Nucor steel is the largest and most profitable domestic steel company. Their employees see no reason for unions. Keep that in mind. Largest, most profitable, no unions.
Why so? Check this out for enlightened management -
The Nucor Culture
The Nucor Culture can be summarized in five areas: decentralized management philosophy, performance based compensation, egalitarian benefits, customer service and quality, and technological leadership. Underlying these elements is the fact that none of Nucor's plants, whether built from scratch or acquired, are unionized. Nucor is opposed to unions, believing them to be a destructive force in the US steel industry. No Nucor plant has ever held a successful union certification election, even though Nucor management has not engaged in the controversial "union busting" tactics adopted by other companies. The company has never laid off an employee due to a work shortage.
Performance Based Compensation
All Nucor employees, from senior officers to hourly employees, are covered under one of four basic compensation plans (in addition to base pay) which reward employees for meeting certain incentive specific goals and targets:
* Production Incentive Plan: Operating and maintenance employees and supervisors at the facilities are paid weekly bonuses based on the productivity of their work group. The rate is calculated based on the capabilities of the equipment employed, and no bonus is paid if the equipment is not operating. In general, the Production Incentive bonus can average from 80 to 150 percent of an employee's base pay.
Egalitarian Benefits
Nucor's senior officers are not provided traditional "perks" such as company cars, executive parking spaces, or executive dining rooms. In fact, several programs (such as Nucor's Profit Sharing, Scholarship Program, Employee Stock Purchase Plan, Extraordinary Bonus, and Service Awards Program) are not available to Nucor's officers but only to lower-level employees. As a symbol of Nucor's egalitarian culture, each annual report since 1975 has listed the names of every employee. In 1975, there were 2,300 workers and their names fit on the back cover. In the 2007 annual report
, it took 12 pages to list the names of all 18,000 employees.
Leadership
Leadership at Nucor started from its legendary leader F. Kenneth Iverson's core philosophy: that employees, even hourly clock-punchers, will make an extraordinary effort if you reward them richly, treat them with respect, and give them real power.
And they do stuff like this -
in 1982 when the company had to cut production in half. This was done by reducing the work week to four days. As a result the average Nucor worker's earnings fell by 25 percent while department heads took a 40 percent cut and general managers and officers had their earnings reduced by 56 to 60 percent. In other words, in stark contrast to the competition, Nucor maintained employment and asked all employees to share the pain by accepting temporary pay cuts.
So, ah, when is Scott Walker going to take a pay cut? A cut of 75% would be about right for the CEO of Wisconsin to 'share the pain', right?
Why so? Check this out for enlightened management -
The Nucor Culture
The Nucor Culture can be summarized in five areas: decentralized management philosophy, performance based compensation, egalitarian benefits, customer service and quality, and technological leadership. Underlying these elements is the fact that none of Nucor's plants, whether built from scratch or acquired, are unionized. Nucor is opposed to unions, believing them to be a destructive force in the US steel industry. No Nucor plant has ever held a successful union certification election, even though Nucor management has not engaged in the controversial "union busting" tactics adopted by other companies. The company has never laid off an employee due to a work shortage.
Performance Based Compensation
All Nucor employees, from senior officers to hourly employees, are covered under one of four basic compensation plans (in addition to base pay) which reward employees for meeting certain incentive specific goals and targets:
* Production Incentive Plan: Operating and maintenance employees and supervisors at the facilities are paid weekly bonuses based on the productivity of their work group. The rate is calculated based on the capabilities of the equipment employed, and no bonus is paid if the equipment is not operating. In general, the Production Incentive bonus can average from 80 to 150 percent of an employee's base pay.
Egalitarian Benefits
Nucor's senior officers are not provided traditional "perks" such as company cars, executive parking spaces, or executive dining rooms. In fact, several programs (such as Nucor's Profit Sharing, Scholarship Program, Employee Stock Purchase Plan, Extraordinary Bonus, and Service Awards Program) are not available to Nucor's officers but only to lower-level employees. As a symbol of Nucor's egalitarian culture, each annual report since 1975 has listed the names of every employee. In 1975, there were 2,300 workers and their names fit on the back cover. In the 2007 annual report
, it took 12 pages to list the names of all 18,000 employees.
Leadership
Leadership at Nucor started from its legendary leader F. Kenneth Iverson's core philosophy: that employees, even hourly clock-punchers, will make an extraordinary effort if you reward them richly, treat them with respect, and give them real power.
And they do stuff like this -
in 1982 when the company had to cut production in half. This was done by reducing the work week to four days. As a result the average Nucor worker's earnings fell by 25 percent while department heads took a 40 percent cut and general managers and officers had their earnings reduced by 56 to 60 percent. In other words, in stark contrast to the competition, Nucor maintained employment and asked all employees to share the pain by accepting temporary pay cuts.
So, ah, when is Scott Walker going to take a pay cut? A cut of 75% would be about right for the CEO of Wisconsin to 'share the pain', right?
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