Cook & Associates

Management Consultants
Productivity Evaluation Program

Blog

To participate in Labor Management discussions, or to review comments from a variety of companies and professionals, please visit our PEP Blog:

www.thepepblog.com

Items of Interest

EMPLOYEE INCENTIVES: Although the proposed increase in the Minimum Wage has been tabled for the time being, we still feel there is going to be pressure for significant wage increases in the coming months. With this in mind, it might be a good time to implement an Employee Incentive Program, or if your existing plan isn't working, take some action. We have always felt that it's better to Pay for Performance than to experience large across the board increases.

If you would like to see how we do it in PEP, just click on the following presentation link to see a two-page example:

Employee Incentives (PDF)


SDI LOGISTICS FORUM: To view Don's Santiago, Chile presentation, click on the following link:

SDI Logistics Forum (PDF)


NEW PEP SOFTWARE RELEASE: Our new PEP Software Upgrade contains many new features and corrects some existing glitches. It's important for all clients to install the new software, even if they are undecided about implementing the Employee Feedback Analysis module.

Installation lets clients take advantage of the enhancements and to stay up to date on the PEP Software support. The upgrade has the following features:

- Includes new Employee Feedback Analysis (EFA) module

- Facilitates system mobility by using Tablet Computers

- Eliminates reliance on Microsoft Office

- Simplifes software installation

- Enhances On-Screen Review presentation

- Allows Auto-Adjustment of Special Project Hours to 100 Hour Average

- Improves Employee Calculation Sheet

- The Auto-Processing Final, End of Week option now also creates the Bonus Extract file

- Automatically deletes reports older than 40 days in the active Report Folders

- Prevents data entry error for more than 48 fields of data

- Corrects a problem for more than 5 departments in the Cross Reference table

- Cleans up a problem with Special Project Type 80 series

- Prevents updating on non "X" Node computers


EMPLOYEE FEEDBACK ANALYSIS (EFA): The most significant feature in our new software release is the optional EFA module. Recent polls show that 33% of employees move on because supervisors never give them feedback to develop skills, or do not take proactive steps to recognize a job well done. Surveys furthur emphasize, that most important is direct engagement between employees and managers, and that this should not be done only once a year but on a continuous basis. Employee Feedback Analysis facilitates this on-line employee and manager involvement. At the same time, it significantly reduces the manager and clerical hours needed to operate a successful Labor Management Program. EFA not only reinvigorates your overall program, but also mines significant metrics obtained directly from your employees and managers. This data is the key to improve facility operations and systems.

To see the details of the meticulously designed EFA system, you can review the EFA Operating Manual by clicking on the following link. The manual is designed for two-sided printing.

EFA Manual (PDF)


CORONAVIRUS ACTIONS AT COOK & ASSOCIATES: We have focused on what we call our S & S approach. This means Safety for our Staff and Service to our Clients. As most organizations in New Jersey, a majority of people are working from home. For our office, we are rotating our associates so that one consultant is in the office each day. This maximizes the safety of our staff and still lets clients call the office and have their usual in person contact. Hopefully, the on-site consultant can handle any request, but if not, the appropriate consultant will get back to the client immediately. At the same time, we continue our software development by starting a new project to provide simplified Staff Scheduling options in PEP and cleaning up some small glitches with our Employee Feedback Analysis module. Incidentally, the Employee Feedback Analysis module should be of significant help as your staffs return to work. It makes sure you are effectively monitoring the employee/manager feedback at this crucial time.


IMPORTANT NEW ANNOUNCEMENT:We are very pleased to announce that Andy Stewart has rejoined our staff after an absence of about 15 years. As perhaps many of you remember, Andy was one of our top consultants and highly instrumental in the early days of PEP. At that time, he had to make a difficult decision to eliminate traveling and spend more time with his young family. He obtained a job that required zero travel and was successful for the 15 year period. Now, that his two boys have started their careers, Andy felt he would like to return to Industrial Engineering and we are lucky to have him back. It is interesting to see the PEP training Andy requires, since as he said, it shows how much we have developed the Program over the years. However, with his background, Andy should be up to full speed within a month. A little trivia: Andy was the first non-Rutgers Industrial Engineer that we hired, but we had to admit he came from a very good Industrial Engineering school - Lehigh. Those of you who remember Andy, give him a ring and welcome him back.

Contact Information

Don Cook President and Jim Naughton Vice President Cook & Associates

Cook & Associates
1050 George Street – 18M
New Brunswick, NJ 08901 – USA

Phone: (732) 246-3600

Fax: (732) 246-1985

Email: pep@cookpep.com

 

I've had an opportunity to work with Cook & Associates and the PEP program in two previous positions. I think highly of their consulting professionalism and the continuing support they offer once the program is installed. The program has always been very stable and they continue to provide new enhancements without affecting that stability. I hope that everyone else has had the same success with the program.
Tom – Liz Claiborne

What I like most about Cook & Associates is that they're a boutique management consulting firm. What I mean by this is that they don't offer everything to everybody. They're one of the few consultants that specialize in single area – Labor Management. Having worked with them over the years, I can attest to their high professional standards and the hands-on support they've always provided.
Russ – Polo Ralph Lauren

I've worked with Cook & Associates on several projects and have found their sound council on Labor Management second to none. They have that rare ability for a consulting firm to become part of the management team. When we had questions with our program, or any software glitches, it was important to immediately get a trained professional on the phone — not a recording or a complex phone menu.
Jim – Toys R Us