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with Work Forc e

Employee selection and development aresometimes an afterthought to other needs,such as the implementation of new equipmentand technology. But, as TSI has discover e d ,the key to managing successful growth can begin with innovative human r e s o u rce i n i t i a t i v e s .

by Janet Fox, Special to Bobbin

“As we started to implement the new technology, we wantedto assess and develop the skills of our current associates and

make sure that new hires had the necessary skills. A secondary focus was on turnover. We needed to focus on hiring and retention.”

Director of Organizational Development/Human ResourcesTropical Sportswear Int’l. Corp. (TSI)CORY PUGH

hen Tropical Sportswear Int’l.Corp. (TSI) embarked on a ma-jor human resources testing andeducation initiative two years ago,the company was struggling withthe loss of productivity caused byemployee turnover and the co-inciding costs of hiring and train-ing new personnel.

With increasing levels of tech-nology and automation being im-plemented across its Tampa, FL-based operations, the firm realizedit needed a new approach to hir-ing and retaining its work force,which includes more than 450hourly employees in the cuttingroom and distribution center.

Established in 1927 as Tropi-cal Garment Co., the companycame under new management in1989, and since that time has en-joyed aggressive sales growth un-der company branded lines Sa-v a n e®, Farah®, Flyers™, The OriginalKhaki Co.™, Two Pepper® and Bayto Bay®, and with its licensed brands,such as Bill Blass®, John Henry®

and Van Heusen®. (See “TSI BuiltTo Win,” B o b b i n, January 1999.)

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As TSI has expanded to become a powerhouse in bothbranded and private label men’s and women’s casual anddress sportswear, it has faced many of the significant workculture changes and challenges that accompany rapidgrowth. For instance, the introduction of new technolo-gy (such as radio-frequency scanners in the distributionarea) signaled a need for dramatically increased skill setsamong the firm’s hourly associates. The challenge beforeTSI was to implement human resource initiatives that wouldhelp employees keep up with the technological advanceswhile improving their skills. At the same time, TSI need-ed to address the issue of work force turnover.

Assessing the Situation“With our associates we had two goals,” notes Cory

Pugh, director of organizational development/human resources at TSI. “As we started to implement the new tech-nology, we wanted to assess and develop the skills of ourcurrent associates and make sure that new hires had thenecessary skills. A secondary focus was on turnover. Weneeded to focus on hiring and retention.”

After interviewing several prospective consultingpartners, TSI chose The Context Group, a soft goods-focused consulting firm whose apparel clients include PoloRalph Lauren, VF Corp., Sara Lee, Jockey International,Brooks Brothers, Guess? and Pendleton.

As it looked to address TSI’s specific challenges, TheContext Group first conducted a job analysis to under-stand what skills, abilities and performance characteristicsamong associates were critical to high performance inthe firm’s distribution center and cutting room.

Warren Bobrow, Ph.D., and a principal with TheContext Group, led the job analysis project with TSI’s Pugh.They found that TSI had an unusually high degree of tech-nology in use, particularly in the cutting room. Relatedto this, the skills assessment revealed that as computersplayed an increasingly important role in cutting room jobs,the most critical attributes among associates became aneye for quality and the ability to work as a team. Before theintroduction of cutting technology, the most critical at-

110 Bobbin, September 2000

“Math skills, the ability to read series of numbers and letters accurately and

willingness to work independently continue to be the key success factors [in the distribution center].”PrincipalThe Context GroupWARREN BOBROW

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tributes among cutting room personnelwere spatial relationship skills.

In the distribution center, on the oth-er hand, it was found that the introduc-tion of new technology did not substan-tially change the skills and personalcharacteristics required to perform thejobs well. “Math skills, the ability to readseries of numbers and letters accuratelyand willingness to work independently

continue to be the key success factors,”notes Bobrow.

The assessment also included an eval-uation of all associates’ reading ability —a skill that has become more importantat TSI as new procedures have been in-troduced, requiring employees to read ap-propriate training materials in order toimplement them.

