At the recent Yellow Pages Association conference, I held a workshop to cover several key subjects directly related to the status of employment in the industry.

First, I provided the results of our annual survey of Yellow Pages industry employees to gauge their view about their current jobs. In last year’s survey, results indicated that folks were generally happy but not feeling like they are fully engaged or that their skill sets are being totally utilized. These results are not inconsistent with other industries - a Gallup Organization poll showed that 70% of US employees feel they are either "not engaged" or "actively disengaged" at work. With the many changes the industry is going through, how has the mood of the industry’s workers changed?

Next, the survey also covered workers view on career paths within the industry going forward. In last year’s survey overall people were currently happy with the company they work for and the leadership. The only warning flag we noted was that they were not overly excited about the future of the Yellow Pages industry. We would have expected sales people in particular to respond more positively and even noted comments that indicated a real uneasiness about the future of the industry’s print products. As overall print product usage declines, how will this impact people’s view of the Yellow Pages industry as an ongoing career choice?

After presenting the survey results, I took attendees through the changing hiring landscape, and provide guidance to managers on how to work with significant generational differences that existing in today’s workplace. Hawthorne Search in its daily discussions with both job seekers and employees. We have noticed a significant difference in how Baby Boomers, Generation X (born between 1964 and 1982), and Generation Y (Born in 80's) view their careers, how they expect to be managed, and a demand for new business models to give them the kinds of work experiences they seek.

Survey Says?

We surveyed some 1,400 sales reps, managers, and senior sales executives to ask their views on their jobs, their companies, their careers, and the industry in general. During recent interviews with candidates we also had an opportunity to ask similar questions of another 30 reps and managers. We further solicited comments from our network of 15 recruiters.

While we got enough responses to make the overall results statistically valid, there wasn’t enough to allow us to further subset this into more detailed segments like large vs. small publisher, or by specific age groups.

This year we had more responses in the senior sales manager level which I think helped provide a nice spread in the overall age, and number of years that have had in the industry. The overall profile was skewed a little more male, but consistent with last year.

Of note was that the vast majority of people had been in their current position for less than 5 years, even those that may have been in the industry for some time. So you are getting real time feedback from those feet on the street. Note that “Publisher size” was a self selected choice.

For questions that covered their current job situation – “My job makes good use of my skills & abilities”: 76% Agree/Strongly Agree, up from 50% the prior year. I think this reflects the higher number of managers/senior managers in this year’s study and not some significant trend. I say that because next question on opportunity does show a down trend.

Net net: the indication is that folks are generally happy but not feeling like they are full engaged or that their skill sets are being totally utilized. This point will be important we start talking about retaining top performers.

Specific to their views of their company, respondents gave the industry good marks on tools and training.
Overall people seem happy with how their role fits into the overall company direction, but were less happy than in the past with the leadership and the company in general.

The new warning flag I saw was the significant drop in whether this was a “good place to work”. With the larger number of managers and senior sales executives in this survey, I would have expected a significantly higher result. This may be a sign of some of the stress the larger publishers went through in the first quarter of the year.

I do think it’s an early indication that as an industry, we need to do some a lot more Public Relations work about why this such a great industry to work in. I’m not sure the world at large has gotten that message. And the danger is later when we talk about the current work force, I think you’ll see where this could come back to haunt the industry. My real concern is whether this industry can continue to attract the high quality, college education young people it needs for its sales force in the future.

If we dig deeper into their views on compensation, as you might guess, pay is an issue. Do any of us ever feel we are paid enough?

In our direct interviews we found the gap is between the perceived value that sales reps bring and how much they are compensated for it. In today’s market, low base salaries are a tough sell, especially to younger people.

I loved this comment from one senior level sales manager I talked with: “Typically top sales people want all commission and are attracted to higher income potential as a result of higher sales – but we are finding more and more younger people that are happy just making $35 or 40K a year. That’s not a good thing when you are looking for top performing rep…”

When it comes to the respondent’s view of the industry, some issues surfaced. The result of some 50% agreeing that the industry in NOT a good place to work is discouraging if you remember that in the profile, only 23% have been in the industry less than 6 years. This shows me that now our industry veterans, our most experienced people are growing unhappy.

The second red flag is that some 68% (50+18) may make a job change in the next 6 months. Given the amount of time, money and effort publishers invest in training their sales team, this is a little scary.

Readers should noted that some of these results are not totally out of line with other surveys we have seen in other industries we serve. Most survey data will show that upwards of 50% of all employees are currently, actively looking for a job.

The third red flag was the 45% who said they would NOT be working in the industry five years from now.

Net net: I’m probably not telling you something you don’t already know – in a sales oriented business like this, the company’s number one priority can’t just be its customers or its stockholders. It also has to be equally balanced with concern for its employees.

In next month’s article I will go through the part of the work shop that covered the significant generational differences we are seeing in the workplace.

If you would like to see the full deck of slides I presented, click here.

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