapid-Line
”
Rapid-Line’s story continued from page 18.
attendance, yielding a free day of vacation
when the total reaches -15.
“That does two things: it rewards your
good people and it gives a redemption plan
to people who are still working on bad
attendance,” VanDis said.
Positive points for attendance also can
negatively impact pay raises. With +3
points, an employee’s pay raise is decreased
by 30 percent.
“If you have more than 7 points you forego
your raise — until you make up your time and
then you can get the raise back,” he said.
The program appears to be working.
Approximately 52 percent of the hourly
employees had under zero points in the first
week in October, compared with 43 percent
about three months ago, Van Dis said.
One piece of advice that VanDis and
Helms shared about changing a corporate
culture is to practice patience.
“Every day is different,” VanDis said. “I
continually tell folks that change is a three-
to five-year process. Sometimes it’s two steps
forward and one step back, sometimes it’s one
step forward and two steps back. The trick is
to always try to keep moving forward.”
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