Testing for Specific Skills,Strengths

Next, The Context Group tested allhourly associates in basic reading andmath skills and personality characteris-tics. Cutting room employees were al-so tested in their ability to perform vi-sual quality inspections. Distributionpersonnel were tested for the ability toquickly identify number series, whichare used to code boxes in the distribu-tion area. The test results were corre-lated with both productivity and quali-ty, and revealed that associates who scoredhigher for certain skills were those whowere producing more and higher quality work.

The test results were used to determinecut-off scores for new recruits. Testing ofjob applicants made it possible to iden-tify which candidates possessed the basicskills, and also to determine where theywould best fit into the organization. Team-work skills and values, for example, areessential for cutting room employeesbecause they work in an environmentin which much of the work is carried outby teams. These skills are not as impor-tant in the distribution area, where as-sociates work independently.

Offering Free EducationEmployees who needed to improve skills

or to upgrade their skills, for instance toprepare to use hand-held computers forscanning stock, were all offered training atTropical University, TSI’s free internal learn-ing center. Ongoing course offerings atTropical University include English, Span-ish, math, basic computer skills and man-agement and communication skills. Thecourses, offered at many hours through-out the day, are also open to families ofemployees at no charge. And because some50 percent of employees speak Spanishas their primary language, courses are of-fered in both Spanish and English, andall documentation of processes is presentedin both languages.

“We graduate 130 or 140 people everyquarter at Tropical University,” Pugh opines.“Education and training have proved to bea big benefit for our employees and theirfamilies. We also offer 100 percent tuitionreimbursement for outside education,whether it’s for a GED or a doctorate.”

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Higher Retention Pays Off The results of TSI’s highly focused

testing and education programs have beenimpressive: Within six months of the ini-tial testing, turnover was reduced by 38percent, from 65 percent to 40 percent,and that rate continues to decline (seeFigure 1) .

For instance, TSI has discovered thatfor employees who enroll in a course atTropical University, the retention rate is95 percent. This high level of retentionhas produced a direct impact on TSI’sbottom line.

Consider the following scenario, whichcould apply to any apparel company:■ Typically, employee turnover costs a

company $5,000 per person who needsto be replaced;

■ If a company has 400 employees, a 30percent annual turnover rate could po-tentially cost the firm $600,000 pery e a r ;

■ Assuming it costs $25,000 to take steps(consulting, testing, training, etc.) toreduce turnover to 20 percent, the costof turnover could be reduced to $400,000per year, representing savings of $175,000.Obviously, the numbers can vary from

company to company, but this illustratesthe costs associated with employee turnoverand the amount of savings any companycan realize by reducing it.

In addition to free education, TSI hasimplemented other human resource ini-

tiatives, such as offering subsidized day-care, holding daily and weekly staff meet-ings to communicate the goals and sta-tus of the company, providing cross-trainingto help employees understand where theircontribution fits into the big picture andrecognizing and rewarding employeesfor ideas that save money and boost productivity.

Not every company will be able to af-ford or execute all of the initiatives un-dertaken by TSI. However, the criticallesson to be learned is that employeeselection and development go together.TSI made a conscious decision to hirepeople who had the skills to do the cur-rent jobs, but also to prepare them forthe future. As you can see from thiscase study, implementing an effective hu-man resource development program canhave far-reaching benefits throughoutyour organization that you cannot affordto ignore.

Janet Fox specializes in writing aboutconsulting and training solutions.

Editor’s Note: For more informationabout TSI’s testing and education ini-tiatives, TSI director of organizationaldevelopment/human resources CoryPugh may be reached at e - m a i l :cpugh@tsionline.com and The ContextGroup’s Warren Bobrow may bereached at e-mail: warrenb@contextgroup.com.Select #95 on ReaderLink at bobbin.com

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Turnover Percentage in Relation to Human Resource Testing Initiative

Declining Turnover at TSI

80%70%60%50%40%30%20%10%0%

6 Months When 6 Months 12 Months Before Testing After AfterTesting Started Testing Testing

Source: The Context Group and Tropical Sportswear Int’l. Corp. (TSI)

FIGURE 1