Despite the lagging economy and Arizona’s stagnant unemployment rate, AGM Container Controls, Inc. has not only avoided layoffs for the past 20 years, but has increased its workforce. AGM celebrated this feat on April 1, 2011, where Howard N. Stewart, AGM’s President, thanked AGM’s employee-owners for their dedication and commitment.
“AGM’s Management is committed to doing our best to ensure that our employees are able to work in a stable environment without fear of a layoff,” stated Stewart. “In fact, one of my most important professional and personal goals is to never lay off a single employee.”
Stewart stated that companies sometimes look at layoffs as the first line of defense, whereas he believes that “there are other options companies can implement. Thus, layoffs should be the option of last resort.”
Faced with the very real challenges of the recent recession, Stewart has developed a 13-step plan to avoid layoffs. The plan gets reviewed and implemented as needed whenever sales begin to slow.
AGM’s plan paid off handsomely in the 1st quarter of 2010, when the manufacturer’s backlog declined by over 30% from the 4th quarter of 2009. At that time, Management implemented most aspects of Stewart’s 13-step plan, which enabled AGM to avoid laying off employees. More importantly, AGM had the needed manpower to meet the strong sales demand that followed when the backlog climbed by over 65% from the 1st quarter to the 2nd quarter of 2010.
Despite AGM’s implementation of its 13-step plan, not one of AGM’s 100+ employees quit as a result. Once good times resumed, AGM employees were ecstatic when Stewart announced that AGM would retroactively compensate employees for all wage and salary increases that he froze during the downturn.
Tune in to next month’s blog post to see the entire 13-step layoff avoidance plan.
