By Lara Copeland, contributing writer
The American Mold Builder

Franchino Mold & Engineering, Lansing, Michigan, a leader in the die-cast dies and plastic injection molds industries, was started by Richard Franchino in 1955. In the more than 60 years that have passed, the independently owned business has rapidly grown and expanded its services. Currently, about 90 employees collectively work to support the company’s progress in designing, engineering and manufacturing die-cast dies and plastic injection molds while offering contract machining, die/mold repair and engineering services for customers in the automotive, construction, materials handling, appliance and consumer product industries. Like any innovative company, Franchino Mold remains on the leading edge of the industry by balancing the needs of customers with the needs of the workforce and finding ways to synergize those needs with its business practices and policies.

Addressing the prevalence of cellphone usage

As soon as Brad Rusthoven took on the role of human resource manager at Franchino Mold in 2010, he noted that the phone policy in the handbook was outdated – it only addressed the use of the company’s landline telephones but did not regulate employee cellphone use. Rusthoven estimated that 24 percent of Franchino Mold’s staff is made up of millennials and explained, “We’ve realized in this day and age and, as we’re hiring more and more millennials, this is the way people communicate with each other.”

Recent research echoes Rusthoven’s sentiments. The Pew Research Center (PRC) conducted a 2015 survey showing that 92 percent of adults own a cellphone. Compare that to PRC’s 2004 study where only 65 percent of adults said they owned a cellphone, and it is clear why PRC claims that cellphones are the most quickly adopted consumer technology in history. Moreover, with smartphones now on the market, users can connect to the internet instantaneously. In 2015, PRC reported that 67 percent of American adults own a smartphone – a stark contrast to the 34 percent reported just four years earlier. With the many apps available, owners are using their smartphones to browse the internet, tune into social networks and check email. This technological development has infiltrated the lives of Americans, so it was only a matter of time before it needed to be addressed in the workplace.

As with many advancements in technology, cellphones have their uses in a busy work environment, but also have the potential to waste company time and money, and create issues concerning safety and security. To actively protect business and all workers, contemporary employee handbooks typically establish cellphone policies.

Balancing workforce needs with shop floor safety

When it was time to construct such a policy at Franchino Mold, supervisors decided to conduct research before writing the policy. Rusthoven said he and his colleagues did their due diligence. To assist them in the investigation, he explained, “We sent emails out to some of our peer companies and some AMBA members of the West Michigan chapter to get a feel for what other people were doing.” Additionally, while input was not formally requested, the organization did receive feedback from newer employees who shared how their former companies handled cellphone usage. Rusthoven added, “We observed what other people were doing and developed our policy around that.”

Rusthoven said a written policy was established and then introduced in several ways, including “in our company-wide monthly meeting, posted around the shop and included in the next revision of our employee handbook.”

The updated phone policy permits cellphones to be kept in the employees’ toolboxes for emergencies, but cellphones are to remain off while on the shop floor. The predominant goal of this rule is to encourage employees to take emergency personal calls in the office area or to step outside, returning promptly to the work station when finished.

Appreciating the fact that employees have lives outside of the plant motivated company leaders to develop a policy that took these needs into consideration, while still drawing a hard line on safety issues.

“The key is we don’t want to have somebody with a cellphone in one hand and operating a machine with their other one,” he said. “It’s like ‘don’t text and drive.’ You don’t text and run a machine. It’s not safe, because the employee is going to get distracted.”

Not a black or white issue

When settings its policies, Franchino Mold noticed that several peer companies viewed cellphone use on the manufacturing floor as a black-and-white issue and oversaw employees in a manner that reflected this outlook. Franchino Mold does not share that vision nor does it use that method of management. Instead, Franchino Mold focuses on leadership, rather than management.

Rusthoven explained, “We have a policy because you have to have a policy when there’s a potential safety issue, but we know there are exceptions, so we kind of manage around that.” Taking this humanistic approach to management is something Franchino Mold routinely does, creating a work environment that Rusthoven refers to as a “family atmosphere.”

The new regulation seems to be working: Rusthoven said 95 percent of employees do not abuse the cellphone policy. Rusthoven added that, in many cases, the staff are policing one another, explaining “we have empowered our employees to do so when the policy is being abused.”

Franchino Mold has developed a culture of continuous improvement by staying abreast of the latest technology, tools and techniques. This philosophy impacts the way management creates, implements and supervises policies, such as its cellphone policy. “We approached the subject of cellphones knowing that employees were going to need to have access to their phones – it’s the nature of society these days. This is why we took more of a ‘managing’ approach to the existing policy,” Rusthoven noted.

Upholding an environment that appreciates employee needs is the result of a business that values its staff as much as it values the bottom line, emphasizing the company’s belief in a culture of workforce leadership rather than workforce management.