Manjari Raman: The road less travelled

When Nelly, the well-known hip-hop artist, was asked about his first job, he waxed eloquent about a six-month stint he had done at UPS. He unloaded packages from trucks at the company's St Louis hub, and placed them on conveyor-belts. Said Nelly: "I used to dream about being the guy who delivers packages. I mean, that's like every guy's dream." That's Nelly, who has sold more than 30 million albums worldwide, and whose teeth are plated in platinum.

What sets apart companies like UPS? How do they generate intense loyalty, admiration and pride from employees long after they've left the organisation? After all, most companies have learnt how to manage people well. They hire to fit psychological profiles. They invest in training and development. They offer challenging opportunities and generous compensation-packages. Nearly every company runs employee-satisfaction surveys, and many even act on them.

At some companies like UPS, though, there's something extra that lets them manage people such that the results are larger than the sum of all these best practices.

At UPS, the people challenge is particularly stiff. Most entry-level positions at UPS are part-time jobs that are filled by college students. The work is extraordinarily hard: loading and unloading packages under tight time-pressure, often in the middle of the night. Most of UPS' full-time employees, including all the drivers, belong to unions: 210,000 of UPS' 370,000 employees worldwide are union members. That should be a recipe for disaster, but it isn't.

According to John Wheeler, UPS' company spokesperson, the X-factor is simple: "In everything we do, we try to do the right thing. The company always takes the high road." That principle was embedded in the company's DNA from the beginning.

Founder Jim Casey was only 19 years old when he borrowed $100 to start a messenger service, and the only employees of the company were teenage friends. From day one, Casey insisted on four strict policies to fight the competition: customer courtesy, reliability, round-the-clock service and low rates.

UPS has since evolved into the world's largest package delivery service, with sales of $30 billion in 2003, and has expanded into supply chain management, e-commerce and global logistics management. But those four founding ideas still pretty much drive operations.

Many of the practices that UPS prides itself on "" and several that it takes for granted "" stem from the fundamental belief in doing the right thing. Consider UPS' ethic to promote leaders from within. All the company's CEOs have risen from the ranks.

Current CEO Michael Eskew holds an engineering degree from Purdue, but spent time as a UPS driver before fast tracking to the top. Former CEO Jim Kelly was first hired as a package-delivery driver in the Christmas rush of 1964 "" and now sits on the company's board. Come to think of it, all 12 managing committee members were once hourly-wage earners at UPS. Says Wheeler: "It's very powerful when employees realise that people who started just like them are now managers."

Another example of the high road is the way UPS treats part-time employees. Unlike part-timers at other companies, they get the same benefits "" health insurance, et al "" as regular employees. The company spends $300 million on training employees "" and that includes sending part-timers to college.

When UPS found it was not getting enough people to man a sorting facility during the graveyard 3 p m to 7 a m shift, it tied up with the local Louisville Kentucky Metropolitan College. UPS would pay the tuition, benefits, transportation and housing costs of students who worked for UPS.

Even college-schedules were changed to make it easier for UPS' part-timers to work and study. UPS drivers, as Nelly corroborated, enjoy iconoclastic status in the US.

Instead of being treated as vassals, they are treated as the company's most important people because they interface with customers. Dressed in crisp brown uniforms, the drivers are trained on military minutiae: how to carry keys without fumbling and how many steps per second constitute a "brisk pace." Drivers don't just deliver packages reliably; they are taught to build long-term relationships with customers, down to knowing their children' names. Says Tracy Roberts, another UPS spokesperson: "When a UPS driver retires, local communities often throw a farewell party. If Steve Smith retires, mayors declare 'Steve Smith Day' in their cities."

UPS has had its share of people trouble; it even had a protracted battle with the employees' union a few years ago. Through it all, the company has come out with its reputation unscathed due to a single point of reference in decision-making: take the high road. It isn't rocket science, but in a world where business leaders are bombarded by data, conflicting priorities and a bewildering pace of change, sometimes the best management ideas are the most commonsensical ones. 'Do the right thing' may be nothing profound, but it can be the most out-of-the-box corporate philosophy of all.

(Manjari Raman is a Boston-based management writer)