Growing up, gameshows on television were a big thing. I can remember countless times eating dinner at my grandparent’s house and Wheel of Fortune being on the small television in the kitchen right in front of the table. Easy to see Pat and Vana and enjoy grandma’s cube steak at the same time.

I also was a big fan of The Joker’s Wild, Jeopardy! and Family Feud. Three of those four are still popular programs to this day (amazing) and Joker’s, I think, had an attempted revival at one point. My daughter now gets to experience what I did as a kid. Her grandma and grandpa have Family Feud on the TV from time to time.

Survey says?

Speaking of surveys, we have some dandies out in the wild right now at ASA, both exciting in nature and both free to our distributor members.

In late September, ASA started data collection for the first of two special industry compensation reports that will be available between now and the first of the year.

The topic of labor, labor shortages and replacing retiring workers isn’t going away anytime soon. Of course, ASA last year launched its PROJECT TALENT careers recruitment initiative aimed at helping our industry replace the 100,000 jobs that will become open because of retirements over the next 10 years. If you have not taken advantage of that free membership benefit that includes the ability to post open jobs on an industry jobs board at SupplyIndustryCareers.com, plus access to a free marketing toolbox that will allow you to download thousands of digital assets to help your company in its recruitment journey, please contact me ASAP to get started.

The first compensation study, which will be released late this month and is free to all ASA member distributors that participated in the data collection and available for purchase otherwise, focuses heavily on warehouse and driver positions, plus some data will be available on inside and outside sales positions and showroom associates.

We’ll start data collection early next month for the second study, and that report will be available the first week of January 2022 ahead of the major cross-industry compensation study ASA does with 15 other distributor associations in the spring of 2022.

Ever wonder if what you are paying warehouse associates is in line with the rest of the industry? Interested to find out what hiring strategies other companies in the industry are using to attract talent? It’s all right there in that compensation report. Again, free if you participated in the first data collection, and available for purchase if you did not.

If you did not participate in the first one, make sure you submit your data for the second one.

The other big news when it comes to surveys is ASA’s launch of the VITALITY Growth Assessment Tool. (see the first page of ASA News in this issue for the announcement of the launch). This is the final piece of the puzzle in ASA’s three-tiered Building One Future initiative aimed at making sure our member companies are well-positioned to compete now and well into the future.

Think of ASA's Growth Assessment Tool just like you would our yearly  ASA Operating Performance Report that is loaded with nearly 100 pages of critical benchmarking data for your company to use to measure itself against the industry. This is a survey tool, that if you choose to use it (and I highly recommend you do), can be a key part of your current planning efforts and, most certainly, can be a critical component in your company's future-planning toolbox.

Up to 100 employees in an ASA member company can take this confidential survey that will ask them questions about their company’s readiness and ability to grow, innovate and compete in the future. Each company that participates receives a confidential company-specific report with the results from our VITALITY partner NewEdge, which is conducting the survey. All ASA sees is what companies take it and at the end will receive overall industry data on where our industry is in terms of innovation, growth and forward-thinking momentum.

The great thing about this is, like the compensation study, it’s another free ASA member company benefit. Distributors, manufacturers and reps are eligible to take the survey.

What a great way to self-benchmark your company with feedback from the folks who are in the trenches on a daily basis. This is certainly not a mandatory thing, but it’s there and ready for those ASA member companies looking to see how prepared they are for future growth.

If you have not taken the survey yet and would like to, contact me at mmiazga@asa.net. For more information on the tool, visit https://www.asa.net/Building-One-Future/VITALITY.