Tim Bauer

Tim Bauer

Registration for the 9th annual insideARM  Best Places to Work in Collections program opens in early May.

Last year I wrote a blog about this program. I lamented the lack of participation at any of the companies I had worked at in the past. I echo those comments today — I wish I had been more enlightened when I was still running an ARM company.

Margins in the ARM industry continue to be squeezed. The biggest expense item for any company is labor, and those costs are inflated by employee attrition.

The industry averages 100% employee attrition every year. 

100 Percent attrition is extremely costly.  To recruit, hire and train 100 percent of the size of your labor force each year is a tremendous expense burden. Just a 10-20% reduction on that attrition number can have a positive impact on margins.

Employees that love their job, love coming to work, and love the “Place” they work are more like to stay on the job. I may not have majored in calculus or accounting, but I can handle simple math. The more people you have that stay, the lower your attrition. The lower your attrition, the lower your costs. The lower your costs, the higher your margins.

The process is pretty simple.  It may take a little time, but I think the time is well spent. 

  1. Employers complete a questionnaire on workplace policies, practices, philosophy, systems, benefits, and demographics. It can take about 8 hours to gather all of the info for this questionnaire – but hey, if it was totally simple, it wouldn’t produce meaningful results – and if you register early, you’ll have months to pull it together.
  2. Employees are asked an in-depth set of questions — you choose online or via paper format; either way it takes about 10-15 minutes for the employee to complete.

There is no cost to participate (there is a nominal fee if you choose paper surveys). You get a free overview of your results. You can buy a detailed results report, which we encourage. It’s not that expensive. In fact, it’s invaluable. This is how you’re going to learn what you need to improve.

insideARM makes no profit on this program. We do it simply because we think it’s important.

I encourage every ARM company to take advantage of this great opportunity to learn what your employees really think.  They are the ones driving your revenue. Feedback from firms that have participated has always been very positive.

Be on the lookout for the upcoming announcement or click here now to pre-register.

 


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